Wells Fargo fires woman for shoplifting 40 years ago

[gribbler]

Imagine getting fired for a crime you committed not one, not two, not three, but four decades ago.

That’s what happened to one Milwaukee woman. Wells Fargo fired Yolanda Quesada after a background check found that she shoplifted in 1972, a local NBC affiliate reports. Though Quesada acknowledges she committed the crime, she says shoplifting shortly after high school shouldn't be something that influences her job standing.

"[I'm] very good at what I do for Wells Fargo," Quesada told the television station.

Quesada, who is now 58, was fired shortly after receiving a report from an FBI background check in the mail, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports. A Wells Fargo spokesman told the Journal-Sentinel that the company began performing thorough background checks on all existing mortgage unit employees last year "due to legal requirements and changes in the regulatory environment."

"Because Wells Fargo is an insured depository institution, we are bound by federal law that generally prohibits us from hiring or continuing the employment of any person who we know has a criminal record involving dishonesty or breach of trust," Wells Fargo spokesman Jim Hines told the Journal-Sentinel.

Banks hiring workers may be particularly sensitive to taking on employees with a record of property crimes, according to a report from the National Institute of Justice. There is no empirical evidence indicating when it's safe to hire an ex-offender, according to the report. Still, most employers choose an arbitrary statute of limitations that is usually somewhere between five or 10 years.

Additionally, new guidelines from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission now make it easier for employers to hire workers with criminal records. The rules suggest that employers give applicants a chance to explain any crimes on their record before outright rejecting them.

Quesada is only one of many Wells Fargo workers to lose their jobs in recent months. The bank eliminated positions in its technology and operations unit in November in an aim to cut costs, according to Reuters.

Wells Fargo, the nation's largest bank by market cap, has itself been accused of improper actions recently. The bank currently faces at least two federal probes into how it treats minority borrowers and the properties it owns in minority neighborhoods.

Before that, it reached a $148 million settlement over separate charges that it systematically overcharged state and local governments.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1496273.html

Now this is ridiculous. It's not like she was engaging in grossly unprofessional conduct such as cursing in front of clients or something.

[DinoDoc]

Now this is ridiculous.

Banks hiring workers may be particularly sensitive to taking on employees with a record of property crimes, according to a report from the National Institute of Justice. There is no empirical evidence indicating when it's safe to hire an ex-offender, according to the report.

[Whoha]

I'm pretty sure she is way the hell out of the statute of limitations on that one, but they were in all likelyhood on a fishing expedition for some reason to get rid of her.

[loinburger]

In my experience these types of institutions have a statute of limitations as to what crimes you need to declare when you're hired, e.g. my job deals with a lot of sensitive financial information and so I needed to declare any financial discrepancies (e.g. declaring bankruptcy) within the past ten years. If they go back forty years and you didn't declare your shoplifting when you were hired then you're SOL; otherwise you might be able to sue then for wrongful termination.

[onodera]

Here every crime you have been convicted of has its own statute of limitations for conviction. After it runs out, you cannot be discriminated against based on it (and it doesn't appear in legal background checks). If you are, you can sue the ass off the firm that is stupid enough to tell you that.

[regexcellent]

There's rule of law in Russia?

[onodera]

There's rule of law in Russia?

Har, har. That's comedy gold.

[Sparrowhawk]

I have no sympathy for her. Hopefully she regrets shoplifting.

Wells Fargo

[BlackCat]

Here every crime you have been convicted of has its own statute of limitations for conviction. After it runs out, you cannot be discriminated against based on it (and it doesn't appear in legal background checks). If you are, you can sue the ass off the firm that is stupid enough to tell you that.

Yeah, crimes that you are convicted for probably is a draw back, but what about all the crimes that you have done wich you aren't (yet) convicted for ? Doesn't they count as positives if you put them in your CV ?

[-Jrabbit]

Interesting that the article doesn't state how long she's been with the firm.

The "bound by federal law" spin seems a bit disingenuous, since (a) WF is no paragon of responsible corporate personhood and (b) we elect presidents that smoked pot and snorted cocaine 40 years ago.

But hey, it's their dime, their dancefloor.

[Dauphin]

It's not the crime, it's the cover up that'll get you. Ask any President.

[b etor]

She wasn't good enough at shoplifting to not get caught, so she won't know what to look for to catch this generation's shoplifters. Makes complete sense.

[DaShi]

Seems like you'd want someone bad at theft to work at a bank.