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I think it's important to recognize that all this happened on the fringes of JPM - this appears to be some private wealth branch office. Small brokerage outpost

I think it's important to recognize that all this happened on the fringes of JPM - this appears to be some private wealth branch office. Small brokerage outposts like this are generally rife with issues - they have less supervision (frequently a single broker with their supervisory license) and even in better supervised conditions brokers spend the majority of time out of the office and away from the eye of compliance. Compounding the issue is older brokers who are used to different norms in the business - which explain some of his complaints on the broker's FINRA record: more aggressive selling (his suitability complaints), phone orders (the late order entry complaint), etc. Even though he was vindicated, this type of record is common for brokers in these roles. I suspect that is why they chose these specific trumped up charges against him. I am waiting for the article that tackles the issues at these branch offices head on.

leereeves 11y ago
Is it really limited to the branch offices? Over the years, JP Morgan has been fined $35 billion. http://www.dividend.com/dividend-education/a-brief-history-of-jp-morgans-massive-fines-jpm/ http://www.dividend.com/dividend-education/a-brief-history-o... And that's just for the cases the government caught and proved.
- HiLo 11y ago
  Some of those things have been for things that weren't even illegal. The dance between Wall St and regulators is a delicate one, and shouldn't really be viewed in the same way as your everyday civil case.
  - leereeves 11y ago
    Which were for things that weren't illegal?
  - RodericDay 11y ago
    They also probably haven't been fined for things that actually should be illegal, just because it's hard to write regulation that captures otherwise obvious ill-intent. I honestly will never understand this kind of apologia.
- JackFr 11y ago
  > And that's just for the cases the government caught and proved. "caught and proved" can also be read as "alleged and settled". In virtually every one of those cases, nothing was "proved" in a court of law. Allegations were made, and JP Morgan agreed to a settlement. They are certainly not guiltless, but it is far less cut and dried than you make it out to be.
  - littletimmy 11y ago
    Please stop with this nonsense apologia. If JP Morgan was not guilty it would fight at least one of these many cases in court. Virtually every time they settle, which means they are either guilty or the settlements are so low that they don't matter.
    - roel_v 11y ago
      Lol, just like all those other people who are offered plea bargains and take them? They all guilty, right, otherwise they'd fight in court?
      - throwaway2048 11y ago
        i somehow doubt jp morgan lacks the means to fight them
      - littletimmy 11y ago
        You mean to say JP Morgan is appointed a lowly paid public defender and intimidated into a plea deal?
  - steven2012 11y ago
    This is nonsense. $35B is certainly enough money to stop and fight for, if they thought otherwise. The idea that "nothing was proven" is preposterous, they are certainly guilty not just "not guiltless".
    - cmdkeen 11y ago
- throwsaway2456 11y ago
  And there are still investigations ongoing! Once they close the case on bad-doings in one market sector, they then find they were doing the same in another! Pay the fine for LIBOR. What? They were involved in the FX issue too? Get them back in with the check book again. The people would really like to see the firms not get away with paying fines of pennies on the dollar of the profits of bad actions.
HiLo 11y ago
This is a good point. Professional firms where the company is really tons of smaller companies sharing a balance sheet are always tough to wrap your head around in general.
nickbauman 11y ago
Maybe related: A top salesperson's commissions often makes them one of the highest paid persons in the org chart. Upper management always ends up thinking they can be replaced with cheaper people. So it gets very classically political.
- johnz133 11y ago
  Can confirm. Friend of mine was cut out of a seven figure bonus weeks before the payout. Apparently he had no recourse legally either.
- tankenmate 11y ago
  And it's not just salespeople, a number of early stage engineers at Zynga were cut out of their equity / options entitlements by being relieved of duty just before the IPO; "got to be in it to win it" clauses in their employment contracts enabled this. Point in lesson, always make sure accelerated vesting (equity, options, bonuses) clauses for not at fault firing, retrenchment, redundancy are in your employment contract.
NickHaflinger 11y ago
"I think it's important to recognize that all this happened on the fringes of JPM" Disingenuous excusing :)
wealthmanager6 11y ago
Valid point except I worked at the largest wealth management firm in the world in a major office. Cocaine, hookers, money launderering, investment in drugs, executives selling (small amounts) of drugs and all kinds of related craziness. People are people, and we are a flawed bunch.
- sharemywin 11y ago
  you should have said and that's just the shit I did...you should have seen the crazy shit the other people were doing...lol...
  - sharemywin 11y ago
    no sense of humor.

