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Death of Former Green Beret (IB Associate at BofA)

Absolutely tragic passing of a former green beret working 120 hour weeks at BofA’s FIG team on a deal.

Wso discussion here: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/off-topic/bofa-associate-death

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It’s a damn shame. Coming from Group, his mentality was probably to do what it takes to get the job done, and his leadership team on the deal fucking failed him. So sorry for his wife, kids, and family. Damn sad day for the regiment as well.

Failed him but got the deal done and made millions. Operational success in the world of capitalism!

I don't know why you're being down voted, that's literally capitalism down to the letter. I'm not a communist either, I fully support capitalism and also understand that it's ugly and will eat you alive if you let it.

famously killing your employees is a tried and true driver of profits

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u/Mather_Fakker avatar

Lmao

No, it literally isn't. There's absolutely zero need to make this tragedy your opportunity for political soap-boxing.

u/ffa1985 avatar

I get that the sarcasm is unnecessary but what's political about that post? Is is the c-word?

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How do you know that he killed people? Do you think every soldier that is in a combat mos kills? You probably think that every soldier is in a combat mos. I guess all soldiers are killers by your logic. True ignorance.

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u/FinancialCareers-ModTeam avatar

Professionalism

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Hope you are missing a /s and not being serious

u/wasniahC avatar

"missing"? are people that unable to understand sarcasm on this site now?

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u/albundyhere avatar

poor guy. if he was earning $100k a year, that's basically minimum wage that he was working for.

u/Electronic-Win4954 avatar

He was making $500k

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u/pandajhu avatar
Edited

The group head of BOA FIG, Gary Howe, was personally involved on the deal that said associate worked on (UMB Heartland) and has since deleted his LinkedIn profile as the news of this associate's death has spread.

Bank of America - Juniors Strike to start Monday May 6th | Wall Street Oasis

Lol why did he delete his profile ? Afraid of backlash ?

u/pandajhu avatar
Edited

Someone on WSO linked his name to the post re IB associate's death, and he deleted his LinkedIn 10 minutes after that post. Believe BOA are monitoring these forums.

u/albundyhere avatar

I'd be more worried with what the department of labor will do.

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u/albundyhere avatar

or it's admitting to guilt.

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u/lum05 avatar

Brian Ascher was also an MD on the deal per a WSO comment

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-ascher-6429b23

u/lum05 avatar

Mark adley another MD apparently on the deal

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-a-adley-8622849

u/Both_Freedom2433 avatar

Mor like arscher

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u/albundyhere avatar

he's probably lawyering up.

Edited

Not sure if spreading his name publicly is what his widowed wife or family would want. They should be able to publish this on their terms. I’m sure the name will be widely spread in the next few weeks, but you should delete that. Plus, given his background it’s not hard for someone to find him on LinkedIn if they really wanted to.

EDIT: the deceased individuals name was removed, thanks

u/InternalPiano5832 avatar

That’s the head of the group within bofa’s name, not the deceased.

The deceased name was removed after I commented

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u/Falsaf avatar

Thanks for sharing - unbelievable that Bank of America is blocking this from making it onto the mainstream media. Dude was literally worked to death

u/pandajhu avatar

I just saw someone claim to be WSJ reporter reply on the WSO post and ask for people who know about this story to DM him. 5 minutes later, his message was deleted as well - so something weird is going on.

Edited

You can't blame BofA though, this is the expectation of the whole finance industry. The banks set these rules that bankers can't work on Sundays and Saturdays are limited but all of these rules are just for show. Any banker who wants to be successful knows they will still work outside of those restricted hours. This is why I have stated many times in this forum that people who go into IB are a wh*re for money and or prestige.

It's sad this man served our country ended up dying for a multi-billion dollar company who gives no shit about him or his family. The MD and execs in BofA are going to continue to live their luxuries life while this man won't ever see his family again. I don't blame BofA but the whole industry of finance is just terrible.

I think we can still blame BofA too though. 

And it’s not even the first time this has happened at BofA either

Spoiler, it wasn't the last this month.

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u/Falsaf avatar

Agree it’s a shitty industry full of sycophantic wh*res for money (which I am unfortunately part of at a major bank’s PE group), but BofA are also total pieces of shit for clearly blocking media channels from reporting on this and having forum posts taken down on various sites like Wall Street Oasis and so on.

u/Gay-B0wser avatar

Afaik that was done by the victims family, not BofA (re: WSO)

u/bloombergkeyboard avatar

yea that’s what they claim. Reeks of bullshit though. The screenshot of an alleged LinkedIn chat the WSO admin is waving as proof is fishy as all fuck.  Its supposedly from the victim’s brother but it’s terse, impersonal, and most damningly, WSO guy explicitly waives any verification from this guy who cold-chatted him. I don’t think WSO would stage this but BofA absolutely would; however the not verifying really implicates WSO.  It gives them the perfect cover to squash the story on their platform. 

