On February 28, 2018, a FINRA arbitration Panel in Miami, Florida awarded $4+ million to a client of Law Office of Ethan A. Brecher, LLC on claims of wrongful termination and failure to pay deferred compensation and commissions. The Panel also ordered that the client, a former broker for Citi in Miami, was entitled to have the language that Citi used on his Form U-5 as the reason for his termination expunged and replaced with a statement that he was “Terminated without cause.” Final Award 16-01001 Christian Silvalima Gherardi vs. Citigroup Global.
A well-known FINRA arbitration blogger had this to say about the decision: “When a former Citigroup Global Markets employee hits the firm with a FINRA Arbitration demand for over $16.5 million in damages, we know that there was likely a lot of bad blood engendered by what was alleged to be a wrongful termination. By the time the arbitration ended, there was quite a bit of blood pouring out of Citigroup as the firm took quite a beating before the final bell rang. ”