Hi Kevin, yeah repeating the problem with objects generated only in Max confirms that it is a bug in there somewhere. My guess would be the flip function is probably not flipping the vertex normals like it should.

One thing that you might check is to make sure you have the newest version of the Max FBX plug-in, which I think is 2009.3 - you can download it from here:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=10775855

That could possibly help if you are currently running an older version.

- Michael