Board Chairman Threatened To Kill Execs|If They Talked About Finances, VP Says

LOS ANGELES (CN) - The chairman of the board of Garda World Security Corp. threatened to "kill any executive and the family of any executive" who spoke publicly about the company's financial problems, which were "at variance with its public reporting," a senior vice president and COO of a Garda subsidiary claims in Superior Court.

Garda World, based in Montreal, "is one of the world's largest integrated security companies," the complaint states. Richard Irvin says he was senior vice president and COO of its subsidiary ATI Systems International when Garda Chairman of the Board Stephan Cretier made the terrorist threat, at a meeting with other company executives.

"Beginning in or around June or July 2007, and contrary to the corporation's public reporting, Garda World Security Corporation was apparently experiencing serious financial problems. The operating results with respect to the corporation's cash logistics business were apparently so at variance with its public reporting that defendant Stephan Cretier, the Chairman of the Board of Garda World Security Corporation and its largest individual shareholder, threatened Richard Irvin and other top executives of the company at a meeting in late November 2007, that if any of them leaked the true facts, he would use the corporation's security operatives to investigate the leak and would kill any executive and the family of any executive found responsible for the leak," the complaint states.

"As a result of this death threat, plaintiffs Richard R. Irvin and his wife ... have lived in fear for their safety and the safety of their family, and seek compensatory, emotional distress and punitive damages incurred as a result of this threat."

In a separate complaint for $5 million, Irvin sued ATI, Garda and Cretier for breach of contract and fraud. He claims he was fired on a pretext after he learned that the company had misrepresented its finances.

Plaintiffs in both cases are represented by Jeffrey Kramer with TroyGould.

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