When an employee gets fired and sued after helping boss with $120k

Case of woman sued for defamation after trying to get back money shows importance of documenting such loans

- Tan Ooi Boon

Imagine facing the double whammy of not being able to recover $120,000 owed to you and yet being sued for defamation when you set a debt collector to chase for payment.

That was what happened to an employee here when she made the mistake of trusting her boss, who used to mentor and groom her as part of the succession planning for his company.

The woman, who was a finance manager of the company that offered administrative-related services, had been mentored by the boss over a number of years as part of his succession planning.

This built up her levels of trust for the man to a point where she was keen to help out when he told her that the firm was facing cash-flow problems. After all, the man was like "a father" to her, she noted, and she was assured that the money would be repaid as soon as the situation improved.

The woman helped to pay the salaries of her colleagues that totalled $18,000, by transferring the money from her bank account. She did this even though she was not paid her monthly salary of $2,000.

This meant she was owed $20,000 by helping her boss pay the salaries.

When the company ran into further trouble and was not able to pay the rent, she transferred $100,000 to the corporate account to keep the business afloat.

On both occasions, she was banking on the trust she had in the boss, who promised that she would get her money back within weeks.

But that promise turned out to be an empty one and she began to press him for her money.

It was then that she saw the ugly side of the man she once respected: He told her that he never took her money and that the cash she had handed over was a loan to the company.

This meant that if the firm became insolvent, her debt would not be repaid.

The woman never gave up in pestering the boss to return $120,000 to the point where she was sacked for "insubordination and conflict of interest".