Citigroup’s Trading Division Hit With Fresh Toxic-Culture Claim

(Bloomberg) — Christine O’Reilly was with friends in Miami, when one of her biggest clients at Citigroup Inc. kept buzzing her phone.

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Benjamin Waters, a trader on the bank’s Delta One desk, called and messaged repeatedly. At one point, he allegedly asked her to send pictures — and when she responded with a photo of herself and a friend at dinner, he replied: “no lol not pics like that.”

The message, one of dozens described in a lawsuit that O’Reilly filed in federal court in Manhattan on Monday, was part of what she called a pattern of harassment she had to endure to thrive on Wall Street.

“There is this view that you know what you are getting into as a woman. You are expected to play the game,” O’Reilly, a broker based in New York, said in an interview. “It’s slimy and disgusting.”

The 31-year-old is now suing her employer ICAP — an arm of the world’s largest interdealer broker — and Citigroup, alleging she was subjected to years of unwanted sexual attention and threats by the Citi trader with the power to direct big transactions to her team. She said Waters’ behavior persisted even after she reported it to a supervisor at his unit.

When he was rebuffed, the trader allegedly threatened to cut business. And according to O’Reilly’s complaint, an ICAP supervisor urged her to keep tolerating the advances, unblock him on social-media accounts and, at times, apologize to him to keep bringing in business.

For Citigroup, the lawsuit adds to a series of complaints over the past year zeroing in on its equities trading division, accusing the New York-based firm of failing to stamp out a toxic culture. The bank is fighting a separate lawsuit filed in November by a managing director, who said a more senior executive coerced her into an abusive relationship and threatened her and her family after she ended it. The bank is seeking to dismiss her case.

In March, Bloomberg published a broader look at boorishness within the equities division, in which employees openly leered at female colleagues, rated their looks and boasted about sexual conquests.

Waters, who isn’t named as a defendant in the lawsuit, declined to comment. O’Reilly said that when she called a supervisor at the bank on his personal phone in 2021 to report Waters’ behavior, the boss assured her he would take care of the problem.

A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment and confirmed that both of its employees referenced in the suit no longer work there. When responding to Bloomberg’s reporting in March, the bank said it would continue “efforts to foster an inclusive and equitable workplace culture.”

“It is TP ICAP’s policy not to comment on pending litigation,” according to a spokesperson for the interdealer-broker. Janie McCathie, an ICAP supervisor who is also being sued, declined to comment. Seth Redniss, a lawyer for O’Reilly, declined to comment.

‘Wall Street Ladder’

Wall Street leaders have made halting progress in their repeated vows to end mistreatment of women, leaving some recruits questioning whether they picked the right industry.

O’Reilly was 20 and optimistic when she arrived as an intern. “I really wanted to build something. Work my way up the Wall Street ladder,” she said. “It’s a career I believed in and threw myself into, and this is what it has come to.”

O’Reilly first met Waters while he was dining with one of her supervisors, McCathie. By early 2020, he developed an inappropriate interest in O’Reilly, she alleges in her suit.

After a work event at London’s The Ned hotel that February, “he insisted on coming back to her hotel at the Montcalm Royal London House to ‘have more drinks’ and attempted to enter her hotel room, despite her explicit refusal.”

The attention persisted, according to the lawsuit. Waters sent late-night WhatsApp messages, asked for photos and tried to arrange private meetings, it says. On Instagram, he once asked what she was wearing. At another point, he allegedly spread false rumors that they were having a sexual relationship, and later, sent O’Reilly a revealing photo of a former colleague.

Screenshots attached to her legal case indicate that when she rebuffed him, he threatened to withhold the business he was sending to ICAP in a message to her supervisor.

“It’s important to call Citi out because they allowed this behavior to happen and turned a blind eye to it,” she said in the interview. The bank’s role extends beyond the actions of a single employee, she said.

The Delta One London trading desk at Citigroup has drawn attention recently. It set off a debacle dubbed the fat-finger flash crash, sending Nordic stocks into a tailspin. The bank lost roughly $50 million in the ensuing market swing in 2022 and later paid more in fines to regulators. Citigroup said last week that some European regulators are still probing the matter.

Waters was a “high-value Citi trader” with the power to direct billions of dollars in volume to ICAP, according to the complaint. A UK regulatory case focusing on the bank’s Delta One team in the region offers a snapshot of its clout, noting it generated £242 million ($309 million) of revenue for the bank in 2021 alone.

‘Constant Messages’

There were occasions O’Reilly did engage. That, she said, was her attempt to strike a balance to maintain a working relationship.

“It’s something that men don’t have to deal with in this role,” she said.

The lawsuit names McCathie as a defendant, accusing her of pressuring O’Reilly to put up with harassment and framing it as part of the job. After O’Reilly blocked Waters on WhatsApp and restricted him on Instagram, McCathie allegedly told her to unblock him, “tying her job to the need to tolerate sexual harassment,” the suit says.

Then things escalated in September 2023. After O’Reilly posted a collage of photos on Instagram, Waters allegedly sent her a direct message: “Nice feet.”

O’Reilly shot back: “What do you want Ben — all constant messages no business? I cannot make it clear I do not give a f——— enough so…. What?”

O’Reilly forwarded a screenshot of the exchange to McCathie. And so did Waters, according to the lawsuit, suggesting he would pull Citi business: “And I certainly will be reducing flow in light of that.”

That sparked a pressure campaign, O’Reilly alleged, with McCathie urging her to apologize and mend the relationship. In a screenshot attached as an exhibit, a colleague suggested O’Reilly tell Waters she was just drunk and sorry for lashing out.

‘So Wrong’

When O’Reilly described Waters’ behavior toward her as “abuse,” McCathie allegedly replied that she was in the wrong, writing: “I’m getting less trades as a result of you and u want to go even further and report him to compliance… Do u understand what that does to me.”

Eventually McCathie apologized to Waters in person and begged him not to reduce Citi business, according to the lawsuit.

O’Reilly has been on an indefinite leave of absence after she lodged a formal complaint.

“I know this will be a nail in the coffin for my broking career,” she said. “I just hope that if people read these things, they realize it is wrong, it is so wrong.”