Fired for charging personal expenses on corporate card
Was recently fired for charging personal expenses on my corporate card. One of three analysts fired for charging for meals on weekends despite working fewer hours than the requisite threshold. Anyone know how best to proceed? FINRA has contacted me regarding this and I am facing the possibility of being barred / blacklisted from working for any broker dealer I think. Please advise as it was an innocent mistake.
Are you bsing or is this for real?
Yea I’m not bsing. Everyone I’ve talked to has said it’s super rare for this to happen but they are within their right to do so. My question is, do I ever have a chance to get another IB job again?
Not sure if this would go on your record but, in the meantime, you should try to find other types of jobs. How many times have you done this and did you know about the policy prior or no?
Was this a one-time thing or is this something you have done a lot of times? How have they been able to measure the number of hours you worked?
Unless this has happened more than a few times, it is likely just an excuse to get rid of you rather than a reason to get rid of you. If you are doing a good job and everyone is happy with you in general, it's hard to see that you would get fired over something like this. In that case, they would just give you a warning and tell you that it's not OK. Literally everyone at my bank does this during the weekends. The general consensus is that if they are going to force us working weekends despite working 80+ hours during Monday-Friday, the least they can do is pay for our meals.
It sounds like FINRA sent you an 8210 letter asking for more details? you might want to hire a lawyer for that. what does your u5 say?
I do not recommend saying this was an “innocent mistake.” No one will believe you. Just say it wasn’t a lot (hopefully it wasn’t) and you’ve learned from the experience.
I’m not optimistic you can get back into banking in this market. Perhaps do something else for a few years?
Are you an intern? How would they know the hours you’re working on the weekend?
Because you can only expense on the corporate card if you are in the office for a specific number of hours. I was in the office but they spot checked when people came into the office and left, and I was caught.
Hate to be that guy, but something smells funny here. Accidentally charging a personal item on a corporate card is very very common and the company will give employees the benefit of the doubt and leeway to rectify their mistake.
It's likely you continually charged stuff when you should not have or handed your corporate card over to the nice waitress at Scores after they assured you it would come up as PerKinns on the statement.
Come clean once and for all. Firing someone takes concrete irrefutable evidence in most circumstances. You didn't get a Jimmy Johns sandwich and get fired for not working a solid number of hours.
This wasn't a one time occurrence or a careless mistake. I knowingly violated the policy by working fewer than 8 hours in the office over the course of many weekends. At this point, I'm not looking for someone to relitigate the facts of what happened. I just want to know how I can bounce back or have my FINRA record clean.
This really happened just because you charged meals (within expense / order time guidelines) without actually working the requisite hours? Basically every analyst I know at any firm orders almost every day to the full extent of the expense policy (as if they worked all of those hours every day), and no one has even been called out on it, never mind actually punished. This seems pretty crazy if that was the sole reason.
Lawyer - nothing else
What is your company saying the reason they terminated you is? Serious option, why don’t you reach out to your former bank and offer to not have a severance or anything in exchange for allowing you to resign? Hopefully that will protect you for future prospective
Not saying you're innocent, but things like this are typically used as a reason when they want to cut down on headcount from what I hear.
I'm not pretending it'll be easy, but I don't think your career is completely over. There will be firms / people who are willing to look past it, and some who will judge you. Your options are definitely limited but hopefully it will pass. Good luck!
Sorry for reviving this thread. Has anyone received any FINRA letters lately?
Good. You deserve to stay out of finance.
Easy there. I was absolved of all wrongdoing in the end (and rightly so)
Good ending? I’m interested in the story if you care to elaborate lol
If you don't know what to do, here's a guide for you.
Aut sunt ullam repudiandae expedita. Corrupti error quaerat reiciendis vel qui. Ea harum voluptatem atque sed quia delectus eum. Sit itaque vitae a quod nulla sequi dolores.
Quae veniam doloribus harum. Voluptatem dolore atque voluptatem. Aut at qui explicabo consequatur aut cumque. Consequatur repellat quia et facere velit.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...