Herman Cain released a press release that is almost shocking in it's nastiness. He decides to do everything he can to destroy the character of Sharon Bialek. He lists court cases that have been filed against Sharon Bialek, two bankruptcies, and a paternity issue. The press release is misleading and unfair, but that's not why it's so bad for Cain.
Cain was a defendant in five lawsuits that ended in $10.5 million in judgements, related to his tenure on the board of Aquila, Inc., when he screwed over a whole bunch of employees as a member of the board of directors by mismanaging retirement accounts and improperly pressuring employees to fill their retirement accounts with company stock.
If I had been involved in so many lawsuits, I don't think I would be going around encouraging people to look up names on PACER.
First, to deal with the unfairness: I know nothing of the details of the six lawsuits in Cook County in which Bialek was named as defendant, so it's hard to know what is going on with any of them. What we do know is that in NONE of these cases was Bialek the lead defendant. It could very well be that she was named in a suit against an employer. Without knowing more, it's really hard to know what a list of lawsuits really says about a person.
It's easier to find information about Cain's legal troubles, though.
In 2004, five federal cases were filed against Harman Cain:
Itteilag v. Aquila, Inc. et al 4:04-cv-00865-DW (named as defendant)
O'Brien v. Aquila, Inc. 4:04-cv-00928-DW (named as defendant)
Wolf et al v. Aquila, Inc. et al 4:04-cv-00934-DW (named as defendant)
Smith v. Aquila, Inc. et al 4:04-cv-00970-DW (named as defendant)
Tylutki et al v. Aquila, Inc. et al, 4:04-cv-01058-SOW (named as defendant)
Cain was sued five times because as a member of the board of directors of Aquila, he actively encouraged employees to sink their money into company stock.
Why was this bad? Aquila was a utility company, a traditionally conservative investment. But during Cain's tenure, the company was engaged in riskier and riskier endeavors, transforming this conservative investment to one far too risky for folks close to retirement. The stock went from a high price of $37.55 per share to a crashing low of $6.75 in July of 2002, when the Enron disaster brought the risky practices of companies like Aquila to light. It devastated many employees heavily invested in company stock.
Mother Jones covered the story in depth back in May.
The five suits were eventually folded into one class action, and they had to pay out 10.5 million to the people they screwed.
Right now, Cain is fighting off allegations that resulted in 5-figure judgements. While it appears Cain routinely engaged in predatory behavior, and that is a matter of concern, I think we should also be paying attention to this $10.5 million judgement, in which Cain engaged in predatory behavior against his employees.
I don't think legal troubles are a can of worms Cain wants to open.