Opinion ID: 4533874
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Investigation of Patrick Bergin

Text: In 2014, FCA US investigated Plaintiff’s predecessor, Patrick Bergin, for a number of policy violations: namely, (1) receiving kickbacks from a supplier; (2) forwarding sensitive information to his personal email address; (3) forwarding confidential information to suppliers; (4) selling his personally owned vehicles to suppliers at inflated prices to disguise kickbacks from suppliers; and (5) failing to comply with Defendant’s established document management procedures. The essence of FCA US’s concern was that Bergin had colluded with Comstock (a Chrysler supplier) to receive kickbacks in exchange for awarding Comstock certain contracts. Bergin’s scheme involved directing Comstock to engage the services of a consultant named Don Tocco and directing Comstock to pay 0.5% of their overall markup to Tocco. Tocco then allegedly paid a portion of the 0.5% back to Bergin in the form of a kickback. The investigation revealed that, during a taped conversation between Bergin and a confidential informant from Comstock, Bergin acknowledged the relationship between Comstock and Tocco, directed the 6 No. 19-1420, Kenya Spratt v. FCA US LLC confidential informant not to make any further payments to Tocco, and asked the confidential informant to delete evidence of Comstock’s prior payments to Tocco. However, due to a lack of documentation and conflicting witness statements, the ultimate result of the investigation as to the kickback allegation was considered inconclusive. The results of the investigation were conclusive as to other allegations against Bergin. First, the investigation concluded that Bergin forwarded a Comstock purchase order to Tocco, in violation of the company’s confidentiality policies. The investigation next revealed that, over a five-year period, Bergin sold two personally owned vehicles to two FCA US suppliers, Barton Mallow and Conti, in violation of conflict-of-interest policies. And lastly, the investigation found that Bergin had failed to adhere to company document management procedures by forwarding over 130 business e-mails to his personal e-mail account, and failed to maintain required documentation of much of his work at FCA US, including the mark-up cost calculations relating to dealings with Comstock. As a result of the investigation, FCA US did not terminate Bergin. Instead, he was involuntarily removed from the Senior Buyer position and transferred to an Engineering Supervisor position at another location. This was a higher paying position for Bergin.