It didn’t take Moderna long to cut ties with its former CFO Jorge Gomez—one day to be exact.
Now the company says it has agreed (PDF) with Gomez to recoup his $700,000 severance pay if he is found guilty of wrongdoing at his previous stop, Dentsply Sirona. The agreement was revealed in a securities filing on Friday.
Moderna said that it has the right to “terminate or suspend” the severance benefits and to “seek repayment of any and all payments” made under the separation agreement if Gomez is found to have engaged in wrongdoing or is required to pay a fine as a result of investigations by Dentsply Sirona or the SEC.
In April, Gomez was hired by Moderna to take over for retiring CFO David Meline. His first day on the job was Monday of last week. On Tuesday, shortly after Dentsply Sirona revealed that it couldn’t file its first quarter financial report because of an internal accounting probe, Moderna revealed that Gomez had departed the company.
Along with the news, Moderna said that Meline would fill the CFO role while the company searches for another replacement.
Upon his departure, Gomez, 54, agreed that he would receive his 2022 base salary of $700,000 in biweekly installments, provided he was cleared in the Dentsply Sirona investigation. His signing of the agreement “shall not be construed as an admission of any liability by (Moderna) or you of any act of wrongdoing,” it stated.
On the day Gomez departed Moderna, the company revealed (PDF) in a separate filing that he had forfeited his $500,000 signing bonus and $4 million in equity awards.
Gomez, formerly the CFO at Cardinal Health, was in the same role at Dentsply Sirona for more than two years. In March of this year, the Dentsply board of directors—acting from information from former and current employees—launched an internal investigation into its own financial reporting.
On April 19, Dentsply—a Charlotte, N.C. maker of dental supplies and technology—revealed the immediate departure of CEO Don Casey and that it had hired a new CFO. That announcement came just eight days after Moderna had announced the hire of Gomez.