A former Federal Reserve senior bank examiner has sued her former employer. She claims she was fired due to her refusal to change her findings that the financial institute Goldman Sachs Group did not have a conflict of interest policy firm wide.
The former examiner, Carmen Segarra who is 41, said in her lawsuit filed on Thursday that she had examined the compliance and legal divisions for Goldman Sachs during late 2011 and the beginning of 2012. She said she found that the bank did not have a policy conforming to banking regulations set down by the Fed. She alleges the Fed fired her due to her refusing to withdraw those findings.
Michael Silva was the relationship manager for the Fed dealing with Goldman Sachs and has been named as one of the defendants in the lawsuit.
Segarra said her former employer possessed information that could cause Goldman Sachs harm.
Segarra in her complaint cites different emails with Silva where she argued that there was not firm wide policy at Goldman Sachs, while Silva accuses Segarra of telling him Goldman Sachs did not have any policy at all.
Segarra, in addition to her suit against the New York Fed, has sued Michael Kolb, Silva’s deputy and her supervisor Johnathon Kim.
A New York Fed spokesman, Jack Gutt said in a statement that was emailed on Thursday that the Fed could not discuss Goldman Sachs or Segarra due to rules of confidentiality.
Goldman Sachs spokesman Andrew Williams said that the company knows of no internal discussions at the Fed or the matters Segarra had raised.
Linda Stengle and lawyer for Segarra said on Thursday that her client was part of a group of examiners the New York Fed hired in 2011.
Deborah Campbell
