Investment bank JPMorgan is being investigated by US authorities for hiring the son of China’s commerce minister despite him being one of the worst candidates its recruiters had seen, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Gao Jue (高鈺), son of Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng (高虎城), was hired by JPMorgan and kept on during major job cuts despite an extremely poor performance, and after he inadvertently sent a sexually explicit e-mail to human resources, the paper said.
The elder Gao said he was willing to “go extra miles” for the bank if his son was spared from company-wide job cuts in 2008, it said.
Meanwhile, a senior banker described Gao Jue as “immature, irresponsible and unreliable,” according to the report, and one recruiter said in an internal e-mail she was concerned about his qualifications.
“Jue did very very poorly in interviews — some MDs [managing directors] said he was the worst BA candidate they had ever [seen] — and we obviously had to extend him an offer,” she said of his appointment as a business analyst.
Gao joined JPMorgan in 2007 and left less than two years later. After working for several other leading firms, he is now with Goldman Sachs, the report said.
Gao Hucheng was vice minister of commerce at the time his son was hired and was previously China’s chief trade representative.
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