A whistleblower has come forward with serious allegations against a prominent vacation company, accusing it of fostering a hostile work environment and engaging in fraudulent activities. Ariel McFadden filed a complaint against Bluegreen Vacations Unlimited, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on September 4, 2024.
McFadden, an African American female residing in Kenner, Louisiana, began her employment with Bluegreen as a Talent Acquisition Partner II in July 2022. Despite being recognized for her achievements within the company, she claims to have faced a hostile work environment, retaliation, and religious discrimination. McFadden alleges that since she started working at Bluegreen, she discovered unauthorized credit card purchases made by the Sales Department using clients' cards for concierge services, gifts, and down payments for vacation packages. When she reported these activities to her director, Mr. Leiser, he instructed her to ignore them and focus on recruitment.
In March 2023, McFadden found it increasingly difficult to recruit new talent due to the fraudulent activities she had uncovered. She spoke with her director again but was encouraged to continue focusing on her job. Further investigation revealed that the Vice President of Sales, Mr. Maroo, was aware of and allowing these fraudulent activities to occur. McFadden also discovered that employees were being paid incentives to help cover up these actions.
The situation escalated when an owner or client posted a negative review on June 21, 2023, alleging illegal and unethical sales practices at Bluegreen. McFadden reported witnessing employees making unauthorized credit card purchases and informed Human Resources about this behavior. Despite ranking first in her department's metrics for Talent Acquisition and receiving multiple awards on September 6, 2023, McFadden was issued a final warning performance evaluation report on September 18, 2023. The report cited poor performance and contradicted previous reports from the Director of Sales.
Feeling retaliated against for her whistleblowing activities and facing racial discrimination as an African American employee who had made numerous complaints about harassment and hostile work environments without any resolution from the company, McFadden decided to resign. On September 20, 2023, she sent an email to Mr. Leiser and Mr. Fountain outlining instances of discrimination and bullying that had adversely impacted her mental health.
McFadden is seeking various forms of relief from the court including back pay, front pay, liquidated damages, punitive damages for lost compensation and job benefits due to Bluegreen's unlawful conduct; pre-judgment interest; compensatory damages for physical injury; emotional distress; humiliation; embarrassment; anguish; post-judgment interest; costs incurred in connection with this action including reasonable attorneys’ fees; expert witness fees; other costs deemed appropriate by the court.
Representing Ms. McFadden is Christopher A Minias from The Minias Law Firm.
Case ID: Case 2:24-cv-02176