He used the internal hotline, senior staff lost their jobs - then the bank turned on him
A former quality assurance associate at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation says the bank pushed him out after he reported regulatory reporting fraud - then dressed the firing up as restructuring.
Charles Lamus filed his complaint on May 5, 2026, in the Southern District of New York. He sues under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and New York Labor Law § 740, the state's whistleblower statute.
The setting matters. According to the filing, the bank entered a written agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in April 2019 after examiners flagged anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act problems. To clean things up, the complaint says, the bank brought in roughly 200 consultants, most assigned to Know Your Client (KYC) and quality assurance testing.
Lamus joined that effort in May 2021 at $125,000 a year, became a permanent employee in June 2022, and was earning $131,300 by 2024 after two merit raises.
He says he quickly noticed a pattern. Between five and 20 findings each month, the complaint alleges, were flagged "Material" by a primary analyst, confirmed by a secondary analyst, verified by a team lead and approved by the QA director - then deleted or downgraded to "Immaterial" at the final stage.
The complaint says his team leader and director agreed something was wrong and pointed to QA Executive Director Yvette Irving. According to the filing, his director told him Irving and KYC...
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