A former worker of Deutsche Bank AG New York Branch agreed to a cease and desist order from the Federal Reserve that the banker faked a proposed salary offer from a competing firm seeking to hire him in order to hike his own salary at the branch of the German bank, the agency said Thursday.
In a release, the Fed said Orlando Romero, a former client service specialist in the global technology division of Deutsche Bank, in 2018 allegedly altered the proposed annual base salary in an offer letter he received from a competing financial institution, and provided that offer letter containing the altered salary to the Deutsche Bank to bump his annual base salary.
Deutsche Bank did in fact, later in 2018, match the salary offer from the competing bank, increasing Romero’s annual base salary by approximately $28,000. That continued to be his annual base salary until his resignation in June 2020, the Fed said.
The agency said Romero’s alleged misconduct contributed to the bank sustaining a loss of in the amount of the increased annual base salary.
Under the terms of the cease and desist order (which Romero consented to), the former banker must make any future bank employer aware of the order and notify the Fed (within 10 days) that he fully familiarized himself with the policies and procedures of the institution that pertain to his duties and responsibilities, “including, but not limited to, the employee Code of Conduct.”