‘I’ve Got Enforcement Agents Following Me’: Whistleblowers, Allegations of Millions in Missing Alcohol and Intimidation — What’s Going on With the Virginia ABC?
The Virginia ABC is facing two whistleblower retaliation lawsuits. (Photo: Sipa via AP Images)
On Tuesday, the Virginia Mercury reported that Jennifer Burke, the director of retail operations at the Virginia ABC, adjusted her lawsuit against the organization, claiming she has faced an “ongoing” retaliation campaign from the regulative liquor board, including the Virginia ABC’s interim CEO and chief enforcement officer, Thomas Kirby.
In December, Burke filed a lawsuit after she claimed she was unjustly put on administrative leave by the Virginia ABC after she reported millions of dollars of missing liquor inventory to to authority executives and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration.
Burke’s lawsuit is one of two whistleblower lawsuits filed against the organization. In February, the Virginia Mercury reported that a second Virginia ABC employee — former assistant director of retail operations Thomas Aruanno — filed a lawsuit of his own.
Burke and Aruanno were hired to improve operations at the state’s regulative liquor board’s warehouses. Aruanno’s suit claims the two employees performed “the first exhaustive inventory of Virginia ABC’s entire warehouse system in recent memory.”
Both found missing inventory amounting to $1.7 million and $1 million in inaccurate payments to a vendor.
Aruanno claims that a subsequent investigation led him to increase the estimate to $2.7 million, and the ABC’s assistant director of information technology, Steven Orford, claimed that in 2021-22 the warehouses lost $5.3 million in liquor inventory.
Burke initially filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against the organization for retaliation in December after “blowing the whistle” on the missing inventory, the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star reported.
Burke was with the Virginia ABC for over five years when she filed her lawsuit. She remains employed by the organization but alleges the retaliation has caused her “severe emotional distress.”
“Basically, since the day the lawsuit was filed [ABC] ramped up their efforts, meaning I’ve got enforcement agents following me,” she informed the Virginia Mercury in an interview.
Burke currently faces “disciplinary action” from the company after going on a happy hour with her coworkers on December 20, the lawsuit alleges.
One day after the outing, an individual allegedly filed an anonymous complaint to the Commonwealth of Virginia Fraud, Waste and Abuse hotline. Since then, Burke claims the ABC has investigated her “minute-by-minute whereabouts” the day of the outing.
On Feb. 23, she received a disciplinary notice claiming she had abused state time, although according to Burke, happy hours are routine and often encouraged within the company culture.
Burke’s lawsuit alleges that armed agents were sent to “interrogate” employees of the stores that Burke went to that day. Burke additionally claimed that she witnessed an employee taking pictures of her from the restaurant parking lot during the happy hour.
As for Aruanno, the former assistant director of retail operations claimed that he was put on administrative leave after reporting millions of missing liquor inventory.
In his lawsuit, Aruanno is additionally suing the ABC’s CEO, Travis Hill, and its chief retail operations officer, Mark Dunham, for defamation and denial of due process.
The lawsuit alleges that an armed raid was ordered on his house on May 6, while Aruano was still working at the Virginia ABC, but it was called off at the eleventh hour.
Aruanno claimed he went to the emergency room due to his high stress levels, and his doctor advised him to take at least a week off work. After he filed a medical leave of absence with his employer, ABC Chief Retail Operations Officer Mark Dunham phoned him, claiming that ABC agents were heading over to his home to get “ABC assets.”
The agents did not have a warrant, according to the lawsuit.
Aruanno claims that through a Freedom of Information Act request, he found text messages from employees at the ABC, including the human resources director, which showed the director was planning a raid on Aruano’s home and gave armed Virginia ABC agents and local law enforcement instructions to post outside his house then enter it as a unit.
“Leadership at ABC were made fully aware of the missing merchandise, and instead of taking action on the issue, they decided to attack the person who brought it to their attention,” Aruanno said, according to the Virginia Mercury.
Burke claims she does not intend on quitting her job because she has too many people who rely on her, but the stress has taken a toll.
In February, Burke was hospitalized after a severe panic attack, according to the Virginia Mercury.
“Now when I go into the office people come by and peek in and whisper and say they’re so happy to see me today, because they’re afraid to say it out loud,” Burke said, according to the Virginia Mercury.
Other Troubles for the Virginia ABC
The Daily Progress reported in December that the Virginia ABC lost a third executive within a four-month period, when chief digital and branding officer Vida Williams resigned.
Williams left after Travis Hill, the former CEO mentioned in Aruano’s lawsuit, left without a job lined up. He claims he “left on his own terms.” Before Hill left, the company’s first Chief Transformation Officer, Elizabeth Chu resigned.
In May, the Virginia ABC’s lottery, which offered customers the ability to purchase rare whiskeys faced plenty of scrutiny and backlash after a sorting issue was discovered. Abnormal results were generated and out of 146,221 entries, just 978 participants were chosen to purchase 1,313 available bottles.
The organization implemented a new system in August, which it claimed would “run really well.”
Whiskey Raiders has contacted the Virginia ABC and the organization declined to comment on the pending litigation.
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