Former PepsiCo Inc. general counsel Maura Smith was subpoenaed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to discuss whether the company’s severance agreement with her violated whistleblower laws, but Smith did not initiate an SEC probe of the company, according to a source close to the investigation.
The source, who asked not to be named because of the source’s involvement in the probe, said Smith never filed a retaliation complaint against PepsiCo over her abrupt departure from the company in 2012. Some recent news reports may have wrongly left the impression that Smith did in fact file such a complaint, the source said.
