Two more CFPB whistleblowers to be subpoenaed by House

A House subcommittee has voted to subpoena two more whistleblowers who allege discrimination and retaliation at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

A House subcommittee has voted to subpoena two more whistleblowers who allege discrimination and retaliation at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Committee have voted to approve subpoenas for CFPB Examiner Ali Naraghi and former CFPB employee Kevin Williams. The two asked to be subpoenaed in order to protect themselves from further retaliation by the CFPB, according to the House Financial Services Committee website.

Since April, the subcommittee has been conducting an investigation into what a previous whistleblower called “a pervasive culture of retaliation and intimidation that silences employees and chills the workforce from exposing wrongdoing.”

“When allegations of discrimination at the CFPB were first uncovered, my subcommittee committed to investigating these claims and providing all affected Bureau employees a forum to share their stories of mistreatment by agency leaders,” said Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.). “We are continuing these important efforts by subpoenaing two more employees who have experienced both discrimination and retaliation while at the Bureau. This behavior has no place in our government and my subcommittee will not rest until we have exposed those CFPB leaders responsible.”

The subcommittee first heard from CFPB attorney Angela Martin, who testified that she and her fellow employees “have suffered and are suffering at the hands of inexperienced, unaccountable managers.”

Misty Raucci, an independent investigator hired by the CFPB to look into Martin’s allegations, concluded that Martin’s claims were valid. And on May 21, employee union representative Ben Konop testified that women and minorities employed by the CFPB alleged pay disparities between them and “similarly situated white male colleagues.”

“To date, the Bureau has denied each of these grievances at all stages, often using inconsistent reasoning, despite what I feel is convincing evidence of low pay for numerous women and minority workers,” Konop testified.