Boeing Fires CFO in Hiring Scandal
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=1&u=/nm/20031124/bs_nm/arms_boeing_dcCHICAGO (Reuters) - Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA - news) on Monday said it dismissed its chief financial officer for unethical conduct in the aerospace company's hiring of a senior Air Force procurement official.
Boeing, the No. 2 U.S. military contractor, said Chief Financial Officer Michael Sears was dismissed for violating company policies by communicating with Darleen Druyun about future employment even though she had not disqualified herself from acting in official government capacity on matters involving Boeing. The company also fired Druyun.
Boeing has been indefinitely suspended from bidding on lucrative military satellite launching contracts. Its controversial plan to lease the Air Force 100 air refueling tankers based on its 767 commercial jet platform has been hung up in Congress over concerns it would waste taxpayer money.
Critics said the plan amounted to a corporate handout after Boeing in late 2001 lost the potential $200 billion Joint Strike Fighter contract.
Defense officials said the investigations focused specifically on Druyun, and whether she improperly shared with Boeing some pricing data from Airbus, which is 80 percent owned by European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EAD.PA) and 20 percent by Britain's BAE Systems Plc (BA.L).