JPMorgan Chase must face a trial over claims by a former vice president in its anti-corruption unit that she was marginalized, mistreated and fired from the bank for complaining about compliance failures.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff on Tuesday denied the bank’s request for a pre-trial ruling dismissing Shaquala Williams’s lawsuit. She claims her employment was terminated in October 2019 after she raised concerns that the bank may have broken the law by misleading regulators about its anti-corruption, anti-money-laundering, economic sanctions and risk governance programs.
JPMorgan declined to comment on the ruling.
Williams, who is Black, joined JPMorgan in July 2018 and helped manage a program that seeks to prevent bank employees from getting business corruptly. She is seeking unspecified damages and an order finding that JPMorgan violated whistler-blower protection provisions of the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Lawyers for JPMorgan argued that Williams was terminated because of “chronic deficiencies” in her performance and behavior that was documented through complaints from managers and co-workers. The bank claims it investigated numerous issues that she raised.
“She’s complaining about everything from the get go,” Thomas Linthorst, an attorney representing JPMorgan, said during a hearing late Tuesday afternoon.
Rakoff granted JPMorgan’s request to dismiss Williams’s post-employment claims, but said a jury must determine whether she would have been fired if it hadn’t been for her compliance concerns. He ordered a trial to begin Nov. 7.
The case is Williams v. JPMorgan Chase & Co., 21-cv-09326, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
