HOUSTON — A former Caterpillar employee is alleging the company "grinds" the manufacturers' names off of supplier equipment made in other countries to falsely represent they were made in the U.S.
Micki Jain filed a complaint Aug. 31 in the Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas against Caterpillar Inc., alleging false designation of country of origin, wire and mail fraud, wrongful termination and other cliams.
According to his complaint, Jain worked for Caterpillar from 1997 through April 15, 2020. He alleges that throughout his 23-year career with Caterpillar, including during their acquisition of Kemper Valve and Fittings Corporation in 2016, he was "consistently recognized as a high performing employee" including receiving the Caterpillar's top employee awards.
Jain claims that in 2019, he began to receive poor employee performance evaluations and that he was presented with an "action plan" for his sales goals that was a "farce." Jain claims he was terminated in April of 2020 because he refused to take part in the company's alleged illegal acts that included taking names off of imported equipment and repacking them to hide the fact the products originated from other countries.
Jain seeks monetary relief of more than $75,000, trial by jury, interest and all other just relief. He is represented by Cory Fein of The Cory Fein Law Firm in Houston.
Houston Division of the Southern District of Texas case number 4:20-CV-03042