Whoops!

Ernst Lieb, Former Mercedes-Benz USA C.E.O., Was Reportedly Fired for Misuse of Funds

According to a report in Wednesday’s Handelsblatt, Mr. Leib leveraged his position within the company for private expenditures. The article said he paid golf-club fees through Daimler and granted rentals of vehicles in exchange for flight upgrades. The report also said he used corporate funds to build his house in the New York region; the corporate headquarters of Mercedes-Benz USA are in Bergen County.

“Ernst was repeatedly warned, but he did it again,” said the Daimler executive.

Leib quite recently used Mercedes-Benz funds to fly to New Orleans and sign the deal to rename the Louisiana Superdome a few weeks back.

It wasn't an easy sell.

"Within the U.S. organization it was a very easy sale, to be quite honest," Lieb said. "But with a deal like this we have to go Germany, and we have to have certain approvals there. That was a little bit more difficult. That was a hurdle, but we took it.

Apparently Lieb wasn't as good at getting "certain approvals" as he thought he was. Now I'm wondering about that New Orleans junket expense report. Did it involve a trip to Visions? Usually Aaron Bennett is your man in New Orleans if you need to catch a plane to a football stadium. Maybe we should ask him about this.