A former employee of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer sued the company. He accuses the pharmaceutical giant of being fired out of revenge after the corruption schemes he uncovered.
He said the company paid large sums to Chinese officials. At the same time, Pfizer denied the allegations.
The case concerns former director of global analytics for compliance at Pfizer, Frank Han. Bloomberg reports.
Han claims the company transferred tens of millions of dollars to Chinese officials. However, U.S. law prohibits making payments or gifts to officials for commercial gain.
In his lawsuit, he talks about an algorithm for analyzing a company’s external financing in order to detect fraud. The man found that $168 million was transferred to China, with $138 million of that going to corporate sponsorship. In the US, the company spent $11 million for these purposes, two of which went to sponsorship.
Hanclaims that after reporting the discovery to managers, he was fired. He believes that Pfizer violated the California labor code, which prohibits prosecution for the activities of whistleblowers. Handemanded compensation and reinstatement.
Now Pfizer will have to provide the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice with documents confirming innocence.
