![]() ![]() Brandon Sawalich is now a senior vice president of the company.Īccording to Boys Smith’s lawsuit, the Starkey Foundation claimed it had given away an estimated 175,000 hearing aids in 2014. Austin and his wife, Tani, in 1984 launched the nonprofit Starkey Hearing Foundation, which by law is required to operate as a separate entity.įamily members are closely aligned with both the business and foundation, with Tani Austin’s sons, Brandon and Steven Sawalich, having served as executives of the foundation. Starkey controls about 17 percent of global hearing aid sales. Few details are known about the nature of the investigation, but Starkey has said the company is the victim of a crime.īill Austin founded the company in 1967 and still has a 91 percent stake. The private company based in Eden Prairie has since September fired at least 20 executives, managers and executive assistants, many of whom have since been questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Internal Revenue Service. ![]() The action comes amid continuing turmoil for Starkey. ![]() because her last two positions were funded by the Minnesota hearing aid maker. She also is suing Starkey Laboratories Inc. Baca.īoys Smith, who filed the whistleblower lawsuit Friday in California, worked for more than two years in a number of director-level positions at the Starkey Hearing Foundation’s Los Angeles office, until she was terminated April 10. Starkey Hearing Foundation denies the allegations and “will vigorously defend against the lawsuit,” said Starkey’s Los Angeles-based attorney, Elena R. Maria Vanessa Boys Smith said she alerted executives at the highest levels of the Starkey Hearing Foundation - including co-founder Tani Austin and President Richard Brown - about improprieties that included exaggerations in the number of free hearing aids given on charity missions, not using the most qualified medical providers and conflicts of interest. A former high-ranking employee of the Starkey Hearing Foundation has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit, claiming she was fired after raising questions about the number of devices the organization gives away to charity and other business practices. ![]()
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