Whistleblower lawsuit says CN is cooking its books

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/whistleblower-lawsuit-says-cn-is-cooking-its-books-1.2187724

CN says it was victimized by former trainmaster

By John Nicol, Dave Seglins, CBC News Posted: Oct 24, 2013 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Oct 24, 2013 10:23 AM ET

http://i.cbc.ca/1.2223756.1382648103!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/image.jpg

A whistleblower lawsuit in the United States is accusing CN Rail of fudging its numbers to increase executive bonuses and to make it appear to be North America's most efficient railroad for investors.

Tim Wallender, a former CN trainmaster based at the company's Harrison Yard in Memphis, Tenn. has filed a lawsuit under the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act — which was passed into law to protect whistleblowers following the Enron scandal in the early 2000s.

CN is asking that Wallender's claims that it routinely reported fraudulent efficiency statistics to shareholders and customers be thrown out. CN claims he repeatedly reported train movements falsely and got fired for it.

Wallender, 42, does not deny fudging the numbers but insists he was ordered to by his boss.

FULL story at link.

[Brickbat]

1. ROFLMAOOOOOOOOOOOO.

The sad thing about CN is that even though they're making money, they could be making millions more if they would just sit down and let the trainhandling breathe. Ever since privatization, they've been trying to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Their inefficiencies are ridiculous -- buying up smaller railroads, destroying perfectly good cars, and then buying new ones that don't work. They don't maintain their rails, requiring slow orders, and then get mad when trains don't make it in on time. They foster a culture of fear and, like so many large corporations, have a bizarre fixation on metrics rather than actual results -- paid customers, freight handled and delivered, and so on.

In other words, don't get me started. I'm interesting in following this story and hope Wallender prevails.