Man claims company pressure to give to Romney

By Globe Staff

A California man claims he was fired as an executive at a consulting firm in part because he resisted pressure from his boss to make contributions to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

Richard Pimentel, formerly a managing director of Chicago-based Huron Consulting Group, said the company's chairman and CEO, Gary E. Holdren, "repeatedly linked his requests for donations to Huron's business prospects," the newspaper reported, and produced emails to support his contention.

The 65-year-old Pimentel has filed an age-discrimination complaint against his former employer with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The company denies the allegation.

Eric Fehrnstrom, a spokesman for Romney, said today that the Romney campaign had no knowledge of the alleged activity. "It's unfortunate if anyone felt pressured to contribute and we stand ready to refund their contributions if requested," he said.

Pimentel, however, was not among about 50 Huron employees who donated $93,050 to the Romney campaign, according to the database of contributors kept by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, but donated $250 in January to the campaign of John McCain, who defeated Romney for the Republican nomination.

During the primaries, Holdren gave $2,300, the maximum for an individual, to the campaigns of both Romney and Barack Obama, the Illinois senator and presumptive Democratic nominee. Huron employees donated a total of almost $30,000 to Obama and $20,000 split among other five presidential candidates from both parties.