former director of internal audit at aetna inc. asserts in a federal lawsuit she was fired last year for raising concerns about the company’s financial controls.
linda guyden said in her 34-page suit that senior executives at aetna ignored her requests to correct glaring weaknesses in the department she managed for 10 months last year and attempted to cover up the problems. guyden, who was fired in november 2004, alleged that the weaknesses placed aetna at risk of failing to meet strict new financial accounting standards and jeopardized the insurer’s ability to accurately report profits and earnings to shareholders. the high-level conflict portrayed in the lawsuit, in which guyden was often at loggerheads with chief financial officer alan bennett, came at a time when big companies were struggling with how much they needed to alter their auditing systems.