Carl Icahn's wife at center of wrongful termination lawsuit


Carl Icahn has spent decades shaking up self-dealing, cronyism and nepotism at public companies all over America but, according to a new lawsuit, there were some problems at his own office too.

Sandra Silva, of Cliffside Park, N.J., and Valerie Romano of Ridgewood, Queens, former Icahn employees in their mid-thirties, have sued, alleging that Icahn's wife, 59-year old Gail Golden and her friend systematically excluded them from activities -- and then fired them for no reason.

The New York Post reports that "Silva and Romano were criticized for everything from the way they sat, to having drinks with an unpopular coworker and trying to be friendly with the man who sold office supplies."

The lawsuit is interesting because it portrays Icahn's office as a hotbed of office politics, drama, and energy devoted to projects other than shareholder value -- exactly the kinds of things that Icahn has spent his career railing against. And looking at how far shares of Icahn Enterprises (NYSE: IEP) have fallen over the past couple years, the company certainly doesn't need any more distractions.

In a statement, Icahn Enterprises said that "We think the allegations in this complaint have absolutely no merit whatsoever and intend to vigorously defend against the lawsuit."

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+6.5112,890.46
NASDAQ+11.372,927.23
S&P 500+1.991,351.95

Last updated: February 10, 2012: 06:29 AM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

19.13-0.11(-0.57)

Alcoa

10.64-0.03(-0.28)

Apple Inc

493.17+16.49(+3.46)

Google Inc 'A'

611.46+1.61(+0.26)

Bank of America

8.18+0.05(+0.62)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.96+0.34(+0.55)

Exxon Mobil Corp

84.88-0.44(-0.52)

Ford

12.69-0.15(-1.17)

Citigroup

33.66-0.57(-1.67)

IBM

193.13+0.18(+0.09)

Yahoo

16.00+0.22(+1.39)

Starbucks

49.20+0.48(+0.99)

Microsoft

30.77+0.11(+0.36)

Home Depot

45.27+0.10(+0.22)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1328873366277 ms.