Investment banker loses job for mooning bosses

Investment banker loses $2m payout and job for mooning bosses

A Chicago investment banker was right to be fired for dropping his trousers and mooning his bosses in the middle of a conference, an Illinois appeals court claims.

Jason Selch was given the boot by Bank of America subsidiary, Columbia Management, in 2005, after the bizarre act of protest against the recent sacking of a colleague - and was stripped of his $2 million corporate partnership.

Aghast at the financial loss, he sued a raft of companies including Columbia Management and Bank of America for breach of contract and tortious interference, according to Courthouse News.

But the Illinois court of appeals quashed Selch's case last Wednesday, claiming his 'disruptive, unruly and abusive' act of baring his bottom 'violated the rules and regulations in the (employee handbook)'.

The banker worked for Wanger Asset Management for 10 years before it merged with Columbia.

In April 2005, a few weeks after the merger, Selch stormed into a meeting between Columbia's New York-based chief operating officer Roger Sayler and Chicago chief investment officer Charles McQuaid.

He was outraged that a colleague had been let go for refusing to accept a lower salary under the new structure and quizzed the bosses if he had a non-complete agreement with the company.

When they said no Selch dropped his pants and mooned the men and, after pulling them back up, said that he hoped Sayler never came back to the Chicago office and walked out of the room.

Sayler responded: 'Wow, I don't believe that just happened. We'll have to figure our how to deal with that, we've got to, we've got more things to talk about.'

The New York boss later told HR to give Selch a written warning but Bank of America CEO Keith Banks, who wasn't at the meeting, insisted they fire the man at once for his 'egregious' behaviour, overruling McQuaid who was trying to save the man's job.

Selch's firing saw him forfeit $2 million in contingency payments that would have vested in a few months.

In the lawsuit, he claimed his sacking violated the written warning he was given and also claimed his mooning wasn't cause for termination.

But his case was thrown out by the Illinois Appellate Court's Third Division, which said the formal warning was never a 'contract' for continued employment.

'Plaintiff violated the rules and regulations in the (employee) handbook by behaving in a disruptive, unruly and abusive manner... that also may be considered obscene behavior,' Judge Michael Murphy wrote for a three-judge panel

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2198476/Jason-Selch-Investment-banker-loses-2m-payout-job-mooning-bosses.html#ixzz25aeoOvMg