Former JPMorgan VP Sues Company, Claiming Whistleblower Retaliation

A former securities broker with JPMorgan & Co. is accusing the company of terminating his employment after he reported potential violations of the Dodd-Frank Act. According to the former employee’s lawsuit, his supervisors also punished him after he refused to help erase records that showed the company lied to customers about the rates of return on various investment products.

Court documents indicate that the plaintiff, Bradley Sayre, was a vice president at JPMorgan and was handling a book of business totaling about $800,000. He claims he was asked to leave sections of customer filing blank and to dispose of any documents with evidence of the company misleading its customers about investment opportunities it was offering.

Sayre argues that JPMorgan was looking to get rid of any evidence that it had lied to customers because it was in the middle of a settlement with federal officials with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice at the time. That case related to activities in which JPMorgan was engaged before and during the housing bubble crisis of 2007-2008.

According to Sayre, JPMorgan fired him after he raised concerns about the lack of reporting and asking why he could not keep notes he took during company meetings involving the review of customer files. JPMorgan ended up settling with the federal government for $13 billion in October 2013. Sayre was terminated from his position in May 2014.

It is illegal for a business or organization to retaliate against an employee for raising concerns about possible legal or ethical practices. To learn more about your rights against whistleblower retaliation, speak with an experienced Dallas attorney at Whistleblower Law for Managers.