Citigroup’s embattled stock-trading unit was a toxic boy’s club marked by persistent harassment and discrimination of female staffers, as well as in-office cocaine use — which the bank ignored for years, according to a bombshell report.
The male bankers in the equities division — which advises on and executes trades for top hedge funds and other Wall Street honchos — openly ogled female colleagues, rated them by their looks and bragged about their sexual conquests, Bloomberg reported after conducted interviews with 22 staffers who worked in or closely with the unit in New York.
In one incident, an equities boss allegedly rubbed his crotch against a woman during a party for clients at upscale Manhattan sushi spot Catch in 2018, according to two people who told Bloomberg they witnessed the harassment.
The woman was a roommate of a recent college grad hired in the equities division for her two-year rotational program at the bank. Months later, a male trader told the unnamed employee to wear shorter skirts and higher heels to work, and made multiple inquiries into her love life, the outlet reported.
Another female derivatives trader recalled sitting at a client dinner at Locanda Verde near the bank’s headquarters in 2010 when a colleague reached under the table and put his hand on her leg, per Bloomberg.
Around the same time, she said a research analyst asked her why she didn’t wear sexier shoes.
Though the staffer informed human resources and her senior managers of the incident, she told Bloomberg that a female executive encouraged her to brush it off.
Citigroup spokesperson Mark Costiglio said in a statement that “although several of the alleged incidents would clearly violate Citi’s code of conduct, we have not identified a complaint being filed for several of them, others are more than a decade old, and some contain allegations that are either baseless, too vague, or involve people who have left the firm.”
Along with the derivatives trader, six others complained about what they saw as workplace misconduct to the bank’s leadership. They all told Bloomberg that they were disappointed with the outcome, feeling the bank didn’t take sufficient action.
Two other women disclosed to Bloomberg that they stayed quiet entirely about being sexually harassed by colleagues out of fear of retaliation.
The disturbing accounts echo allegations in a lawsuit filed last November by Citi managing director Ardith Lindsey, who said a former top equities banker subjected her to sexual harassment and abuse including death threats.
Lindsey said in the court filing that men at the bank ranked female colleagues based on looks, discussed who they wanted to have sex with, pressured women to visit strip clubs and mocked the bank’s sexual harassment training and women’s initiatives.
She also accused Citigroup — her employer since 2007 — of tolerating a “notoriously hostile” environment in the stock tading unit and downplaying her complaints about her former colleague Mani Singh, who Lindsey claimed subjected her to many years of increasingly volatile abuse, sometimes fueled by alcohol or drugs, including alleged threats to destroy her career and reputation if she resisted his advances.
After the lawsuit was filed, Citi’s trading chief urged staff to speak up if they observe misconduct, according to Bloomberg.
However, workers interviewed by Bloomberg who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said that complaints to the bank’s HR department did nothing to enact change, fostering a corporate culture that made some employees leave to escape while perpetrators stayed.
In 2021, Citi appointed Jane Fraser as the first female CEO of a major US bank.
Costiglio added in his statement that no one should be discriminated against or harassed at work, and insisted that the Wall Street behemoth’s “efforts to foster an inclusive and equitable workplace culture never stop.”
He continued: “We provide colleagues with a number of avenues to raise concerns in confidence, and when substantiated we will take appropriate action, up to and including termination of employment. While we will not comment on individual internal matters, simply put, where warranted, we exit employees who fail to meet our high standards of respectful treatment.”
