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A former executive of Conair Corp., a personal care products company, claims she was fired for reporting an alleged fraud Conair was committing against Walmart Stores Inc.
Barbara Laubenstein filed a whistleblower complaint against her former employer.
Conair is based in East Windsor, New Jersey.
According to the complaint, Laubenstein began working as vice president of sales for Conair’s Allegro Division in 2009.
In 2012, the division sold $30 million worth of products to Walmart, Conair’s single largest customer.
The company also acts as an adviser to Walmart, offering marketing and consumer business plans to the retailer.
According to Laubenstein, she discovered that Conair would “surreptitiously cover the UPC label of the old products with the UPC label of the current product and ship the old products” to Walmart’s locations.
“(Conair) was able to unload its old, inferior inventory while charging Walmart for the new, superior product,” she said in the complaint.
The lawsuit didn’t say when Laubenstein became aware of the alleged fraud.
Laubenstein was fired in July 2013, after alerting her boss, according to her allegations.
She is seeking an unspecified amount of damages.
Conair’s associate counsel, John Feeney, said the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
