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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
A youthful indiscretion and a strict interpretation of new regulations intended to stop banks from hiring employees convicted of financial crimes have cost a Wells Fargo Home Mortgage employee his job.
According to the Des Moines Register, Richard Eggers of Des Moines, Iowa, was fired from his customer service job on July 2 after the bank learned of his 1963 conviction for “operating a coin changing machine by false means” after he attempted to use a cardboard cutout of a dime at a laundromat.
The decades-old conviction came to light after the bank hired a background-screening firm to scour the arrest records of employees in the wake of new ethics guidelines for bank employees issued in May 2011 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Intended to thwart people convicted of serious crimes such as money laundering from working in prominent positions at banks, the law instead has affected mostly low-level employees, an attorney for Mr. Eggers said.
While the FDIC provides a waiver for people convicted of small crimes to prove that they are worthy of employment, the process can take six to 12 months.