Has anyone had an offer rescinded due to a background check company reporting a sealed/expunged record?
I was arrested twice and charged with misdemeanors and felonies in 2017. The charges were dismissed in 2018, and the charges and arrests were sealed by a state court in 2019. I received my FBI rap sheet yesterday, and it shows me as having a clean record.
I'll be interviewing at hedge funds and prop trading firms in NYC, Chicago, and the Bay Area.
I'm concerned about private background check companies still reporting the sealed record, which seems to be quite common. With that said, even if they reported my sealed record, it shouldn't pose an issue in the 3 states above because they have the "Ban the Box" law, which employers forbidden from inquiring or considering any record that did not lead to conviction. But I'm still very anxious about the process, and the possibility of there being erroneous information reported about my record.
Has anyone had experience with this in the financial industry?
I had my expunged DUI pop up on my background check for my current position and they kinda acknowledged it was there but that was it. But they had me write a letter to a committee explaining another charge on my record that wasn’t expunged. All in all I think you’ll be fine. They don’t want lawsuits
Thanks for sharing. So in states like NY, CA, and IL, it's illegal for employers to inquire about a charge that did not lead to a conviction. Were you in one of these states? The fact that they questioned about your charge and expunged record seems illegal.
Ever consider suing the background check company for violating FCRA by revealing an expunged record? There's been quite a few cases of this in the past in federal courts, where background check companies were fined & reprimanded for reporting a record that was expunged/sealed.
Edit: I just saw that you listed yourself as an accountant. Is that one of the roles that requires the FINRA? If so, you can probably disregard what I just said.
Sorry for the super late response. But I mis-spoke, my DUI was dismissed but NOT expunged. I'm in PA which also has the "Ban the Box" law. I didn't really consider suing or doing any of that as they didn't really ask questions regarding the DUI, they just said "I have your background check and I see the DUI was dismissed, but we want to clear up some questions about your other charge (the one that wasn't dismissed/expunged)."
My role didn't require any special background check requirements, just whatever the general company hiring policy required.
No the DUI was the first thing on my record, in 2015. After completing a first-time offender program the court agreed to dismiss the charge. Then in 2018 I managed to get myself in to trouble again with misdemeanor assault and that’s the one still on my record. I’ll be able to petition the court for expungement this coming August.
Ah I see. Your employer didn't care about the assault conviction?
If the case got expunged or sealed, they won't be able to see it. If it was just dismissed, that's a different story. If it's expunged but you're about to go through a background with the military or FBI they might be able to see even though it's expunged because it's different on a federal level. I got an expungement after a dismissed case once and no banks could see it. My advice, call the court house and ask them if they can look up your record, if they can’t see it themselves, you’re good to go. This is what I did.
So the issue is these background check companies are lazy, and don't verify their information with the court before they report it. My charges were dismissed, and then I had them sealed. After having them sealed, 2 background check companies (Goodhire and mybackgroundchecks.com, the latter is a sister company of the popular HireRight company) still reported the record. I disputed the records with them and they removed it immediately. Luckily, these 2 background checks wasn't for employment (the Goodhire one was for Airbnb's service, and the latter was because I wanted to see if they would report it).
No one ever mentioned my expunged misdemeanor. I did lose an offer previously for not disclosing the same charge before it was expunged (long story).
Do you mind expanding on this? What state was this in?
If you don’t have to deal with FINRA you are 100% fine. Not too clear about jobs where licensing is required because they do fingerprint, but you also mentioned your FBI rap sheet is clean.
I won't deal with FINRA, but I'd be fine with FINRA too. They're not a government agency. I checked with a NYC employment lawyer on this matter. FINRA isn't allowed to use dismissed charges and/or expunged records pursuant to federal law, and also pursuant to NYC state laws.
I'm just concerned about companies not following the law, and because these background check companies are lazy and don't verify their records before sending it off, I'm anxious about getting an offer withdrawn because of a record showing up when it wasn't suppose dto.
Anyone know about being expunged but a FINRA/fingerprinted job? Misdemeanor.
Correction sealed case.
My understanding from last time I looked in to that, specifically when I was looking into taking the SIE and Series 7, as long as the conviction isn't financial related ie fraud, theft, money laundering, you're fine
edit: I could be wrong though, but I think that’s correct ^
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