Black banker accuses JPMorgan Chase of bias, retaliation, forced resignation

A former JPMorgan Chase executive says his manager sidelined him, retaliated after HR complaints, and pushed him out because of his race. 

Thomas Shaffer, III, who is African American and has worked in private banking since 2011, says he walked away from Bank of America in New York in 2023 for what looked like a step up: an Executive Director SC Banker role at JPMorgan Chase's Indianapolis branch, complete with a spot in the bank's Performance-Based Incentive Compensation Plan. According to the filing, what he found instead was a workplace that slowly shut him out. 

The lawsuit, Shaffer v. JPMorgan Chase & Co., No. 1:26-cv-00807 (S.D. Ind.), was filed on April 23, 2026, in the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. Shaffer alleges race discrimination and retaliation under Title VII and Section 1981, along with a promissory estoppel claim tied to the cross-country move he and his family made to take the job. 

Shaffer says the trouble started almost immediately with his manager, a Managing Director and Market Manager who is identified in the filing as Caucasian. He alleges she required him to move his workstation to a spot in front of hers, according to the filing, "to keep an eye on him," while white colleagues were free to sit where they liked. Business leads, he claims, rarely came his way. Non-African American peers, he says, got her help building and keeping client relationships. 

The filing describes a pattern familiar to any HR leader who has fielded a bias complaint: cancelled client travel that cost him commissions, a college endowment prospect handed to another market after she agreed it was his, cancelled room reservations, over-scheduling, and a senior leader routinely sitting in on his meetings but not those of his non-African American peers. Shaffer says he was the only African American Executive Director on her team, and that another former African American direct report has also filed an EEOC charge accusing her and the bank of race discrimination. 

Shaffer says he raised concerns with an HR Business Advisor in July 2023 and kept complaining, verbally and in writing, to her and her successor throughout his tenure. Nothing changed, he alleges. 

In February 2025, days after he spoke on a high-visibility panel that touched on diversity and inclusion before more than 80 business leaders, he was put on a 60-day coaching plan requiring a daily email log of his work. He says he met every requirement. Even so, he alleges, his manager told him she planned to move toward terminating him, then began pulling prospects from his plan and leaving him out of branch events. 

Shaffer gave 60 days' notice on August 19, 2025, citing discrimination and retaliation, and left on October 24, 2025. He calls it a constructive discharge. He is seeking reinstatement, back pay, and compensatory and punitive damages. 

The allegations have not been tested in court. JPMorgan Chase has not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled on the claims. The bank has not publicly commented on the suit.