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Get Four
|  | FEBRUARY 9, 2004
By Kate Hazelwood The Martha Trial's Workplace Primer [Page 2 of 2] Keep your work e-mail only about your work. We've all heard stories about someone who inadvertently sent a companywide e-mail deriding their boss or revealing an indiscretion, but in a court case, sometimes seemingly harmless e-mail can become explosive. Case in point: The contents of this one are not just embarrassing but they also could ultimately be damaging to Faneuil's credibility. Under questioning from David Apfel, Bacanovic's attorney, Faneuil denied he had ever said he had snapped in Stewart's face. Apfel promptly produced as evidence this e-mail, which Faneuil wrote to a friend: Friday, October 28, 2001, 2:20 p.m. ...Martha yelled at me again today, but I snapped in her face and she actually backed down! Baby put Ms. Martha in her place!!! Then there was this exchange in the courtroom on Feb. 5: Apfel asked Faneuil, "Did you ever send [Bacanovic] e-mails with funny attachments including a January, 2003, article about a man having sex with a goat?" Judge Mariam Goldman Cedarbaum blurted out "sustained" even before the prosecution team could even spit out its "objection." In fact, the judge grew more and more annoyed as Apfel repeatedly tried to ask objectionable questions throughout the cross-examination, but that's one query any jury would have a hard time forgetting. Listen up, students. Any document you put your name on might come back to haunt you. It remains in company archives, easily retrievable. Make sure you get written copies of your performance reviews and compensation agreements. Faneuil maintains that when he started at Merrill Lynch he requested an annual salary of $60,000, close to what he had earned at his previous job. He says Bacanovic told him that for the first six months he would make approximately $45,000, which included 1.25% of Bacanovic's brokerage fees. At the six-month mark, he would get an increase in the commission percentage to 1.75%. That would get him close to, if not more than, his requested $60,000. Faneuil testified he asked Bacanovic about the raise in December, 2001, after six months had elapsed. But by the time Bacanovic turned in the paperwork for a raise to administrators in January, 2002, the submission deadline had passed. Bacanovic offered a solution: When the raise finally did go through in June, 2002 (the next window for such requests) Bacanovic would augment it with a special $5,600 payment to compensate his assistant for the previous six months. The final twist to this story? Bacanovic honored his promise and eventually got Faneuil the $5,600 through proper Merrill Lunch channels, but the timing of the payment, coinciding with Faneuil's suspension at Merrill Lynch, was mistaken as a possible payoff by the U.S. Attorney's office during its criminal investigation. A mistake, yes, but another headache for Faneuil. Of course the best tip we can take from any courthouse is that everyone should try to live a moral life and keep their noses clean. Innocent people need not worry, right? Well, not always. In our litigious society, you never know when you might end up in court.
 Hazelwood is covering the trial for BusinessWeek Online in New York Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | |
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