Bureaucrats behaving badly is nothing new. But how the bad behavior is allowed to fester – and the worst offenders rewarding despite their conduct – is still astounding.
Consider the ongoing story at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The Wall Street Journal's reporting on the bank regulator's toxic work environment was genuinely horrifying. Here's the lede to the WSJ's investigation:
A male Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. supervisor in San Francisco invited employees to a strip club. A supervisor in Denver had sex with his employee, told other employees about it and pressed her to drink whiskey during work. Senior bank examiners texted female employees photos of their penises.
All of the men remained employed at the agency.
One should rightly ask “why” they are still on the job. And that's exactly what happened in congressional hearings, where the FDIC's chairman was asked “What the hell is going on at the FDIC?”
It's not gone well for the agency, or FDIC chairman Martin Gruenberg. The chairman said he was unaware of the bad behavior, promised and promised an independent investigation would be conducted into what happened and how it was allowed to continue.
Fair enough. Or at least it would be had things ended there.
That's when more shoes dropped, this time about Gruenberg. It turns out the long time- FDIC insider and Biden appointee has a reputation for hot headedness. And it's gotten him into trouble before:
Gruenberg himself has built a reputation for bullying and for having an explosive temper, the officials said. Over nearly two decades at the FDIC—including leading the agency from 2011 to 2018 and becoming chairman a second time last year—Gruenberg has berated and cross-examined staffers, questioned their loyalty and accused them of keeping information from him, they said.
The FDIC hired an external investigator to look into Gruenberg's behavior in 2008, when he was vice chairman, after he allegedly lost his temper with a senior female FDIC official and castigated her.
That's all in the record. But when asked about it under oath, Gruenberg lied to the House committee:
Gruenberg initially told the House Financial Services Committee in sworn testimony Wednesday that he had never been investigated for inappropriate behavior. Later in the day, after the Journal contacted the FDIC for comment, Gruenberg said he wanted to correct the testimony and confirmed he had been the subject of an inquiry in 2008.
Lying under oath…what the rest of us might know as “perjury”…is a serious thing. It will be interesting to see whether The House decides to hold Gruenberg to account for misleading them. And whether Congress as a whole has the gumption to clean out the Augean Stables at the FDIC.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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