Citi reverses trader firing after five years
TOKYO: Citigroup Inc revoked the firing of a senior trader in Japan as part of a wrongful dismissal settlement following years of wrangling over problematic trading practices in the bank's Asia unit.
Ken Ohtaka's dismissal was rescinded after the two sides reached an agreement last month, according to a copy of the settlement seen by Bloomberg News.
Ohtaka, Citigroup's ex-Japan agency trading head in Tokyo, rejected a confidentiality clause in the settlement so that he can talk openly about what he describes as a 'global witch hunt in search of scapegoats' that triggered several firings.
The internal probe launched in 2018 by law firm Clifford Chance was 'flawed', and its outcome felt 'predetermined' in order to pin the blame for questionable practices on a group of Asia equity sales traders, Ohtaka said in a phone interview.
Ohtaka 'suffered great mental distress as a result of being unilaterally fired by the defendant without any disciplinary reason', according to court filings for his wrongful dismissal lawsuit.
Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
Citigroup said the bank took appropriate action in line with procedures when personal conduct failed to meet its high standards.
'All Citi investigations are conducted based on facts and evidence, with assistance from independent experts as needed,' a Hong Kong-based spokesperson said in an email.
The bank 'has implemented significant remedial measures to strengthen our compliance and internal controls to address this legacy issue, and continues to enhance its processes to reflect best market practices and to meet regulatory expectations'.
Clifford Chance in Hong Kong said the firm doesn't comment on client matters.
Hong Kong Probe Ohtaka's settlement is the latest chapter in a saga that began when Hong Kong's securities regulator found that traders in Citigroup's Asia markets division had at times misrepresented the bank's own stock positions on trades as client interest for more than a decade.
In essence, the regulator concluded, they had indicated there was customer demand to buy and sell specific stocks when it didn't exist.
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said that the 'pervasive dishonest behaviour' went as far back as 2008. The regulator faulted Citigroup for internal control deficiencies and poor management oversight, and fined it about US$45mil.
After the SFC began reviewing the trades, Citigroup launched its own probe, just months after Ohtaka joined the firm in 2018. — Bloomberg
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