Ok, only people of a certain vintage will get the headline allusion. This is a doozy of a mistake by law firm , Wilmer Hale.
LawNewz.com reports
The world now knows that PepsiCo is under investigation by the SEC for allegedly firing their general counsel in retaliation for her handling of an internal investigation. The news got out because an attorney with law firm WilmerHale, who is working with the company during the probe, sent out an email with documents to other lawyers … and a Wall Street Journal reporter by mistake.
WSJ told the story this morning, acknowledging how they got their info. According to their report, Maura Smith was fired as general counsel in 2012 while she was heading up an investigation of Wimm-Bill-Dann, a Russian company PepsiCo had just acquired. Smith led a team of outside lawyers who were looking into the company’s business practices. That investigation came about after a Wimm-Bill-Dann employee reported to PepsiCo that senior staff were fudging the firm’s financials.
A memo included in the documents accidentally sent to the WSJ reporter reportedly said the SEC “appears to be focused on allegations by Ms. Smith that she was retaliated against in violation of the SEC’s whistleblower rules.” The memo also said Smith had appeared before government attorneys earlier this year, during an investigation of U.S. companies suspected of having employment contracts that discouraged reporting improper practices.
