SAN FRANCISCO–Wells Fargo has been ordered to pay $5.4-million to a former bank manager who said he had been fired in 2010 for reporting to his supervisors and to a bank hotline what he thought to be fraudulent behavior.
In addition, the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration ordered that Wells Fargo rehire the man, who has not been identified.
The $5.4 million, intended to cover back pay, compensatory damages and legal fees, is the largest individual award ever ordered through OSHA’s whistle-blower protection program, according to Barbara Goto, the agency’s regional administrator in San Francisco. The story was reported by the New York Times.
Wells Fargo said that the former manager had worked in the bank’s wealth management group in the Los Angeles Area. The Times reported he had received good job performance reviews but was “abruptly dismissed” after he reported “separate incidents of suspected bank, mail and wire fraud by two bankers under his supervision,” OSHA said in a news release.
It is not known if the behavior the former manager reported was related to the widespread fraud related to bogus account openings for which the bank was fined in 2016.
According to OSHA. after the employee was fired in 2010, “he was told he had 90 days to find a new position at Wells Fargo, and when he was unsuccessful, he was terminated.” The agency said that the man had been unable to find work in banking since then.