BofI Fails to Overturn $1.5 Million to Whistleblowing Auditor

BofI Federal Bank couldn’t convince the Ninth Circuit to overturn a jury’s $1.5 million award to its former auditor, after the appeals court found that he showed he suffered emotional and reputational harm because of the bank’s “retaliatory conduct.”

BofI, now known as Axos Bank, must pay Charles Matthew Erhart $1 million for his federal and state law retaliation claims and $500,000 for his defamation claim, a three-judge panel with the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found on Thursday. In an unpublished opinion, it rejected the bank’s bid for either judgment as a matter of law or ...