A former manager at a seafood dealer owned by the Highland Park, Illinois, U.S.A.-based Mazzetta Company has sued the company, claiming he was fired after he raised concerns about the company’s allegedly fraudulent actions.
According to a lawsuit filed 18 June in Maine, Corey Thompson, the former general manager of South Thomaston, Maine-based Atwood Lobster, which was purchased by the Mazzetta Company in 2011, was demoted and then fired after he brought concerns about company practices to owner Tom Mazzetta, The Courier-Gazette reported.
In his job, which paid more than USD 100,000 (EUR 85,500), Thompson oversaw Atwood’s purchases of lobster and other seafood from harvesters and other dock owners. Thompson alleges his supervisors often required that he sell seafood to Beach Point Processing in Prince Edward Island, Canada, at artificially deflated prices, according to the suit. In addition, in 2016, in order to qualify Atwood Lobster for a commercial loan, the company repackaged expired seafood with new expiration dates so that additional product could be used as collateral, the lawsuit alleges.
When Thompson raised concerns about these practices with Tom Mazzetta, he was demoted to a maintenance position. After pressing his concerns in an email to Mazzetta, he was fired on 26 May, 2017. Thompson’s suit seeks unspecified monetary damages for his termination.
The attorney representing Atwood Lobster and the Mazzetta Company said no law was violated when Thompson was fired, and that claims made by Thompson that the companies repackaged expired are false seafood, the Courier-Gazette reported.
