A case filed by two former UnitedHealth executives who sued the company for allegedly underpaying them for a billion-dollar business line they helped create has quietly closed, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reported Jan. 3.
Few details about the case have been made public, and lawyers for both parties declined to comment on the outcome of the case, according to the report.
The case in Hennepin (Minn.) County District Court closed Dec. 1, according to the report. The lawsuit was filed in January 2022 by Ken Ehlert, UnitedHealth’s former chief scientific officer, and Mark Pollmann, its former chief technology officer. The men said they helped start a business called Savvysherpa, which helped develop Level2, a wearable glucose-monitoring device.
The men alleged that when they were terminated in 2021, UnitedHealth Group wanted them to sign separation agreements that would release them of their equity claims in Level2, according to the report. When the lawsuit was filed, the men estimated Level2 was worth between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
UnitedHealth Group had denied the allegations, calling the lawsuit "baseless," according to the report.
A message Becker's left with a UnitedHealth spokesperson seeking comment was not immediately returned Jan. 4.