New York - JPMorgan
Chase & Company wrongfully fired a financial adviser in retaliation for
publicly complaining that managers pressured him to sell the bank’s own
investment products, a federal investigator found.
JPMorgan said it
will appeal the finding awarding Johnny Burris $64 400 in back wages and
$100 000 for reputational damage, pain and suffering. The finding by an
investigator for the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration was released
Tuesday.
OSHA, which is
part of the Labour Department, determined that JPMorgan’s decision to terminate
Burris resulted in part from employee behaviour protected under the
anti-retaliation provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. An appeal would be
considered by an administrative law judge.
“Burris
previously raised these same claims to a FINRA panel, with the same basic
evidence, and the claims were denied,” JPMorgan spokeswoman Patricia Wexler
said in an e-mailed statement. “We look forward to presenting our case in the
next step of this process and putting this to rest.”
Read also: Latter joins JP Morgan
Under the OSHA
finding, JPMorgan would have to clear an industry complaint it wrongfully
listed against him and expunge his industry employment record, known as a U5.
It would also have to pay him reasonable attorney’s fees.
Limited damages
Burris expressed
dissatisfaction with the decision. “They ruled in my favour but tried to limit
the damages to the bank," he said.
The arbitration
decision by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority was based on a
complaint faulted by the OSHA investigator, Burris said.
OSHA’s San
Francisco office, which handled the case, didn’t respond to a request seeking
comment on the finding.
Burris began
working as a Chase Private Client adviser in Sun City West, Arizona, in June
2010. Shortly afterward, he started voicing complaints internally about being
pressured by managers to sell more of the bank’s products to his elderly
clientele, even if there were better investment options for them. Burris also
provided information about his concerns to the New York Times, which featured him
in a July 2012 article.
In the following
months, Burris’s managers frequently discussed how he was selling a low
percentage of JPMorgan-managed products, according to OSHA’s written finding.
Burris was fired by the bank in November 2012. A JPMorgan manager went outside
firm procedure, turned an oral customer complaint into a written one and
required Burris to list it on his employment record, “likely blacklisting him
and causing him reputational harm,” according to the OSHA finding.
BLOOMBERG