While doing some research for a client this morning, I ran across this little tidbit. 'Wonder if there are other cases out there that haven't been publicized?

Daily Press - Newport News, Virginia

Former Executives Sue Virginia Credit Union

05/25/99

NEWPORT NEWS, Va.--Two former vice presidents of Langley Federal Credit Union filed suit Monday, alleging they were wrongfully fired after raising concerns with a federal examiner.

Kathryn Salyer, former vice president of marketing, and Ben C. Garrett III, former vice president of operations, claim in separate lawsuits that they were fired in February after being questioned under a promise of confidentiality by an examiner with the National Credit Union Administration.

(Snip)

Both complaints seek compensation for lost wages and other costs, along with $350,000 in punitive damages.

The suits allege the two vice presidents were fired for blowing the whistle on questionable or improper practices, which would be a violation of federal law.

(Snip)

The concerns were serious enough that the vice presidents thought the NCUA would be hard on the credit union, according to a former employee who talked to the Daily Press on condition of anonymity. "But the NCUA gave a great review. That blew everybody's mind," the former employee said.

(Note: the pair had other concerns beyond Y2k, but. . .)

(Snip)

According to her lawsuit, Salyer also expressed concern to the auditor about how prepared the credit union was for the Y2K computer problem a programming glitch that could cause some computers to mistake the year 2000 for 1900.

The former employee who spoke anonymously said the credit union has seen the departure of several back office employees. He predicted the credit union may have to hire consultants to meet a June 30 NCUA deadline to be fully Y2K compliant.

(End excerpt)

'Just passing it on. . .

:)

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), May 28, 1999

Answers

June 30 - compliancy? Sounds like he is a troll to me.

-- skeptical (no@trolls.con), May 28, 1999.

How long can they suppress what's really taking place in back offices, and how many employees are stepping outside their habit-boxes enough to add 2 + 2 and see the long-range consequences?

Fortunately this long water-torture wait for Y2K outcomes will be delineated by June 2000, if not much sooner.
In the meantime, looks like the pressure to shut up and ignore is intense.

xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), May 28, 1999.

Link?

-- regular (zzz@z.z), May 28, 1999.

Perhaps this will serve as a "test case" for Mitch Ratcliffe's legal defense offer. No, wait, seems these folks got fired just for expressing concerns. Nothing proven or perhaps even provable. Doesn't apply, I guess.

Does seem to point up the rather limited nature and applicability of Mr. Ratcliffe's offer.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), May 28, 1999.

Some important parts of the story were sort of "snipped" out. This story was NOT about Y2K. I was interested if it was true. Regardless of what some in this forum think, I try to read most of the posts with an open mind, and am always seeking stories of substance that might be important. IF it was true that two VP's were fired for blowing the whistle on Y2K, this WOULD be important.

However, as with many of these types of stories it was really about something OTHER than Y2K. The VP's uses some "speculation" in an attempt to hurt their former employer, after their previous REAL complaints went unheard. Here is what the rest of the story had to say about what they were REALLY blowing the whistle on...

"In their lawsuits, both Salyer and Garrett said they raised concern about a Langley employee in a position of financial responsibility. Garrett said in his complaint that he told the examiner that an employee with virtually unlimited access to members' confidential financial data had personal financial problems that "could put the institution at risk."

The two also said they told the examiner they heard rumors that Yokum paid credit-card debt for the employee with financial problems. Salyer also said Yokum made other payments "on personal accounts of certain favored employees."

Board members looked into the rumors and found them to be unfounded, said Charles Ritchie, a credit union director, when the Daily Press contacted him two months ago about the vice presidents' departures. "We found there was nothing to it," he said.

Yokum has the board's full support, Ritchie added at the time.

Paul Lucas, vice president of marketing at 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union, said Monday that Yokum "is highly regarded in the credit union movement, both nationally and internationally." He also described her as being very community-minded."

For the link to the entire story (it took me a bit to find it myself...) go to http://DParchives.com/cgi-bin/get_nndoc.pl?DBLIST=nn99&DOCNUM=12352

If there are any REAL whistle blowers out there, do us all a favor and blow away!

-- Steve Hewitt (steve@ccmag.com), May 29, 1999.

Thanks, Steve. "un"spun reporting is not common to this forum. Some DO NOT want this y2k thing to be o.k. Others would just like the truth. Thanks again for the link.

To everyone else--- knock off the brainwashing attempts, will you? Some of us can think for ourselves. Biased "snips" accomplish nothing but "FUD" spreading.

-- L T L (NOYB@This.time), May 29, 1999.