I got let go for admitting I returned computer items from over 3 years prior. Repurchased but eBay goes back only 3 years and PayPal 2 years. Don't think it would of mattered even if I could get them. If you are called into investigation by internal director, I highly recommend you say nothing and tell them you want to discuss with your legal council. you may be let go any way but at least you can force their hand. They may have got records from the stores without your consent which is better to show if it goes to court.
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I had not seen this Yahoo Finance article before. It is from May 4th.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fidelity-employees-fired-alleged-misuse-001900660.html
More than triple that, there are 600 estimated now
Everyone is on their own for lawsuits, you either have a case or you don't. Any chance of a class action would be due to privacy violations by Fidelity and merchants in my opinion. That would require a big, nationally licenced, law firm to take the case on a contingency. If anyone has the time, call some big law firms that specialize in privacy litigation, and vet it out over the phone, provide the links to these threads. Let them know that over 200 people are effected by this.
Is anyone taking any action against this mass firing? Anyone filing lawsuit?
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/T7D2YgD
Amendment to my last post. This thread comes up if you search the original post. For example, “think it would of mattered even if I could get them” gets a hit because it is part of the original post, but the comments do not come up in a search. But the Fossil comments do come up. For example, "Fossil needs leadership and a vision to be profitable" does come up. Still very weird and inconsistent.
Interesting that when I use quotes for a random post it comes up. Type "recent headlines suggest our stock is moving upward because of a rumor that" (Post ID: @Rn0sxI4 from a Fossil thead) and get a hit for the Fossil thread. Type "I sent hem back and purchased the exact ones from a different retailer" (Post ID: @SUABhNe-gvtz from this thread) and no hits. How can they do that?
Because Fidelity’s IT dept took it down. They don’t want everyone getting together to shareinformation because then they know more lawsuits will come.
Why can't I find this thread when I do an internet search? Not just G--gle, but duckduckgo and bing, too.
I heard there were no new names this week, but I doubt that is signaling an end. This was wave 3 within a year or so and was limited to computer and fitness. Anyone have any clue on the % of completeness for the overall audit? Someone who knows someone in HR or Security?
Are payouts of vested FMR shares at risk?
Anyone got fired this week?
normal submission deadline, you should be fine, you may even receive some perk points. All perk points, that you paid taxes on, are lost once you are fired as an FYI.
Managers have zero say in the matter and are often not even informed until after employees are snatched from their desks by HR. It boils down to the accused proving their innocence to the man. Managers are also not happy about this or how it went down.
Managers have zero say, to reiterate, if you are questioned you are gone. Say nothing and walk out, then call an attorney.
What are the managers doing when their employees get investigated? Do they have the ability to step in and stop it when the employee bought something else, previously notified Fidelity, etc? I realize their hands are probably tied if there’s no evidence the employee actually bought something else.
You would have to think some mangers can’t be happy about losing employees over a vague policy. Wondering if they are even involved in the decision or security just tells them they don’t get an opinion.
Just confirming, if you exchanged something, notified Fidelity and they removed it from your paycheck, then you’re fine right? I’m talking by the normal submission deadline, not years later.
I am not an expert, but FINRA is not a government agengy so I do not believe our constitutial rights apply in regards to a privacy violation.
So anyone filing any lawsuit against Fidelity? Are affected people taking any action?
I recommend attorney Neda Ataie from Thomas Law Group to handle the FINRA inquiry. She knows a lot of FINRA exterminators so she definitely has an advantage there. Plus she charges a reasonable fee and handles everything herself instead of dumping work on paralegals. Neda's professionalism and meticulous approach actually gave me a peace of mind. I really needed that after all BS that Fidelity has put me through. I recommended Neda to my colleagues from Fidelity who have used her and are very happy with her as well.
https://thomaslawgroup.net/attorneys/neda-ataie/
Heard from a reliable source that there were some reps that quit well before being questioned, and they still got marked up even though they no longer worked for Fidelity at the time their names came up in the audit. There are some clear privacy issues with Fidelity getting access to personal return receipts. If you ordered other things along with your computer or fitness equipment, they should not have access to any of that. Fidelity is clearly violating employees right to privacy. They have always acted like they own their employees, but this is a step too far. Has anyone looked into the privacy aspect with an attorney?
