Judge Allows Lawsuit Against Winnick

Gary Winnick, the former chairman of Global Crossing Ltd., must face a lawsuit accusing him of defaming a company finance executive who complained about the fiber-optic network operator’s accounting, a judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Gerard Lynch in Manhattan refused to dismiss a claim that Winnick defamed Roy Olofson, former vice president of finance. Olofson complained in 2001 that the company had improperly accounted for phone-service swaps. He was later fired.

Global Crossing last month agreed to pay $325 million to resolve securities-fraud and pension claims by investors and employees over the company’s collapse and accounting practices. The accord represents only a fraction of the $40 billion in stock value wiped out by the company’s January 2002 bankruptcy filing, the second largest in the telecommunications industry after WorldCom Inc.