Former Motorola CFO Paul Liska is reportedly disputing Motorola’s claim that he was let go “with cause.”
He told The Wall Street Journal that he was let go after a Motorola board meeting, but without cause. The Journal also reported that Liska has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Motorola, but it could not verify the suit's existence.
Motorola said on Feb. 3 that Liska was leaving. It didn't specify a reason, but Chief Executive Greg Brown implied that it was connected to the delayed spin-off of the mobile phone unit.
Late Tuesday, however, Motorola said in a regulatory filing that Liska was "involuntarily terminated for cause" on Feb. 19, according to The Associated Press. It didn't say what the cause was, but said "cause" can mean willful negligence of duty, fraud or criminal indictment, among other things.
Motorola said Liska was not entitled to any severance allowance and was required to repay the $400,000 bonus he received for signing on as CFO in March last year, the AP reports. He lost more than $900,000 in unvested restricted stock and hundreds of thousands of unvested stock options. He received no bonus for last year. His base salary was $750,000.