Richard Eggers, who is now 68, used a fake cardboard dime to try to fool a washing machine in 1963 when he was 19 years old. He pled guilty, and served 2 days in jail. Yes, a fake cardboard dime. Wells Fargo just fired him for it last month.
A quick reminder: Jon Corzine stole more than $1 billion.
And he's allowed to start a new hedge fund.
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DES MOINES, Iowa — Wells Fargo Home Mortgage has fired a Des Moines worker over a 1963 incident at a Laundromat involving a fake dime in the wake of new employment guidelines.
Richard Eggers, 68, was fired in July from his job as a customer service representative for putting a cardboard cutout of a dime in a washing machine nearly 50 years ago in Carlisle, the Des Moines Register reported Monday.
Warren County court records show Eggers was convicted of operating a coin-changing machine by false means. Eggers called it a "stupid stunt," but questions his firing.
Big banks have been firing low-level employees like Eggers since new federal banking employment guidelines were enacted in May 2011 and new mortgage employment guidelines took hold in February, the newspaper said. The tougher standards are meant to clear out executives and mid-level bank employees guilty of transactional crimes — such as identity theft and money laundering — but are being applied across the board because of possible fines for noncompliance.
Banks have fired thousands of workers nationally, said Natasha Buchanan, an attorney in Santa Ana, Calif., who has helped some of the workers regain their eligibility to be employed.
"Banks are afraid of the FDIC and the penalties they could face," Buchanan said.
The regulatory rules forbid the employment of anyone convicted of a crime involving dishonesty, breach of trust or money laundering.
Mr Eggers, who worked at the bank for seven years before his dismissal, is just one of thousands who have been fired from the company under the implementation of this law.
Sources: Daily Mail, CBS Money
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Why does Jamie Dimon still have a job, if:
"The regulatory rules forbid the employment of anyone convicted of a crime involving dishonesty, breach of trust or money laundering..."
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Grassley on firings: 'Seems unfair'
Critics point out that big banks have insulated top executives from criminal accountability by signing multimillion federal settlements in which they admit no wrongdoing.
On the same day that Eggers was fired, Wells Fargo & Co., the largest U.S. bank by market capitalization, paid $175 million to the U.S. Justice Department to settle fraud allegations for sub-prime loans.
“On the face of it, these situations seem unfair,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Ia., said in a statement. “The public is right to question why top executives aren’t being held accountable, especially when banks themselves are using federal regulations to justify firing rank-and-file workers.”
Wells Fargo confirmed Eggers’ termination.
“We are operating in an environment where we’re facing new regulations and a heightened level of scrutiny on all our activities,” said Wells Fargo spokeswoman Angela Kaipust. “The expectations that have been placed on us and all financial institutions have never been higher.”
[Except for all upper management] Bank of America has embarked on a similar firing binge to shed any employee convicted of a criminal offense involving dishonesty, breach of trust or money laundering, attorneys say.
Bank of America spokeswoman Ferris Morrison said the nation’s third-largest bank by market capitalization is applying the FDIC standards the same way as its peers.