December 23, 2020

An observation about the resignations of Trump's Deutsche Bankers

Here's a statement from the bank:

(He should have said, "...which were accepted..." but I'm a nit-picker!)

The bank is under investigation by several authorities for possible financial crimes related to Trump and his businesses. These two individuals were instrumental in securing huge loans for Trump.

Here's the thing: On Wall Street and in big banks (maybe smaller ones, too), when you get fired you're told to resign. This is for several reasons. First, these individuals usually have fiduciary and legal responsibilities; these need to be surrendered. Second, there's a sort of "professional courtesy" that one can resign, thereby avoiding to have a termination on their employment record.

The third reason is more serious. If a bank or brokerage wants to get rid of an employee and they fire the worker, it almost always has to be "for cause" meaning there has to be a breach of law or company policy to terminate the employee. This can become an enormous legal problem for the employer with the potential to cost tons of money and lots of negative publicity. Brokers and bankers don't want controversy because it undermines faith in their markets.

Make no mistake: Vrabic and Scalzi were canned. They were probably able to negotiate some financial benefits for themselves, as is the practice in many financial (and other) businesses. But they face serious legal troubles and they'll be on their own. It's most likely that their careers in finance are finished.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank will "cooperate" with investigators and eventually cut their own deal.

So, here are two more Trump collaborators tossed overboard.

Everything Trump touches dies.