Do you have a name for the litigating attorney? Also, can you talk more about what you mean by Fidelity is "grouping employees that pose a threat into this to mask what could be perceived as retaliation"?
Don’t think that wrongful termination is off the table either. Fidelity is grouping employees that pose a threat into this to mask what could be perceived as retaliation. I know someone with pending litigation who was let go over computer reimbursement this week.
Terminated employees should not hold out much hope that these law firms will somehow be able to get you your job back or successfully file any sort of wrongful termination suit against Fidelity. While it feels good to hold on to hope, or to dream about revenge, that is the cold reality. Frankly some of the ideas on this board are ridiculous. If you get the attorneys involved early after a termination, they can sometimes assist with suggesting U-5 language prior to filing. But, in this case it is unlikely. Fidelity is likely to standardize the language due to the large volume of identical cases. Most brokercheck disclosures seem to read the same. The main value in hiring legal counsel is to assist in responding to the FINRA investigation, which is vital to continuing a career in the industry. This is a huge deal and should absolutely involve an attorney if you want to stay in this career, but it's important to understand what you are paying for and what you are not paying for. Coughing up big $$ on legal bills right after you lose your job is hard, but it's important to have the long view if you still have a career in front of you and a family to take care of.
It's become obvious that active employees need to realize that if they show up for work on any normal day and get pulled into a room with security, this is the irrevocable path they are walking down. I've heard of reps without a care in the world until this happened to them. Just because you never used the reimbursement programs doesn't mean that this won't happen for something else. Fidelity is well known in the industry for these surprise terminations.
https://thebeckfirm.com/2017/12/19/former-fidelity-representatives-information-for-a-finra-examination-concerning-computer-reimbursement-program/
Is everyone using Thomas Law Group for legal action?
https://thomaslawgroup.net/finra-inquiry-fidelity/
As if losing your job wasn’t bad enough, here’s another thing that seems to happen:
If you had a corporate card and used it for expenses required by the business unit while still an employee but hadn’t filed the expense report yet, once Fidelity fires you they won’t pay the balance and instead they say you are responsible for paying. How f’d up is that?
Bumped from another thread:
Fidelity HR is basically the Planet of the Apes’ “Defenders of the Faith” and Corporate Communications is basically George Orwell’s 1984 “Thought Police”. Let that sink in.
You all need to either leave or fight back and unionize so you can at leat get this type of BS in front of a third party arbitrator. So glad I am out of that toxic workplace.
P.s. look into how much those guys who were let go for s-xual harrassment, a real crime, walked away with in severance benefits.
People were attracted to the firm for “the benefits” and now that’s what’s costing them everything.
How could someone “scam” CGF on the match? You can’t back out a contribution, it’s irrevocable.
That sounds about right. They dig daily to find reasons to fire people for cause, then round them up the same day. Rinse and repeat.
I heard that they identify new names each week as they find the “fraud,” and then do the firings all together in each site by business unit
Future earnings potential for 600 people is one big f---ing lawsuit.
Rumored that over 600 have now been fired
They don't fire each week. Once per quarter on average they will round everybody up on the same day, and then perp walk them all out.
True about CGF, but what that says then is Fidelity s---s at administrating their own products...are they dumb enough to throw themselves under their own bus. It is already known that they can't stop real fraud.
http://www.finra.org/newsroom/2015/finra-sanctions-fidelity-brokerage-services-llc-1-million-supervisory-failures
Any news of firings this week?
With so much publicity I would imagine them to pullback from the witch hunt
Much bigger $$ at stake thru CGF match program
Anything that has value, that you take or use that Fidelity deems you to not be entitled to, they will fire you for fraud. Mailing holiday cards to family with company stamps, expensing things non-work related, lying on an expense report, mile’s traveled on an expense report (this is extremely easy to audit), anything that you don’t accurately report that in turn provides you with more compensation. Right now the focus is primarily on computer and fitness reimbursements, but it’s a gateway to much broader areas of focus by internal investigators. Could see student loan benefit next as that has a clear black and white policy that they can tell if it’s been abused.
what are things youve seen people fired for besides fitness and computer benefits? Hard to know what needs to be on the radar screen. need to make big decisions about pulling plug on employment would rather leave and start over then take even small risk of being banned.