A trader at Morgan Stanley learned the hard way that the company doesn't take kindly to getting sober. A former broker from New Jersey was let go after being deemed a "reputational risk" for the Wall Street bank. Craig Schmell was fired after writing a November 2017 memoir about how he got sober after years of alcohol abuse.
<img src="https://media.8ch.net/file_store/b26a3554f53e5c02831cf6ed5fc4173cd82c523a8daf50c12132b464ccc35ff8.jpg" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">
<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">(Pictured - Craig Schmell) Andrew Herchakowski</span>
Schmell was fired even though his poor choices took place years before he became employed by the prominent Wall Street bank in 2006. To add to Schmell's frustration about being let go, another broker who has been accused by four women of assaults and threats was not disciplined whatsoever.
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In an interview with The Post, Schmell said, "Their priorities are all upside down and backwards. It’s amazing that a guy who allegedly beats his wife and had four restraining orders against him, that that’s the guy they keep." Schmell says he was fired two weeks before he published, "The Uninvited: How I Crashed My Way Into Finding Myself."
The memoir includes stories of his drunken exploits but it also carries a positive message about his road to recovery in 1990. Court papers show Schmell agreed to extensive edits of the manuscript to remove references to doing drugs like mushrooms and cocaine but he was still fired. "As previously discussed, many of the items you discuss in your book surrounding the conduct in which you engaged before your recovery creates a reputational risk which the firm cannot live with," Schmell's boss said.
He was then given an ultimatum if he didn't remove the references and push back the date of publication he would be "terminated". While this is going on, the second broker who is a top performer for the firm, somehow escaped any disciplinary measures despite years of allegations of abuse against him.
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The 56-year-old Schmell admits he wasn't one of the firm's top performers but he said no one even knew of his past bad behavior until he submitted the book manuscript for approval. Following his termination, Schmell sued the bank claiming they unlawfully fired him. "There is a drinking culture in all of Morgan Stanley, in all of Wall Street,” he said. “I didn’t want people to know because I didn’t know how people would react," he said.
Morgan Stanely claims it was within their rights to fire Schmell. "We commend individuals like Mr. Schmell who have gone through recovery," a spokesperson for the bank said. "Upon review of Mr. Schmell’s book, we explained our concerns about him publishing a book detailing numerous misdeeds and touting his ‘gift of manipulation.’ We also told him that he could lose his job if he did not adequately address our concerns. While he agreed to make certain edits, the book he intended to publish still failed to sufficiently address them. He was therefore terminated."
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