They charge company put them on leave after they contacted U.S. Labor Department

Five longtime highly paid employees are suing Lyme Computer Systems of Lebanon and its top executives for retaliation after their complaints launched a federal investigation into charges that company executives and board members paid themselves excessive compensation and pocketed Paycheck Protection Program money, devaluing the company and the workers; Employee Stock Ownership Plan shares.

The lawsuit, filed on Jan. 15, alleges that the company put the defendants on administrative leave on Jan. 5, the day after the federal Department of Labor subpoenaed documents related to their complaints.

They also allege that the executives accessed their personal emails to attend a Zoom meeting with their lawyer and they charge the company has not followed federal law when it comes to transparency about the ESOP and by trying to prevent one employee from rolling over his 401(k).

“This is a lawsuit about retaliation against ESOP participants for expressing their concerns,” said attorney Carolyn K. Cole of Cole Associates Civil Law PLLC, in Lebanon. “We are not taking the position that they paid themselves too much or they did anything wrong except for the actions they took against these employees.”

Lyme Computer is an information technology services provider and a large federal contractor. Its CEO, Josh Longacre – one of the defendants in the case – said Tuesday that the company was in the midst of hiring...

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