Facts

Simon Fowles was a Wells Fargo Bank employee, supervising 62 employees in the FX trading division which executes purchases of foreign currency for Wells Fargo customers. The trading division was ultimately responsible for not just pricing and communication with clients, but also adhering to compliance and risk policies. Employees' compensations were directly tied to how much revenue they generated. However, due to concerns that this method incentivized possible unethical behavior, the compensation system was changed to a standardized system tying compensation based instead to group-wide performance. Though the trading division changed its compensation method, the sales team, with whom the trading division also worked with, did not and therefore the sales team's compensation was still directly tied to direct revenue generated. In August 2014, Wells Fargo negotiated a large FX transaction for Burger King Corporation to finance the purchase of a Canadian restaurant chain, Tim Hortons. Under the agreement, any Canadian dollars obtained over a guaranteed base amount would be equally divided between Burger King and Wells Fargo. Despite this agreement, in a meeting on August 27, 2014, the meeting participants discussed developing a different, artificial rate, one that would increase Wells Fargo's profit. Some confusion ensued as to the calculations and later, an internal investigation as to the Burger King transaction took place, the result of which was that an inaccurate and detrimental rate was communicated to Burger King. Moreover, the investigation also concluded that the participants of the August 2014 meeting formulated an artificial rate to maximize compensation for the team while attempting to avoid client suspicion, thereby violating the bank's code of conduct. After Fowles was terminated, he filed a complaint against Bank of America for the following: wrongful termination; retaliation; breach of written contract; non-payment of wages; estoppel by conduct; and promissory estoppel.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS: Plaintiff contended that the sales incentive compensation plan encouraged false reporting and illegal misconduct such as mail and wire fraud, unlawful profiteering and regulatory violations. When he reported this to the head of Sales and Trading, plaintiff attested that he was told that further complaints would deter his career. As such, plaintiff argued that his termination was a violation of public policy and that defendant fired him for being a whistleblower.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS: Defendant denied plaintiff's contentions, arguing among others, that plaintiff acknowledged that his own actions regarding the Burger King transaction was problematic and he should have said something. Defendant noted that they terminated all participants of the August 27, 2014 meeting, plaintiff was treated the same as the other participants and was solely fire for his role in the meeting, which was an independent, legitimate basis for his termination.

Result

The court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment.