Fiat Chrysler's Bigland Withdraws Lawsuit, but Only Temporarily

by Steph Willems

November 5th, 2019 3:50 PM

fiat chryslers bigland withdraws lawsuit but only temporarily

Reid Bigland, head of U.S. sales for Fiat Chrysler and chief of the mighty Ram brand, has withdrawn a lawsuit against his employer in the hopes of gaining whistleblower protection.

The top FCA executive filed the suit in June after the automaker allegedly made him take the financial fall for dodgy sales practices that preceded his tenure. Bigland, who was on the short list of possible successors for late CEO Sergio Marchionne, claimed FCA withheld bonuses and severely cut his pay — payback for a federal probe that forced the company to revise its sales history.

The lawsuit will be back on come December.

According to Automotive News, Bigland had the judge dismiss his suit in order to give a complaint to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration time to expire. Once it does, Bigland plans to seek whistleblower protection under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. He’ll also re-file his lawsuit in Michigan’s Oakland County Circuit Court.

In September, FCA reached a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, agreeing to pay $40 million in penalties for deceptive sales reporting practices going back years. Bigland claims that, in March, the automaker cut his pay by 90 percent as a result of the probe. Withheld compensation would go towards paying penalties arising from the federal investigation, he was apparently told.

Clearly, neither Bigland nor FCA has had a change of heart on the issue. In an unusual move, Bigland remains employed by FCA, handling some of the company’s most sensitive files while the legal drama unfolds in the background. High-level meetings must be chilly.

[Image: Fiat Chrysler]

#Bigland #Executives #Fca #FiatChryslerAutomobiles #LawAndOrder #Lawsuits #ReidBigland

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8 comments

28-Cars-Later on Nov 05, 2019

Yeah its his fault because your company perpetuated its "cookie jar" reporting from 1989 onward. While we're at it, lets blame him for the Daimler merger, the cloud car issues, the Cerberus buyout, the 2.7 V6 sludge issue, the tranny issues in the 9spd Cherokee, the Dart, anything else? Could we pin the Kennedy assassination on him too?

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- SCE to AUX on Nov 05, 2019
  
  Good list. It's amusing that they want him to personally pay for their reporting sins. The only reason his is still employed is precisely because he's a big wheel there, in charge of *sales*. A low-level whistleblower might have been quietly shown the door for 'insubordination'. Mr Bigland must be a folk hero to some internal FCA people.
  
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- Lou_BC on Nov 05, 2019
  
  Being Canadian they could blame him for Justin Trudeau
  
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- Conundrum on Nov 05, 2019
  
  @Lou_BC And be incorrect. Canadians only gave Twinkletoes hisself 30% of the vote two weeks ago in the general election. Hardly a ringing endorsement. It would have been lower had not the Conservative leader been a dull tongue-tied dope who turned off all but the barking mad base. Bigland would have FCA by the short and curlies if they tried to fire him as well as cutting his pay 90%. A wrongful dismissal lawsuit on top of their already schlock treatment of him would have Manley grovelling in the sandpit trying to keep down the settlement. I applaud Bigland.
  
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- Kyree on Nov 05, 2019
  
  @conundrum I just realized how delightful and hilarious all of your turns of phrase are. You should write more.
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Nov 06, 2019
  
  @Kyree Thx (I think you addressed me?)
  
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- Lou_BC on Nov 06, 2019
  
  @conundrum - Canadian politicians (all of them) would be wise to take the election results as a shot fired across the bow by the populace. Trudeau didn't deserve a second term, Sheer was painfully banal. He sent the vibe that he was Harper on valium. I liked Singh but their policies were rather hollow. Basically we have a bunch of regional parties masquerading as federal parties. Conservatives cover the prairies, Liberals cover Ontario and the Maritime's, The Bloc Quebec and the NDP fill in what's left over. The Greens... obviously no one really cared.
  
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- 28-Cars-Later on Nov 06, 2019
  
  @Lou_BC My thought on your elections was although clearly members of his own party did not endorse him enough did for him to squeak by. They are not allowed to do so according to their own liberal principles because Trudeau as a teacher is caught in print exhibiting racism which is a holy tenet to them, I mean there are some extremests like Antifa types who want to hang "racists". Therefore any liberal who did vote Trudeau is automatically and forever a racist and anything else is just a hypocritical rationalization, you either believe your own views or you don't. They cannot ever again call anyone a bigot for any reason because they themselves are absolute bigots for supporting one. Not that I am up on your politics but I know there are other leftist parties to choose from which may represent their views but they still chose Trudeau. There is no excuse.
  
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