Campbell Points Fingers At Kett, Manley, Marchionne in Defense
The court case against former FCA Australia executive Clyde Campbell is turning into a veritable who’s-who of decision makers at the company, reports The Age.
Campbell, who is charged with misappropriation of $30 million AUD of company funds, claims he had verbal permission from recently departed FCA executive John Kett, current company hotshot Mike Manley, and head of FCA Sergio Marchionne.
Campbell’s statement of defense comprises of many claims about instructions received by him from executives further up the chain of command.
One item of contention has to do with dealerships owned by formerly disgraced Mercedes executive Ernst Lieb and business partner David Piva. Campbell authorized payments from FCA to the pair to buy dealerships in Australia in order to increase FCA sales in Australia to 20,000 units per year by any means necessary.
From The Age:
Mr Campbell claims he authorised that expenditure on the instructions of Mr Manley, who “implied by a direction to increase FCA’s dealerships to 100 by June 2012” that such deals were needed.
According to Mr Campbell, at a management meeting in Shanghai in 2012, Mr Manley told him FCA needed to match the sales volume of Kia and Volkswagen in Australia.
Mr Campbell claims he replied that Kia and Volkswagen had more dealerships and FCA was trying to expand its dealership network.
According to the court documents, Mr Manley replied with words to the effect: “I’m sick of this excuse. Get 100 dealerships by June next year or you’re out of a job. I don’t care how you do it, I don’t care how much it costs, just get it done. All your marketing is being wasted if you do not have a dealer network to deliver on it”.
Campbell also claims he received “implicit instructions” from Sergio Marchionne and former executive John Kett.
It should be mentioned many of the claims made by Campbell lack supporting evidence.
Other deals as part of the case include the purchase of a plane painted in Alfa Romeo livery (pictured) and a $400,000 Chris Craft yacht.
More by Mark Stevenson
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Is there an inside joke in the choice of 'venerable' rather than 'veritable' in the first sentence?
"Campbell’s statement of defense comprises of (sic) many claims about instructions received by him from executives further up the chain of command." Of course, the possibility exists that this statement is just the first draft for Chapter 17 of Campbell's latest fantasy novel, "The Fabulists of Andromeda Nine".