JPMorgan, Ex-Trader Agree to Settle Wrongful Firing Lawsuit

A former JPMorgan Chase & Co. precious metals trader said he’s reached a tentative settlement with the bank over a suit claiming he was wrongfully fired over his cooperation with a federal spoofing probe.

Donald Turnbull’s lawyer said in a Thursday court filing that his client and JPMorgan had reached an agreement in principle. The lawyer, Eric Adams, informed US District John G. Koeltl in Manhattan that the deal would likely take another month to finalize. Terms of the proposed settlement weren’t disclosed.

A representative for JPMorgan didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to his suit, Turnbull was fired in 2019, just a few weeks after JPMorgan learned that he had spoken to Justice Department investigators. The bank was also cooperating with the government probe at the time and agreed the following year to pay more than $920 million to resolve claims that its precious metals and US Treasury desks were engaged in spoofing.

Some top traders on those desks were convicted of spoofing, fraud and market manipulation.

Koeltl rejected the bank’s motion to dismiss the case in 2022. The judge said Turnbull’s claim that he was fired just 24 days after JPMorgan learned that he told government investigators about “severe, chronic institutional failures” at the bank “strongly suggests that the plaintiff’s protected activity contributed to his termination.”

The case is Turnbull v. JPMorgan Chase, 21-cv-3217, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Top photo: The JPMorgan Chase & Co. headquarters in New York, US, on Friday, July 7, 2023. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is scheduled to release earnings figures on July 14. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg.