Citi seeks to move harassment claim against top executive to arbitration – Financial Times
Citigroup sued a former executive on Tuesday who alleged in her own lawsuit a day earlier that she was harassed by wealth chief Andy Sieg, seeking to force the matter into closed-door arbitration.
The Wall Street bank on Tuesday asked a federal court in Texas, where the executive lives, to rule the dispute should be handled through private dispute resolution.
The bank’s complaint alleged Julia Carreon, the former Citi managing director who filed the lawsuit against Citi on Monday, lodged the sexual harassment allegations to sidestep requirements that otherwise would have necessitated the employment dispute to be handled through arbitration.
Citi typically handles employment matters — such as those linked to gender or race-based discrimination — through arbitration. However, a high-profile 2022 federal law passed in the wake of the MeToo movement voided the process for sexual harassment cases.
“Contrary to her own contemporaneous statements and despite having never raised such concerns during her employment, . . . [she] has fabricated a legally infirm and patently false theory that Mr Sieg sexually harassed her,” the filing added.
Citi pointed to remarks Carreon made praising Sieg’s management as evidence. In one message cited by the bank, Carreon wrote a few days after she sent her request to leave Citi: “Andy’s leadership is the best thing to happen to this place; rooting for you!”
A few days later, Carreon wrote to Sieg saying, “Thank you for recognising my talent, for putting me in the room, and for treating me with respect. You are truly one of the most exceptional people & leaders I’ve ever met. Your integrity is irreproachable,” the complaint alleges.
Carreon, a former managing director of Citi’s Wealth unit, alleged the bank sought to force her out following “unrelenting and egregious sexual harassment, manipulation and grooming” by Sieg.
The bank has stood by Sieg, who leads its wealth unit and was previously president of Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch business. He is one of chief executive Jane Fraser’s most high-profile hires.
“This lawsuit has absolutely no merit and we will demonstrate that through the legal process,” Citi said on Monday.
Carreon’s lawyer, Linda Friedman, said “two things can be true” and that while “she was very much respectful of him” at the time, as stated in her complaint, she later “stopped and was stunned” as she started to “process all the pieces in [her] demise”.
“They’re picking a moment in time which is in the midst of this but she has certainly gained additional information after she left about what transpired.”
