Waddell & Reed to Pay Former Employee

Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. and one of its executives were ordered to pay $25 million in punitive damages to a former employee fired in February 1997 by the Overland Park, Kan., money manager.

The arbitration arm of the National Assn. of Securities Dealers said Waddell & Reed and Executive Vice President Robert Hechler “orchestrated a campaign of deception” about the employee, Stephen Sawtelle, a mutual fund broker, after firing him.

The damages award is the largest in an arbitration and one of the biggest for an individual employment case, said Jeffrey Liddle of Liddle & Robinson, which represented Sawtelle.

A Waddell & Reed spokesman had no immediate comment on the arbitration panel decision.

Sawtelle alleged he was fired after testifying to the Securities and Exchange Commission about a former Waddell & Reed employee who had embezzled money from the firm and was fired in 1996.