Former NHLPA employee alleging fraud pursues reports into union
As first reported by TSN’s Rick Westhead, former NHLPA technical support analyst Allan Etherington alleges that the union concealed the fraud that occurred and created a dysfunctional work environment before his firing in 2019.
Etherington alleges he was fired because he refused to keep quiet about a colleague who was supposedly defrauding the union of more than $100,000. According to Westhead, it will be argued in a Toronto court today that NHLPA should be forced to hand over its records and reports regarding the alleged fraud.
Etherington has made other accusations against the NHLPA. He has also accused the union of income tax and insurance fraud. Initially, Etherington’s lawsuit was filed in November 2019, where the former NHLPA employee is pursuing $2.5 million in punitive damages, $4 million for general damages and other damages for income loss and potential earning capacity.
Despite Etherington’s claims, the NHLPA has denied such accusations from ever occurring and believes that his lawsuit “contains bare, unfounded and irrelevant allegations, including of criminal and/or illegal conduct, and is scandalous and inflammatory.”
Westhead said that Etherington alleged that Stephen Frank, the NHLPA’s former director of technology and security information technology, left the NHLPA “with then-executive director Don Fehr’s good wishes” back in December of 2018.
An investigation by Ernst & Young and CGI Inc. concluded that Frank had used GeekFork Inc., his own company, to misapproriate funds by purchasing expensive computer equipment, according to Etherington.
“The plaintiff did not trust his employer and he knew part of the reason for his termination was because he would not be complicit in the cover up of Stephen Frank’s theft and fraud and be part of the ‘old boys club’ at the NHLPA,” Etherington said in a June 28 notion, according to Westhead. “The plaintiff was constantly pulled into meetings to be admonished and told that ‘loose lips sink ships.’”
According to Westhead’s report, Etherington brought forth his concerns about Stephen Frank’s behavior in 2018 to Stephen Sax, the NHLPA’s director of finance.
Due to his eventual filing of a constructive dismissal claim concerning the allegations brought to the helm above, Etherington left the NHLPA in February of 2019.