Campbell Soup Company has placed one of its top executives, Martin Bally, on administrative leave as the company investigates serious allegations stemming from a lawsuit filed by former employee Robert Garza. The lawsuit accuses Bally, who served as Campbell's vice president of information technology, of making racist remarks about Indian employees and disparaging the company's own products during a private meeting in late 2024.
Garza, who joined Campbell Soup in September 2024 as a cybersecurity analyst, claims he met Bally in November of that year to discuss his compensation. Instead of addressing salary concerns, Bally allegedly used the meeting to criticize Campbell's products, calling them low-quality and intended for 'poor people'.
According to the lawsuit, Bally insisted he hardly consumed Campbell’s food himself, deeming it unhealthy and even suggesting, falsely, that it involved artificial or low-grade ingredients. His tirade, Garza alleges, escalated into racist comments targeting Indian employees, whom Bally reportedly called “idiots” who were incapable of independent thinking.
The allegations gained further weight when Garza’s legal team provided Business Insider with what they claim is an audio recording of the meeting. In the purported recording, a voice believed to be Bally is heard cursing about Campbell’s pantry items and mocking the company’s customer base. The speaker goes on to disparage the brand’s use of chicken, suggesting it was of questionable origin, and delivers another string of insults directed at Indian colleagues.
Following the meeting, Garza states he informed his manager, JS Aupperle, about Bally’s comments on January 10, 2025. According to the lawsuit, Aupperle did not advise escalating the matter to human resources. Only weeks later, Garza was abruptly terminated—an action he believes was retaliatory.
As the lawsuit became public, Campbell Soup Company quickly issued statements distancing itself from the comments attributed to Bally. In a response to Business Insider, the company stressed that the language reported “does not reflect our values and the culture of our company” and reaffirmed its zero-tolerance stance toward discriminatory behavior.
Campbell also addressed Bally’s alleged criticisms of its food products. In a statement to Local 4, the company defended the integrity of its ingredients, calling the remarks in the leaked audio “not only inaccurate” but “patently absurd.”
The company emphasized that its soups are made using 100 per cent real chicken sourced from long-trusted, USDA-approved suppliers, and that all chicken used meets the company’s “No Antibiotics Ever” standard. Any claims suggesting otherwise, the company stated, are “completely false.”
As the investigation continues, Bally remains on leave, and Campbell Soup faces pressure to demonstrate accountability and transparency. Meanwhile, Garza's lawsuit seeks to highlight what he describes as a pattern of misconduct and retaliation within a major American food manufacturer.