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u/Electronic-Win4954 avatar

NY Post just reported on it

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u/Acceptable-One-6597 avatar

Finance and Consulting are famous for long hours. Been on consulting for a long time, I refused to work the shit out of my people so I'll never make partner but at least I can sleep at night. Fucking BOA. Dude rolled in from group with that mindset of 'dude is in charge and I have my orders'. Hope everyone in his leadership chain gets fucking fired, shitbags.

u/asfhhdszxc avatar

You absolutely can and SHOULD blame Bank of America. The “whole industry of finance” is not at all like this. Yes, people in high finance work crazy hours and grind themselves to the bone, but very few places would let an associate work 120 hour weeks for weeks on end. That’s not the norm at all. Bank of America also overworked an intern to death a few years ago. It’s a Bank of America issue and the specific people on the deal team this associate was on need to be fired and pay consequences.

It's not only banking. It's the entire corporate America, especially publicly traded companies. It's expected that you work more than 40 hrs week, nights, weekends if necessary as an exempt employee.

u/Electronic-Win4954 avatar

You can always quit

Yes, I understand. You can always quit.

u/wilsonhead123 avatar

Or they could hire more people? And make conditions better? But then they would make $4 million and instead of $5 million a year. What a tragedy.

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Did the person pass away on the job or another tragic circumstance. Awful though.

u/NattyYattySlayer avatar

Just by pure work hours/hours in the week there is a 75% chance it occurred on the job...

u/albundyhere avatar

the poor guy was literally working 3 full time job hours. if he was making $100k salary, he would be basically making minimum wage.

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u/lum05 avatar

It was def the job, he used energy drinks to stay awake. This was NOT his choice and even if he did have pre-existing conditions (0 evidence of this. And noone is saying this), his bosses killed him by pressuring him to deliver DESPITE TRACKING 120 HOUR WORK WEEKS FOR OVER A MONTH. And BOFA HAS HAD PEOPLE DIE BEFORE, they’ll try to sweep it under the rug but this needs to get to mainstream media

u/ertri avatar

If you were in SF, you likely don’t have too many preexisting health conditions (and probably would’ve already died from one exacerbated by stress or lack of sleep

u/JustTheTrueFacts avatar

This was NOT his choice

It WAS his choice, no one "killed him". He could have quit and found another job.

u/__plankton__ avatar

Such a bullshit take lol

u/lum05 avatar

That is reaching. Unfortunately u have no idea how the industry works, he HAS to keep going for family, pressure from higher ups, to prove himself just a year into the job. Put yourself in his shoes if you have an ounce of empathy. The man was a green beret, he’s trained to get shit done. But some investment banks, It’s a sick culture where you have sadistic borderline homicidal bosses scaring you into pulling ridiculous hours for no reason. This is the issue

u/JustTheTrueFacts avatar

he HAS to keep going for family, pressure from higher ups, to prove himself just a year into the job

No, are you in the industry? After 40 years, not like that AT ALL.

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What a clown take

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u/Past_Lecture_3743 avatar

On the job.

Without additional information I think speculation is exactly that, guessing. So in lieu of factual information I think respecting the wishes of the family (re the post linking to the original announcement) for privacy means I'm not searching for that info. This is apart from my non-love of BoA as a company. I'd be happy to criticize them, but without that addn info I can't say it's warranted. Regarding the hours, for a ramp up work on a timely deliverable TBH that isn't out of line in the industry. I've done it and don't always love it, but with utter certainty I know that if a company isn't doing it there's another one out there that will, and in aggregate will be more successful.

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BofA FIG… sadly not surprised based on one of my close friend’s experience working there

:(

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u/lum05 avatar
Edited

Patrick curtis at wso seems to be censoring comments unrelated to family's privacy, bumping this thread for visibility

The family of the deceased reached out to Patrick Curtis that they would like the thread on the forum deleted about the guy because they wanted to griev on their own and news reporters already started to contact them.

So in that case I can actually understand that at least the name of the deceased person maybe shouldn't be thrown around as of now so the family can process the lost for now.

u/lum05 avatar

completely agree we need to respect the family's privacy - should have been specific but referring to comments related to the perpetrators (MDs on the deal teams, etc.) that has no reason to be censored when WSO claims it's a forum that helps create transparency in an industry that needs serious overhaul that defeats the whole purpose of a forum like that existing versus reddit

u/bloombergkeyboard avatar

Don’t just believe it willy nilly. The only proof is a screenshot of a questionable LinkedIn exchange between Patrick and an account purporting to be the victim’s brother.  The account offers further “details if needed” yet Patrick immediately capitulates and assures him “no details needed” - why wouldn’t he ask for further verification with a random account? The name concern doesn’t make sense since by virtue of being sought by news outlets, the name of the victim is already known. 

