The former finance chief of nuclear energy equipment supplier Holtec International has been awarded $2.1 million in economic damages in a whistleblowing case filed in New Jersey court.
A New Jersey jury delivered the verdict Oct. 21, according to Engineering News-Record reporting last week.
The case began more than three years ago, when Holtec’s ex-CFO Kevin O’Rourke filed a complaint alleging the company fired him for engaging in what he described as “whistleblower conduct.” Per the complaint, O’Rourke refused to provide a prospectus to potential investor Hyundai Engineering and Construction because he said it contained “false and misleading statements and financial projections.”
Krishna Singh, Holtec’s founder, president and CEO, who is also named as a defendant in the case, wrote the prospectus in question, although O’Rourke was listed as the “document sponsor,” the complaint said.
O’Rourke told his supervisor Kelly Trice that he needed to discuss the prospectus because the financial projections in it “could not possibly be completed accurately in the timeframe demanded by Defendant Singh,” the complaint said. O’Rourke’s complaint went on to say the prospectus “included numerous false and misleading statements, and legally the document could not contain ‘make believe’ or unsupported financial projections.”
Among O’Rourke’s concerns about the prospectus was its depiction of Holtec’s revenue sources. Per the complaint, the prospectus included a statement that not more than 10% of Holtec’s annual revenue was derived from any one customer, but O’Rourke “knew it to be untrue.”
When O’Rourke objected to elements of the prospectus, Singh allegedly told O’Rourke that he was “just an accountant” who didn’t “know anything about business and finance,” the complaint said.
O’Rourke was hired as CFO on May 21, 2021, and was terminated from the company on Aug. 30, 2022. At that time, the company’s corporate director of HR told O’Rourke that Singh had lost confidence in him, the complaint stated.
In an emailed statement, Holtec said it disagreed with the jury’s conclusion that O’Rourke was terminated because he “expressed a belief that a draft of an internal confidential document, that was never delivered to any potential investor, violated the law.”
“We strongly disagree and will be appealing that issue,” the company said. However, Holtec officials said they are “very pleased that the jury found that the Plaintiff breached his confidentiality agreement with Holtec by publicly disclosing confidential Holtec business information.”
