Fired employee sues Boeing in whistle-blower case

[n2doc]

Fired employee sues Boeing in whistle-blower case
Says company violated audit standards

By ANDREA JAMES
P-I REPORTER

Editor's note: The reporter who wrote this story is named in the lawsuit as the reporter who talked with Nicholas Tides.


A fired Boeing employee struck back at his former employer Friday with a federal lawsuit leveling serious charges against the Chicago-based aerospace firm.

Among other things, the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle charges that Boeing was disingenuous in its efforts to comply with the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. It also charges that Boeing hired PricewaterhouseCoopers auditors who violated government-mandated auditing standards.

In mid-2007, former Boeing information technology auditor Nicholas Tides raised concerns to several managers about "potentially illegal conduct." Boeing's director of human resources told him, "We'd appreciate it if you'd just shut up," the lawsuit says.

Such a comment would contradict The Boeing Co.'s public assurances that the company welcomes employees to raise ethics concerns.

Separately, the Seattle P-I was working on a report about Boeing's struggles with the 2002 law. In July 2007, the P-I reported that Boeing had failed to prove it could properly protect its computer systems against manipulation, theft and fraud. Such protection is required under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, enacted in the wake of several corporate scandals.

In September 2007, Boeing fired Tides for having had a conversation with the P-I before the stories were published. Tides worked in Boeing's St. Louis office.

"Instead of deciding to comply with SOx (the law) and avoid retaliation against employees who had engaged in protected activity, Boeing decided to hunt down employees who had assisted the P-I," the lawsuit charges.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/385975_boeingsuit01.html