CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) – A former employee for a Massachusetts-based company alleges he was terminated in retaliation for whistleblower complaints.
Earl Donald Baker filed a complaint on June 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division against Smith & Wesson Corp. over alleged violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that between February 2013 and September 2014, he was an employee of the defendant and held the position of cell coordinator of tooling until his termination for reporting alleged illegal conduct by S&W employees.
The plaintiff alleges he noticed what he believed to be violations of securities laws and regulations and company rules and policy and notified persons within S&W who held supervisory authority over him to investigate the alleged misconduct. He alleges after his complaints, he was subjected to a hostile work environment, a poor performance review and his employment was ultimately terminated. .
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment for economic and compensatory damages, attorneys' fees, costs, immediate abatement, punitive damages, double back pay plus interest, and any other relief that may be deemed just and equitable. He is represented by John Y. Lee and Lisa C. Breen of Lee & Breen LLC in Elmhurst, Illinois.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division case number 1:18-cv-03847