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Calista Corp. denies CEO mishandled sexual harassment complaint

BETHEL — Calista Corp. is denying that its CEO mishandled a sexual harassment complaint.

In a statement released Friday, the corporation's board of directors alleged that its ousted chairman, Wayne Don, is deliberately spreading misinformation about the company.

In interviews with KYUK, Don and his attorney said Calista CEO Andrew Guy failed to properly respond to a sexual harassment complaint against a former employee. But in its statement Friday, the board claims that "the woman never made even one complaint to Mr. Andrew Guy that she had been sexually harassed."

"The person that was harassed did not approach Andrew Guy," Calista communications manager Thom Leonard reiterated in an interview with KYUK on Friday.

The board's statement was released by its new chairman, Paul George Guy, who is CEO Andrew Guy's cousin. It further claims that Don made "incorrect and misleading" statements to KYUK and the Delta Discovery, and that this violated his "fiduciary duties."

Friday's statement was the latest in a series of allegations Calista has made against Don, who is refusing to resign from the corporation's board. His fellow board members have already stripped Don of his chairmanship and voted to publicly censure him.

At the center of this dispute is an unnamed former Calista employee who is accused of repeatedly sexually harassing a woman. According to Don and his attorney, the woman told CEO Guy what was happening, but Guy failed to respond to her complaint. This harassment claim eventually made its way to Calista's human resources department, and Calista investigated and then fired the offending employee.

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In their statement Friday, the board didn't just deny the woman ever told the CEO about sexual harassment. It also cast doubt on whether she was harassed at all. The board says that Calista's former employee had not, in fact, repeatedly sexually harassed the woman, and that "this highly inflammatory statement is completely false." However, the statement then says that an attorney who reviewed the allegations concluded that it was "likely" that the employee's conduct violated Calista's sexual harassment policies. It further says that the employee was fired as a result of an investigation.

KYUK asked Calista spokesperson Leonard about the apparent contradictions in the corporation's press release. "Yeah, I don't have any further light I can shed on that," he said.

Attorney Sam Fortier says that Don tried to address Andrew Guy's alleged failure to respond to the sexual harassment, but that Calista's board of directors shut him down. He argues that the board is now pushing Don out of the corporation. Calista claims it publicly censured Don for different reasons.

The board's press release states that Don committed at least 14 instances of misconduct while serving as Calista's chair, though spokesman Leonard said he didn't know what any of that misconduct actually was. "The specific details on that have not been shared by the board at this time," he said.

In an interview Friday, Fortier said he and Don stick by what they said in previous interviews. "Everything we told you is true," he said, "and we have the evidence to back it up."

The board also previously claimed that Don had threatened CEO Andrew Guy, interfered with an internal investigation, and improperly issued orders to other employees. But Thom Leonard said that he also didn't know what those accusations specifically referred to.

Neither CEO Guy nor current board chair Paul George Guy could be reached for comment.

This article appeared originally at KYUK.org and has been republished here with permission.

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