JPMorgan Chase & Co. has filed a movement to vacate a high-profile arbitration award that ordered the agency to pay $4.25 million in damages to a dealer it fired over allegations that he improperly expensed a deli platter for a Tremendous Bowl watch occasion.
J.P. Morgan Securities, the financial institution’s broker-dealer, argued in a movement filed Thursday in U.S. District Courtroom in Los Angeles that the arbitrators exceeded their authority by awarding the dealer, Brent R. Bodner, damages that have been “wholly untethered to any proof or testimony.” The agency additionally alleged that the award confirmed “manifest disregard” of the regulation and the info offered throughout the arbitration.
“JPMS overtly and repeatedly defined to the panel why relevant regulation and uncontroverted info undermined every of Bodner’s three claims, and Bodner made no efficient rebuttal,” J.P. Morgan wrote within the submitting. “The arbitrators have been thus conscious of relevant regulation however nonetheless ignored it, opting as an alternative to impose their very own most popular consequence.”
Efforts to overturn awards are comparatively unusual and face a excessive authorized hurdle. Underneath the Federal Arbitration Act, courts usually defer to arbitrators and will solely vacate awards on slim grounds reminiscent of fraud, corruption, arbitrator bias, misconduct or circumstances the place the panelists exceeded their authority.
Bodner’s case drew nationwide media consideration in Could after a panel of two public and one private Monetary Business Regulatory Authority arbitrators discovered J.P. Morgan responsible for damages and dominated that he may expunge from his public document the “defamatory” termination disclosure.
J.P. Morgan fired Bodner in June 2024 over allegations that he submitted an inaccurate reimbursement request for a $642.50 deli platter served at a Tremendous Bowl occasion at his residence. The agency claimed that he had misrepresented a private occasion held at his residence as client-related at a restaurant.
Bodner maintained that the important thing attendees had been pre-approved and that the inaccuracies have been inadvertent. He had sought $30 million in damages to “punish [J.P. Morgan] for its intentionally damaging actions and claims and to discourage it and others from repeating this type of habits sooner or later,” in line with the arbitration award.
Bodner’s legal professional, Marc Seldin Rosen of Baltimore, in a press release stated he seems to be ahead to “presenting Mr. Bodner’s place to the U.S. District Courtroom, as this can afford us a chance to completely expose JPM Securities’ outrageous therapy of an impressive monetary advisor.”
“Pretextual terminations that tarnish careers of sincere workers is rarely permissible,” Rosen added. “The Arbitrators noticed and heard the entire proof, and JPM’s determined enchantment will validate the end result.”
A J.P. Morgan spokesperson declined to remark past the courtroom submitting. The agency indicated final month that it deliberate to problem the award.
Rosen beforehand stated Bodner’s assistant mistakenly submitted the expense as if the meal had been consumed on the delicatessen slightly than at his residence. J.P. Morgan directors recognized the discrepancy as a result of the receipt confirmed the meals had been delivered to Bodner’s residence, he stated.
Bodner started his brokerage profession with Merrill Lynch in 2000 in New York and later labored at Mutual of Omaha Investor Companies earlier than becoming a member of J.P. Morgan predecessor Chase Funding Companies in 2006, in line with BrokerCheck. He joined Wells Fargo in 2024.
He has two denied buyer complaints on his document. A 3rd criticism was settled for $12,211 in 2013 over allegations relating to “poor recommendation” about an choice funding, in line with BrokerCheck. The shoppers sought $96,000 in damages, and Bodner denied legal responsibility.