Kasoff served in the restructuring role for about nine months. The company paid him a $679,000 salary in 2015, while Realization Services took in about $6 million from 2015 through early 2017, according to filings with federal securities regulators.
Under Clinton, Imation’s stock fell further, trading at only 65 cents in February 2016, one continued sign of the company’s financial distress.
After Clinton took over, Imation CEO Mark Lucas told employees that Imation’s longstanding practice of paying severance would be honored if more layoffs ensued, according to a suit against the company by three former employees. Lucas was then forced out of Imation.
In September 2015, Kasoff announced layoffs, telling workers they wouldn’t get severance, “using words to the effect of, ‘You can’t get blood from a turnip,’” the suit claims. The company denied workers’ claims it had breached severance promises. The suit was settled, court records indicate.
A major supplier, CMC Magnetics Corp., sued Imation for failing to pay $23 million it was owed, alleging the company diverted cash to the Clinton Group.
In early 2016, Imation’s board had voted to transfer up to $35 million in “excess cash” to a Clinton Group fund in the Cayman Islands, federal securities documents show. Taiwan-based CMC alleged the transfer to the Clinton Group came at the expense of creditors like itself.