TALLAHASSEE, Fla.–Florida’s top state banking regulator has been removed from office following allegations of sexual harassment. Ronald Rubin was in the job at the Office of Financial Regulation less than five months.
As CUToday.info earlier reported here, Florida’s Inspector General had been investigating allegations made by one woman who had worked with Rubin and alleged she would actually try to hide from him during the workday.
Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation includes the Bureau of Credit Union Regulation.
Against ‘Human Decency’
In releasing Rubin, Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis said Rubin’s behavior went against “human decency.” Added Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, “I think that there was clearly poor conduct, and I think it was below the standards that we should expect.”
Rubin’s attorney had said Rubin had apologized, and that the allegations did not merit a firing by the Florida cabinet.
Rubin has filed a lawsuit in Miami-Dade County against a lobbyist he claims orchestrated the allegations against him, as well as a whistleblower protection case that he believes should have shielded him from termination, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
As CUToday.info reported, a female employee, whose name and title were redacted, described behavior by Rubin that forced the employee to hide and take time off to avoid seeing the commissioner.
‘Stop By Condo’
“On the way to lunch with Rubin one day in April, the commissioner suggested the two stop by his downtown Tallahassee condominium ‘so that he could show me the renovations that had been done,’” the complaint reads, according to the Herald. “Rubin asked the employee to remove their shoes, and the employee described it as an ‘uncomfortable situation.’ While at lunch, Rubin mentioned his parents’ sex life. On the way back from lunch, Rubin again wanted to stop by his condo to talk to people who were painting it.
“The next day, Rubin asked the employee to go with him to a conference in Washington,” the Herald continued. “When the employee declined, he offered a key to his D.C. apartment whenever the employee wanted to visit the city. The behavior prompted the employee to ask for another position within the agency. And in other instances, the employee hid in an office and declined to hang out with coworkers out of fear of running into Rubin, according to the complaint.”
According to the Tampa Tribune, the firing raised broader questions around how Rubin came to be hired in the first place. Rubin hadn’t had a full-time job in four years before he was hired, and a report in Bloomberg Law stated that he’d been fired from his last job over an allegation of sexual harassment.