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Wells Fargo fires veteran over dime crime in 1963. Unbelievable.
The Des Moines Register reports that a 68-year-old Vietnam veteran was fired from his Wells Fargo Home Mortgage job because 49 years ago he put a cardboard dime slug into a laundromat’s washing machine.
The paper said federal regulations now prohibit banks from hiring people convicted of certain crimes. This was supposed to root out bad actors at the top, but banks have been firing low-level workers.
According to the Register, Iowa’s Republican Senator Chuck Grassley released a statement that said in part: “On the face of it, these situations seem unfair.” Ya think?
He went on to say, “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.”
Banks, of course, are likely to just blame regulations. But they are taking this to a ridiculous extreme.
h/t Chalupa
Stirrin the B.S.
August 28th, 2012
This is bureaucracy run amok and the death of common sense, and a glimpse of our life under a totalitarianism statist government.
If you like it, vote Obumphuk. If you don’t vote R&R.
even steven
August 28th, 2012
I’m not taking this story at face value.
Lowell
August 28th, 2012
To mangle a movie quote: “It’s everything we’ve come to expect from middle management.”
The little people (mid management) are scared. The felons at the top ain’t worried. Why would they be?
cfm990
August 28th, 2012
A dime??? Hell, that ain’t even a two bit crime.
OozleFanoozle
August 28th, 2012
Meanwhile, Corzine walks. Un-friggin-believable!
Stirrin the B.S.
August 28th, 2012
“….Banks, of course, are likely to just blame regulations. But they are taking this to a ridiculous extreme….”
I didn’t read this last comment before I posted my comment.
I work in the banking industry, and you have to understand the bank/regulator relationship to know why Wells fired this guy.
These people are government bureaucrats. They aren’t allowed to think for themselves. They (the Washington administrators) have to justify their existence, which means finding fault in the subjects that they oversee.
Now, that’s not to say that there shouldn’t be regulatory oversight in the financial markets, because I am a firm believer that there needs to be. The law (Dodd-Frank) was intended to weed out the sleezy criminal element that infected the mortgage industry – thanks to Bill Clinton and the CRA on steroids law he passed. But this latest incident is an example of government taking a sledge hammer to kill a spider.
A mid-level bureaucrat given the power of the federal government, is a very dangerous scenario, which is why the banks over-react the way they do. The fine for violating the Dodd-Frank over-reaching law is one million dollars a day.
Would you be willing to take the chance of a power hungry mid-level bureaucrat deciding that an employee convicted of fake dime in the laundrymat crime 40-something years ago, violates the Dodd-Frank Act, and thus subjecting your company to a $1MM per day fine?
I hate politicians!!!
Anonymous
August 28th, 2012
Grassley questions why ‘top executives’ aren’t being held accountable. WTF !
Why is THE top executive, the Preezy , getting away with a felony: using a false SSN !
Chalupa
August 28th, 2012
Using that logic, Obama should be demoted to dog catcher.
Roscoe P. Soultrane
August 28th, 2012
“Banks, of course, are likely to just blame regulations”
Weak sauce. They disregard the regulations and own the regulators.
Stirrin the B.S.
August 28th, 2012
@oozle-fanoozle – you hit the heart of the hypocrisy. 100 iOtw bucks and thumbs up to you!
Lowell
August 28th, 2012
From Roscoe: “Weak sauce. They disregard the regulations and own the regulators.”
It’s multi level. What you said is true at the top of the banks and the serious long term “oversight” types in the regulators. In other words, the people involved in real money.
The little people can be keel hauled by the lower level federal functionaries with impunity. Makes them look effective and ‘on the job’.
Stirrin the B.S.
August 28th, 2012
@Roscoe –
“……Weak sauce. They disregard the regulations and own the regulators….”
You are confusing mortgage lenders with investment bankers. There is a HUGE difference. Investment bankers own the regulators – mortgage lenders were the useful idiots. They took what the market offered them, and then got crucified when the shit hit the fan.
It’s the investment bankers that created and exploited the home mortgage bubble. Mortgage brokers and lenders merely supplied them with the product for which they were willing to pay handsomly for.
Once again, a qualifier: mortgage originators knew the game – they were anything but innocent – but the system allowed them to fuel the meltdown that was orchestrated by the government and investment bankers.
Unneutral
August 28th, 2012
There’s crap and there’s BS, this is too much of the same shit.
Also too much monkey motion.
Boobie the Rocket Dog
August 29th, 2012
Somedtimes when you double down, you lose. He should have retired at 66.
That said, Wells Fargo is as Obamarrhoid as BoA and I have nothing to do with either.
Additionally, there might be an ERISA question here that could save his retirement.