JPMorgan takes aim at Wall Street regulator's $4.25M 'deli platter' award after broker claimed wrongful firing

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JPMorgan takes aim at Wall Street regulator’s $4.25M ‘deli platter’ award after broker claimed wrongful firing

By Taylor Herzlich Published June 30, 2026, 4:19 p.m. ET

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JPMorgan has filed a motion to overturn a Wall Street regulator’s $4.25 million award to a broker who claims he was wrongly fired for ordering a deli platter on the company dime – a case that’s prompted other banks to try to crack down on jumbo judgements.

In a late Monday filing in a California federal court, JPMorgan took aim at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, arguing longtime wealth adviser Brent Bodner took advantage of the regulator’s rules to secure an exorbitant payout over the spendy salami incident.

“FINRA exists to promote trust and confidence in the securities industry,” but its award to Bodner “punished” JPMorgan “for truthfully advising the investing community about Bodner’s misconduct, while rewarding a wrongdoer,” the bank said, adding that it was a “lawless award.”

Brent Bodner in a dark suit and white shirt, standing in front of a window overlooking a city. — Brent Bodner, a former JPMorgan broker who claims he was wrongly fired. Courtesy Brent Bodner

Big banks have been eager to rein in the regulator’s ability to award massive punitive sums — especially after it handed out several multimillion-dollar rewards, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Just this year, appeals courts upheld a $133 million award against Stifel Financial and a $92 million one against UBS that were awarded by FINRA – a non-governmental industry watchdog that rules on disputes among advisers, brokers, investors and institutions.

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In March, FINRA asked for public comment on its methods for deciding arbitration cases. Financial powerhouses like Charles Schwab and LPL Financial, as well as Sullivan & Cromwell, the law firm representing Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, quickly chimed in, according to the Journal.

The financial watchdog sides with institutions the majority of the time, with only 3% of all cases since 1989 resulting in punitive awards, according to its own data.

JPMorgan fired Bodner in May 2024 over a catered gathering he hosted at his Beverly Hills, Calif., home during Super Bowl weekend, saying he improperly used company money to pay for a $642.50 deli platter.

Bodner’s lawyer has argued that JPMorgan mischaracterized the gathering as a “Super Bowl party” when it was actually a pre-approved business meeting at his home involving a client and a prospective client.

FINRA awarded Bodner the eye-popping sum and recommended that his termination record be changed from “for cause” to “voluntary.”

A deli platter with sliced meats arranged in rows, garnished with cucumber slices, cheese, and a tomato rose. — JPMorgan accused Bodner of violating company policy by expensing a “Super Bowl party.” Courtesy Brent Bodner

JPMorgan is looking to change the official reason for the firing back — as banks rail against the regulator’s requirement that it provide a reason for employee termination on records that are often made public.

In its filing, JPMorgan argued Bodner only filed his accusations of defamation and wrongful termination because he saw the reason the bank listed his termination as “for cause” instead of “voluntary.”

The bank said it “accurately recorded the reason for Bodner’s termination” as violation of company policy, and Bodner “responded by doing what has unfortunately become all too common for FINRA-affiliated employees unwilling to accept the consequences of their own misconduct.”

Meanwhile, Bodner’s lawyer, Marc Rosen, has also criticized the financial authority for requiring employees to enter into arbitration for non-securities matters, and for allowing banks to take over former employees’ clients during such disputes.

The exterior of the JPMorgan Chase headquarters in New York City with people walking outside. — JPMorgan is seeking to overturn the $4.25 million punitive award. REUTERS

“Pretextual terminations that tarnish careers of honest employees is never permissible,” Rosen told The Post in a statement.

“The Arbitrators saw and heard all of the evidence,” Rosen said, adding that he plans to defend his client against JPMorgan’s new filing and file their own motion to confirm the award.

