Boeing yesterday sacked Mr Mike Sears, its finance director, saying he had violated company policy by discussing a possible job offer with a US government official while she was still working on matters affecting Boeing.
The dismissal, the second departure of a leading executive at Boeing in the past two weeks, follows an inquiry by Boeing of the circumstances behind the hiring of Ms Darleen Druyun, a former government procurement official. Ms Druyun was also dismissed yesterday.
The firm has already come under fire over an incident concerning alleged misuse of Lockheed Martin proprietary documents to win a defence contract.
Boeing said Mr Sears was dismissed for "communicating directly and indirectly with Druyun about future employment when she had not disqualified herself from acting in her official government capacity on matters involving Boeing".
In a letter to staff, chief executive Mr Phil Condit said "compelling evidence came to light in the last two weeks from an internally initiated review that both of them attempted to conceal their misconduct".
