A top executive at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Italian-American auto maker, claiming the company cut his pay in retaliation for cooperating with a federal investigation in the U.S. into its sales-reporting practices.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday, Reid Bigland said Fiat Chrysler FCAU, -1.05% slashed his pay by 90% to punish him for cooperating with an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC and the Justice Department have been probing whether the company manipulated monthly sales data to inflate its results, people familiar with the matter said.
Bigland is head of Fiat Chrysler’s U.S. sales, according to the company’s website, and oversees its Ram pickup-truck brand, one of the auto maker’s most profitable divisions.
In the lawsuit, Bigland claims Fiat Chrysler also cut his pay to retaliate for his selling off shares, a decision he says “highly irritated” the company.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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