ICN Discloses Settlement of Sex Harassment Lawsuit
A former ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. employee has reached an out-of-court settlement in a sexual harassment lawsuit against the company’s chairman, Milan Panic, the company said Thursday.
Panic attorney Bernard Segal confirmed that Colleen James, a former trade-show manager for the Costa Mesa-based drug company, settled her case against Panic and ICN. James had sued Panic in May, alleging that she was fired after rebuffing Panic’s sexual advances.
Segal said that, under the agreement made between James and his client, terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
James could not be reached for comment. Her Los Angeles attorney, Shelly Mandell, did not return phone calls.
The company did not publicly announce the status of the lawsuit, which was settled three months ago, until Rafi M. Khan, a disgruntled ICN shareholder, sent a letter to other shareholders condemning the settlement.
Khan is asking shareholders to elect him and his six-member slate of candidates to the ICN board as part of his plan to unseat Panic, who founded the company in 1960, and the eight other directors.
In a letter mailed Tuesday, Khan challenged shareholders to ask the company who paid the settlement and if there are other sexual harassment charges leveled at Panic, a onetime premier of Yugoslavia. He also asked them to sign proxy cards giving him the authority to challenge Panic during ICN’s annual meeting, set for Dec. 15.
Recently portrayed by ICN attorneys as a fugitive from Scotland Yard, Khan used the sexual harassment case to raise questions about Panic’s character.
“Since the company is so anxious to tell you about me, I think it is appropriate for you to learn more about the man who is running the company,” Khan said in his letter to shareholders.
Attorney Segal emphasized, however, that James’ allegations against Panic were never tested in court, whereas those against Khan were aired in a hearing last week in U.S. District Court in New York and will be ruled on by federal judge.
“We can’t lose sight of that distinction,” Segal said.
