(Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. doesn’t want to give a former trader his job back despite a finding that he was unfairly dismissed by the bank to “appease its regulators” in a market-spoofing probe.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Bradley Jones, a former cash equities trader, is this week arguing for an order of reinstatement from the London employment tribunal that ruled in his favor in July. The U.S. bank contends his job no longer exists and no comparable role is available. It also said it wasn’t confident that Jones could be certified as fit and proper under market regulator’s guidelines, despite his successful wrongful termination claim.
JPMorgan, which is appealing that ruling, further argues Jones doesn’t genuinely wish to work there again and is merely attempting to circumvent the nearly 90,000-pound cap on compensation awards in U.K. employment cases.
The bank declined to comment on the matter. A lawyer for Jones didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read more: Inside the JPMorgan Trading Desk the U.S. Called a Crime Ring
Jones successfully argued to the tribunal earlier this year that he was only fired because the bank wanted to show it was taking a tougher line on a spoofing scandal that cost it close to $1 billion in penalties.
The tribunal judge in his earlier ruling rejected JPMorgan’s claims that Jones engaged in spoofing himself and found the bank fired him “because of its desire to appease its regulators by showing it was ‘cleaning up its act.’”
On the witness stand in April, Jones expressed a desire to return to his old job, noting that some of his colleagues walked out of the bank’s London office the day he was fired.
“My colleagues at JPM are my friends, and some of them are my best friends,” Jones said in a witness statement released Wednesday. “I would like to work with them again, as I did previously, before this unfortunate, disruptive and frankly upsetting period in my life.”
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
