By In May, the Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell investigation about the toxic atmosphere occurring at the FDIC, one of the biggest bank regulators in the nation and a favorite to leftwing progressives like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
The newspaper reported that “women received lewd photos sent from male colleagues, were propositioned and followed back to their hotel rooms during travel for bank exams, with few consequences for their supervisors’ bad behavior.
The Journal interviewed hundreds of current and former FDIC employees and reviewed legal filings, union grievances, Equal Employment Opportunity complaints, emails, text messages and other internal documents.
FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg and his top deputies were involved in decisions over high-level examples of alleged sexism, harassment and racial discrimination in which the agency didn’t take a hard line with individuals accused of misconduct. Gruenberg himself built a reputation for bullying and for having an explosive temper. Over nearly two decades at the FDIC, Gruenberg berated and cross-examined staffers, questioned their loyalty and accused them of keeping information from him, the Journal found.”
Following an official report revealing the story to be accurate, FDIC Chairman Gruenberg was scheduled to testify before Congress about what’s been happening at the agency and received calls to resign from Democrats and Republicans alike.
That’s when Elizabeth Warren, supposed champion of the oppressed, stepped in to help her powerful ally, according to Semafor.
Ex-top aides to the Massachusetts Democrat helped FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg prepare for congressional hearings this week, when he was set to be grilled about a scathing report from an independent law firm that found widespread sexual harassment and bullying at the agency, which oversees thousands of US banks, people familiar with the matter said.
Gruenberg testified before the House yesterday, when he apologized and said he would take anger management classes, and will appear before a Senate committee at 10 a.m. today.
Rohit Chopra, a former Warren protege who now runs the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, went to the FDIC’s headquarters last week to run Gruenberg through likely questions he would face and practice his answers, the people said. Chopra is a board member of the FDIC.
When that session went poorly, Warren’s former chief of staff tried again. Dan Geldon, who worked for Warren until 2020 and now runs a Washington consulting firm, went through a mock hearing with Gruenberg over the weekend, some of the people said.
Warren’s actions serve as another reminder that liberals live by one code: “everything for my friends, for my enemies, the law.”
Remember, she’s so obsessed with “taking on the powerful” that she once tried to claim that America faces a “sandwich monopoly.”
Neither the abusive FDIC chief nor Warren herself would be fine with a CEO who enabled the toxic atmosphere that Gruenberg did at the federal banking agency.
In 2016, for example, Warren launched into a tirade against Wells Fargo’s CEO John Stumpf after the bank became embroiled in a scandal over opening accounts without customer knowledge.
At the time, CNBC reported, “The Democratic senator questioned his accountability and the stock gains he profited from during the time millions of unauthorized accounts were opened at the bank, ultimately recommending he resign, return the money he earned during that time and be criminally investigated by the SEC and the Department of Justice.
Here is their full exchange:
Warren: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Stumpf, Wells Fargo’s vision and values statement, which you frequently cite says: “We believe in values lived not phrases memorized. If you want to find out how strong a company’s ethics are, don’t listen to what its people say, watch what they do.” So, let’s do that. Since this massive years-long scam came to light, you have said repeatedly: ‘I am accountable.’ But what have you actually done to hold yourself accountable? Have you resigned as CEO or chairman of Wells Fargo?
Warren: Did you fire any of those people?
Stumpf: No.
Warren: No. OK, so you haven’t resigned, you haven’t returned a single nickel of your personal earnings, you haven’t fired a single senior executive. Instead evidently your definition of ‘accountable’ is to push the blame to your low-level employees who don’t have the money for a fancy PR firm to defend themselves. It’s gutless leadership. In your time as chairman and CEO, Wells has been famous for cross-selling, which is pushing existing customers to open more accounts. Cross-selling is one of the main reasons that Wells has become the most valuable bank in the world. Wells measures cross-selling by the number of different accounts a customers has with Wells.”
It might be worth asking Warren if she has a different definition of “accountable,” but we already know the answer.