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Brent Bodner, a former JPMorgan broker who claims he was wrongly fired. Courtesy Brent Bodner

JPMorgan accused Bodner of violating company policy by expensing a "Super Bowl party." Courtesy Brent Bodner

JPMorgan is seeking to overturn the $4.25 million punitive award. REUTERS

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Soccer fans sent a message to Washington on Iran — deal or no deal

FIFA World Cup fans sent a message to Washington on Iran

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Soccer fans sent a message to Washington on Iran — deal or no deal

By Lisa Daftari Published June 30, 2026, 6:33 p.m. ET

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Two games were being played at Los Angeles Stadium on June 15. The first was the Islamic Republic’s World Cup match against New Zealand, its first of the tournament. The second was being played outside, where the Iranian American community organized a large anti-regime demonstration.

Many in the diaspora were not there to watch soccer. They had come to confront the regime on the only piece of American soil where they could, and to send a message to Washington.

The Memorandum of Understanding may have been signed with Iran, but the Iranian people have not signed onto it.

Iranian Americans flew the pre-revolutionary Lion and Sun flag the regime calls illegitimate.

The protesters carried signs that said “42,000.” That is the number of Iranians reportedly killed by the Islamic Republic in January, documented by human rights organizations. They passed out T-shirts with the faces of the young men and women rounded up during the January uprisings, tried in revolutionary courts behind closed doors and executed.

I have covered this community for more than two decades. This was not protest theater. They were there to make a policy statement the only way the diaspora can.

The crowd chanted for King Reza Pahlavi. They chanted death to the Islamic Republic. They chanted “terrorist” at the regime’s representatives walking into the stadium. They flew the pre-revolutionary Lion and Sun flag the regime calls illegitimate. FIFA, at the regime’s request, had tried to ban it inside the stadium.

Iranian American advocacy organizations appealed through FIFA’s own process and lost. They went to federal court seeking a restraining order and lost again. The diaspora was told, in effect, that on US soil during an American-hosted tournament, the symbolic preferences of the Islamic Republic outweighed the First Amendment rights of Iranian Americans.

They came anyway. They brought the flags anyway. Tehran was watching. So was Washington.

Two women at a stadium hold a flag combining the flags of Israel, Iran, and the United States. — Many in the Iranian diaspora had come to confront the regime on the only piece of American soil where they could.

Every previous US administration has negotiated with the regime while ignoring the needs, human rights and security of the Iranian people. The diaspora was telling the Trump administration not to make the same mistake.

The Iranian people are not a challenge or an afterthought. They are a constituency. And they have been a reliable anti-regime force and American ally against a terrorist government for 47 years.

The MOU is a framework, not a final deal. There is still time. The Iranian American community is asking President Donald Trump to remember who built his political leverage going into Operation Epic Fury and beyond. The policy of “maximum pressure” worked because the Iranian people made it work from the inside. The protests of 2009, 2017, 2019, 2022 and January 2026 are the reason why this regime came to the table at all.

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Yet every time the regime came close to collapse, an outside power threw it a lifeline. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was one such lifeline. The diaspora outside the stadium is telling the administration not to make the MOU the next lifeline.

President Trump may be willing to look past the transgressions of the regime in pursuit of a deal. The Iranian people are not. They are not going to forgive a system that executed their children. And they are not going to accept a peace negotiated in their name but signed without their consent.

A few things should follow from what Washington heard outside LA’s stadium.

President Trump has an opportunity here that no recent president has had. The regime is weaker than it has been since 1979. The Iranian American community is the most informed, pro-democracy advocacy bloc on this question in the country. They are asking for a policy that does not reward the regime they fled.

The Iranian people have lived under this regime for 47 years. They have buried its victims. They have watched every Western government that ever tried to negotiate with it repeat the same mistakes, convinced the next round would be different, and they have watched the regime pocket every concession and come back for more.

The diaspora outside the stadium was telling the world what it has been telling Washington for a generation. This regime was not built to compromise. It was not built to play nice. It does not deserve the deal it is being offered.

Washington should listen to the Iranian people, because they have earned the right to be heard.

Lisa Daftari is a foreign policy analyst and media commentator based in Los Angeles.