Former CFO Charges BET With Financial Wrongdoing

Dwight Crawford, the former executive VP/CFO of BET, has sued the company, chairman/CEO Robert L. Johnson, and president Debra L. Lee, alleging that his opposition to illegal financial practices led to his wrongful termination.

The suit, filed yesterday in Washington, D.C., Superior Court, seeks more than $21 million in damages. He claims that BET senior employees routinely used corporate funds and credit cards to purchase goods for their own use, and deducted personal expenses as business expenses for tax purposes.

He also alleges that Johnson created a shell production company to duck federal withholding taxes, and that BET took an illegal $6 million 1998 tax deduction on a dividend paid to Johnson, which was reported as salary and consulting payments.

The suit claims Crawford was terminated on Jan. 31, after he told Lee he could not tolerate BET's "gross financial mismanagement and illegal practices."

In a statement, BET general counsel Byron F. Marchant called Crawford "a disgruntled former employee," and termed his action "frivolous and totally without merit."