In a whistleblower lawsuit filed September 22, Loretta Pickus, who served as senior vice president and general counsel at Ocean Casino Resort before her January termination, claimed she was fired for raising concerns about a falsified document. Her complaint, filed in Atlantic County Superior Court, also charged that the casino discriminated against Pickus because of her gender.
“It’s disappointing that in this day and age women in our industry are still dealing with good old boys clubs and misogyny at the highest level,” Pickus said in an interview.
Pickus, an industry veteran, worked for more than two decades with Trump casinos. She joined Revel in 2013 during its preparation to be sold in bankruptcy.
The suit revolves around a dispute over the hiring of a director of surveillance at Ocean last year. If Mark Evans was hired on a temporary basis in January 2019, he had four months before a permanent successor could be hired, according to the Courier-Post.
In June, “suspected deficiencies” in Evans’ performance led to the hiring of a new surveillance director. An audit committee member did not want the hiring and demotion of Evans in the public record, the suit alleges. Pickus complained to CEO Terry Glebocki, who recommended Pickus correct the minutes. The committee rejected the corrections, the complaint said. The DGE launched an investigation in August 2019.
DGE director, David Rebuck, sent a letter to Ocean in November which Pickus claims “targeted her with inaccurate accusations.” Further Pickus accused Rebuck of saying to the effect “there are people you shouldn’t have in your organization. They are holdovers. They need to go.”
