NEW YORK, June 1 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co urged dismissal of a complaint by a top-producing private banker who claims she was fired for questioning the dealings of a lucrative client.
Former vice president Jennifer Sharkey had accused JPMorgan of firing her in August 2009 after resisting her call to break ties with an Israeli customer who had been a client for 20 years and generated some $600,000 of business annually.
Sharkey said she was punished for her role in an internal probe into the client's alleged involvement in mail fraud, bank fraud and money laundering, and fired six days after urging the second-largest U.S. bank to drop the client.
In Tuesday's filing in Manhattan federal court, JPMorgan asked U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet to throw out the case.
The bank said Sharkey was not covered under whistleblower protection of the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed after Enron Corp's 2001 demise, because it was the client accused of doing something illegal, not the bank.
'The absence of any allegation here that JPMorgan Chase itself was violating any of the statutes or regulations enumerated in the Sarbanes-Oxley statute, is fatal to the complaint,' JPMorgan said.
In addition, the bank said it had a right to fire Sharkey at will, and that her claims about the client's alleged activity were not specific enough.
JPMorgan said it has an anti-retaliation policy in its code of conduct, but not in Sharkey's employment contract. It also said Sharkey's similar complaint filed last year with the U.S. Department of Labor was dismissed in April.
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer representing Sharkey, did not immediately return requests for comment.
According to her complaint, Sharkey joined JPMorgan in 2006 and managed accounts for more than 75 clients with total assets in excess of $500 million. She was the second-highest producer in her department, according to the complaint.
Sharkey is seeking possible reinstatement, back pay and other money damages, deletion of the firing from her record, and other remedies.
The case is Sharkey v. JPMorgan Chase & Co, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 10-03824.
(Reporting by Clare Baldwin and Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Toni Reinhold) Keywords: JPMORGAN/WHISTLEBLOWER LAWSUIT (clare.baldwin@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: clare.baldwin.reuters.com@reuters.net; +1 646 223 6189) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
© 2010 AFX News
