After the shutting down of the Silicon Valley bank on March 10 by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI), the bank, their subsidiary firms, and the employees had been undergoing scrutiny over social media.
Through this online scrutiny, two executives of the SiliconValley Bank were found to have former ties with two finance firms that had been notorious for their operations – the Lehman Brothers, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008, and the Deutsche Bank was charged with a massive fine of $7 billion.
The social media scrutiny brought into light the past ties of Kim Olsen who is an employee at the Silicon Valley Bank and Joseph Gentile of Silicon Valley Bank Securities.
Both employees were found to have associations with two financial firms that faced major backlashes in the past. Upon the shutting down of the Silicon Valley Bank on March 10, people are concerned about a possible systemic economic crisis. Silicon Valley Bank was one of the country’s largest banks.
Joseph Gentile currently serves as the chief administrative officer of SVB Securities. SVB Securities is an independent, stand-alone investment bank. The bank is fully owned by SVB Financial which is the parent company of the bank.
Tracing the history of Gentile, there is evidence that connects him to the Lehman Brothers, which was an American global financial service. The firm was founded in 1847 and before filing for bankruptcy, Lehman Brothers were the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States.
Joseph Gentile joined the Silicon Valley Bank in 2007. Before taking up his position at SVB Gentile used to work at Lehman Brothers Global Investment Bank in the position of chief financial officer.
As mentioned earlier, Lehman Brothers was a very successful firm and were one of the biggest investment banks in the country. The Wall Street giant filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 15, 2008.
The collapse of the firm had a very big impact not only on the management or the employees but on the economy of the nation as well. The implosion of the bank is cited as one of the major reasons for the turmoil of the Great Recession.
Even though Joseph Gentile used to work at Lehman Brothers, he was not an employee at the company during the time of the economic crisis.
Even though he was not an employee at the time of the company’s collapse, social media users were skeptical about his connection to the Lehman Brothers. People marked the connection as ‘unusual’ through their tweets.
While the news about Joseph Gentile started to gain wide attention, SVB Securities released a statement regarding their stand and grasp on the issue.
In their statement, the firm made it clear that Gentile was not a part of the company when it filed for bankruptcy and that he left Lehman Brothers almost 18 months before the collapse.
Joseph Gentile worked for a short time of six months at Lehman Brothers and the company stated that it was unfortunate that people linked his short time at the company to the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
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They also added that SVB Securities was an independent body from the Silicon Valley Bank that was closed down by FDIC.
Later in a separate statement, the company also announced that they were financially stable and that the events that took place at Silicon Valley Bank had not affected the operations of SVB Securities. The company assured its customers that they will be continuing their operations as usual.
Another employee of the Silicon Valley Bank who underwent scrutiny was Kim Olsen. Kim Olsen joined the SVB as the chief risk officer in January.
Just like Joseph Gentil, Kim Olsen was also found to have a connection with another troubled firm – Deutsche Bank. Before joining the SVB, Olsen used to work at Deutsche Bank as a senior risk management officer during the time of the Great Recession.
The Deutsche Bank found themselves in trouble for lying to their customers about the mortgage-backed securities. The company admitted to lying about its securities and was charred with a massive fine of $7.2 billion. The events contributed in large to the housing market’s implosion during the time of the financial crisis.
Kim Olsen took the position of chief risk officer in January. Prior to Olsen, Laura Izurieta served in the role and she resigned from her position in the company in April.
After the resignation of Izurieta, the company operated with no one filling in as the chief risk officer and it was after almost eight months that Olsen took up the position.
Even though both the employees had previous track records that link them to collapsed or troubled financial firms, brother Joseph Gentil nor Kim Olsen is accused of any charges regarding the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank.
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