OTHER NEWS - Aug. 23, 1996

Fired Executive Sues Prudential: A senior Prudential Insurance Co. executive fired last week for allegedly allowing documents to be destroyed sued the company and its chairman, Arthur F. Ryan, charging defamation. David Fastenberg, dismissed as head of Prudential’s 18-state southern region, filed the suit this week in New Jersey state court. Newark, N.J.-based Prudential had said Fastenberg violated company orders not to destroy documents that might be wanted in state investigations of life insurance sales. The suit said he “neither discarded any documents nor authorized any documents to be discarded.” A Prudential spokesman declined to respond specifically to the suit but said: “We believe the decision to dismiss Mr. Fastenberg was the correct one.”