leereeves 11y ago

Is it really limited to the branch offices? Over the years, JP Morgan has been fined $35 billion. http://www.dividend.com/dividend-education/a-brief-history-of-jp-morgans-massive-fines-jpm/ http://www.dividend.com/dividend-education/a-brief-history-o... And that's just for the cases the government caught and proved.

HiLo 11y ago
Some of those things have been for things that weren't even illegal. The dance between Wall St and regulators is a delicate one, and shouldn't really be viewed in the same way as your everyday civil case.
- leereeves 11y ago
  Which were for things that weren't illegal?
- RodericDay 11y ago
  They also probably haven't been fined for things that actually should be illegal, just because it's hard to write regulation that captures otherwise obvious ill-intent. I honestly will never understand this kind of apologia.
JackFr 11y ago
> And that's just for the cases the government caught and proved. "caught and proved" can also be read as "alleged and settled". In virtually every one of those cases, nothing was "proved" in a court of law. Allegations were made, and JP Morgan agreed to a settlement. They are certainly not guiltless, but it is far less cut and dried than you make it out to be.
- littletimmy 11y ago
  Please stop with this nonsense apologia. If JP Morgan was not guilty it would fight at least one of these many cases in court. Virtually every time they settle, which means they are either guilty or the settlements are so low that they don't matter.
  - roel_v 11y ago
    Lol, just like all those other people who are offered plea bargains and take them? They all guilty, right, otherwise they'd fight in court?
    - throwaway2048 11y ago
      i somehow doubt jp morgan lacks the means to fight them
    - littletimmy 11y ago
      You mean to say JP Morgan is appointed a lowly paid public defender and intimidated into a plea deal?
- steven2012 11y ago
  This is nonsense. $35B is certainly enough money to stop and fight for, if they thought otherwise. The idea that "nothing was proven" is preposterous, they are certainly guilty not just "not guiltless".
  - cmdkeen 11y ago
throwsaway2456 11y ago
And there are still investigations ongoing! Once they close the case on bad-doings in one market sector, they then find they were doing the same in another! Pay the fine for LIBOR. What? They were involved in the FX issue too? Get them back in with the check book again. The people would really like to see the firms not get away with paying fines of pennies on the dollar of the profits of bad actions.

HiLo 11y ago

This is a good point. Professional firms where the company is really tons of smaller companies sharing a balance sheet are always tough to wrap your head around in general.

nickbauman 11y ago

Maybe related: A top salesperson's commissions often makes them one of the highest paid persons in the org chart. Upper management always ends up thinking they can be replaced with cheaper people. So it gets very classically political.

johnz133 11y ago
Can confirm. Friend of mine was cut out of a seven figure bonus weeks before the payout. Apparently he had no recourse legally either.
tankenmate 11y ago
And it's not just salespeople, a number of early stage engineers at Zynga were cut out of their equity / options entitlements by being relieved of duty just before the IPO; "got to be in it to win it" clauses in their employment contracts enabled this. Point in lesson, always make sure accelerated vesting (equity, options, bonuses) clauses for not at fault firing, retrenchment, redundancy are in your employment contract.

NickHaflinger 11y ago

"I think it's important to recognize that all this happened on the fringes of JPM" Disingenuous excusing :)

wealthmanager6 11y ago

Valid point except I worked at the largest wealth management firm in the world in a major office. Cocaine, hookers, money launderering, investment in drugs, executives selling (small amounts) of drugs and all kinds of related craziness. People are people, and we are a flawed bunch.

sharemywin 11y ago
you should have said and that's just the shit I did...you should have seen the crazy shit the other people were doing...lol...
- sharemywin 11y ago
  no sense of humor.