It’s sad people simply accept this instead of seeing how it rhymes with all the suppressive efforts BofA is taking. 

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u/pandajhu avatar
Edited

I checked the WSO admin's screenshot, and it shows shirt/collar of the profile pic of the deceased's brother. However, the screenshot doesn't match the shirt from the profile pic of the brother when I looked him up on Linkedin. As far as I know, (and verified from news report), the deceased has only one brother, who is his twin, so I find the veracity of the screenshot really fishy.

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Get this mainstream.

u/albundyhere avatar

and put on every tv network

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Heads up but BofA was on the Reddit IPO and is very well connected with this company. They’ve already had Reddit remove one post on this and will likely get this one removed as well. It might be better to start posting news articles if/when they get released.

u/Past_Lecture_3743 avatar

FYI, the group he worked in was the Financial Institutions Group, led by Greg Howe.

Allegedly, managers in that group were bragging how many 100+ hour work weeks they got their juniors to work.

How much of a loser do you have to be to brag about the hours you force your direct reports to work? Pretty sad.

u/Pure-Cardiologist158 avatar

Straight up sociopathic

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u/lum05 avatar

Gary howe

u/throwaway98498443513 avatar

First name is Gary

u/lum05 avatar

Brian Ascher was also an MD on the deal per a WSO comment

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-ascher-6429b23

u/Pristine_Ad4164 avatar

brah u had one job and u still got the name wrong

Please fact check and edit the name in this. While I know who you meant to say, the FIG group is not led by a man named Greg... and its not great to be throwing names around if they aren't 100% accurate.

u/bobloblaw617 avatar

Lie

u/throwaway98498443513 avatar

First name is Gary

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u/albundyhere avatar

would love to see that communication on social media. the dept of labor would love to see that too.

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u/OneRaccoon7261 avatar

Very sad that people posts and comments are getting deleted on this subject. BofA is really trying to cover this up.

Comments are also turned off on my Yahoo main page.

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u/Wild-Park5630 avatar

Literally 99% of the redic hours is to prove a point and say I did it you should do it…there is virtually zero material value add for 99% of the bs edits they make you do until 3am every night all so a client can skip to the valuation section to see if they agree … banks should be held accountable for this shit bc a legit green beret died likely of exhaustion bc some cuck wanted to change the footer location or didn’t like the block edges on a sub header… rant out

u/putridalt avatar

Fucking insane.

Can't imagine how the wife feels. They survived years of uncertainty with his military career - making it back alive from deployments, doing distance from JCETs.

Retired from the military & got a great white collar job - it was supposed to be the happily ever after for his family. Only for him to die there.

Now his wife has to attend a funeral, when she thought she was in the clear. No BofA SGLI payout. Can't wrap my head around the twisted irony of this.

Absolutely horrible, an investigation needs to happen.

u/Itchy-Alps4361 avatar

Bump until media picks up!

u/MoribusAlive avatar

Any articles or threads? This is closed

u/Stand_On_Principle avatar

Here are some with comments and info left. They keep deleting everything as people put stuff, but we're not keeping quiet for this.

https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/investment-banking/this-is-a-dark-day-for-wall-street

https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/investment-banking/bank-of-america-juniors-strike-to-start-monday-may-6th

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u/SuperPerspective9154 avatar

Can still send him an email I think format is first.last@bofa.com

Or HR email (not sure what it is)

u/SuperPerspective9154 avatar

Gary Howe is the one should be held responsible - he is the Head of FIG in Americas

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u/Erilaz_Of_Heruli avatar

The family contacted wso asking people not to post about the death of their loved ones ??? Sounds like extreme BS, if I was them I'd be out for blood against the company that allowed this to happen.

u/Wild-Park5630 avatar

Prob bc they want to grieve but also wouldn’t put it past BofA to be writing a sizable check with an NDA to the family to make this go away as quietly as possible… they write these kinda checks all the time

u/lum05 avatar

They asked for privacy, see wso threads with screnshot, they did NOT ask for comments around the perpetrators to be censored.

u/fred_runestone avatar

Seems pretty unlikely the family even knows what WSO is. This one smells.

I’m acquaintances with a family member and they have privately posted that they dislike how viral it’s going, so it’s possible

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u/lum05 avatar

Patrick curtis at wso seems to be censoring comments, bumping this thread for visibility

u/Stan2112 avatar

The end-game capitalism brain rot is strong there. The juniors going on strike calling for a ... ROFLMAO ... maximum 100 hour work week. No one needs to be working that much for anything. Cap it at 60.