Last month, a former in-house counsel for Nan Inc. sued the company alleging he was fired after warning Nan executives not to conduct illegal activity relating to the $9.2 billion Honolulu rail project.

Now, Bosko Petricevic, who filed the lawsuit under the state’s whistleblower protection act, says that Nan Inc. President Patrick Shin tried to get him fired from his new job working as an attorney for Clay Chapman Iwamura Pulice &Nervell in Honolulu after media reports were published about the lawsuit.

He says Shin called Gerald Clay, his boss at his new firm, with the purpose of harassing, intimidating or trying to get him fired. He’s amended his original legal complaint accordingly.

In a voicemail message left for Clay, which was played for the Star-Advertiser, Shin doesn’t specify the purpose of his call.

“I’m pretty sure, in my opinion, what (Shin) was probably going to do, he was probably going to promise him business in exchange for firing me,” said Petricevic. “It doesn’t take a genius — because actually my firm does a lot of construction litigation.”

Petricevic, who emigrated to the United States to escape war in Serbia, said his job is everything to him.

“I don’t want retaliation. I understand how Hawaii is very small and he is a very well-known, powerful man,” said Petricevic.

Shin denies that he tried to jeopardize Petricevic’s employment. Shin says he’s had a working relationship with Clay that dates back more than 15 years. He said his company has worked with the firm on more than two dozen cases and he worked with Clay on building schools in Cambodia.

“I have a working relationship with him and his wife. I talk to the lawyers from their firm. I don’t know why Bosko is going crazy because I called one of the lawyers over there,” said Shin.

Clay didn’t respond to a request to comment.

Petricevic, however, said that Nan Inc. doesn’t have any business with the firm and that Shin was exaggerating his relationship with Clay.

“They do not play golf. They do not hang out. They don’t socialize. We don’t have any cases with him,” said Petricevic.

Petricevic’s lawsuit alleges that Nan attempted to “double dip” by pursuing damage claims with both a subcontractor and the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, or HART, for the same problems.

He also claims that Shin and Nan Vice President Nick Flores hatched a scheme to try to blackmail a company called Thompson Metal Fabrics by threatening to report the company to the federal government unless TMF agreed to pay damages to Nan.

“When Mr. Petricevic explained the highly illegal nature of such a scheme, Mr. Flores physically grabbed Mr. Petricevic and told him to shut up,” according to the lawsuit.

Shin said that his company plans to file a countersuit.

Nan is a major player in the rail project. The company has a HART contract for up to $400 million to relocate utilities in the Honolulu city center to make way for construction of the elevated rail line, as well as contracts worth $218 million to build six rail stations.

The FBI is currently conducting a federal criminal investigation of the rail project, though the scope and details of that investigation have remained murky. Petricevic’s lawsuit claims that FBI investigators have approached Nan employees, though doesn’t provide further details.