By Echo Wang
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Citigroup is investigating workplace harassment allegations made by at least one employee against a senior U.S. banker working on initial public offerings, four people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Edward Ruff, managing director of Citi's equity capital markets group in New York, has been on leave since January, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
The bank is investigating at least two cases of alleged abusive behavior by Ruff toward several subordinates in the industrials, power and energy team he led, they added.
One incident under investigation occurred on the morning of Nov. 13 when Ruff shouted insults at members of his team at the end of a meeting on the fourth floor of Citigroup's New York headquarters, according to seven people present or informed by participants.
Ruff was upset that two junior bankers were not in the room at the start of the meeting, two of the people said. Some of Ruff's insults were directed at the entire team, they added.
Ruff did not respond to multiple attempts to reach him by phone, text message and email.
A Citigroup spokesman declined to provide details about the investigation into Ruff.
“While we do not comment on individual internal matters, simply put, when warranted, we terminate employees who do not meet our high standards of respectful treatment in our workplace,” the spokesperson said.
“We offer colleagues a range of opportunities to raise concerns in confidence and if they are substantiated we will take appropriate action, up to and including termination of employment,” the spokesperson added.
The complaints are a result of Citi's push to change its culture. Jane Fraser took the helm of the bank in 2021 as the only female CEO of a major U.S. bank, promising to bring empathy to the turbulent world of Wall Street.
“What we have found at Citi is that empathy is fundamental to how we work for our clients and how we attract and retain talent,” she wrote in an October 2021 blog post.
The story goes on
Citigroup declined to make Fraser available for an interview.
In the Nov. 13 incident, one of the junior bankers dialed in to the meeting on time but arrived in person minutes after it began, two of the sources said. The other junior banker came in shortly after him, they added.
Five people said a senior banker heard Ruff's shouts from his office and walked across the room to intervene. According to one of the people, that banker was James Maitland, another managing director. Maitland did not respond to a request for comment.
Separate harassment lawsuit
A few days earlier, another employee – an analyst who started at Citigroup in July last year after completing a leadership program that fosters diverse talent – told a supervisor that Ruff had insulted and intimidated him during a half-hour phone conversation. said another source.
Ruff told the analyst that he shouldn't go to human resources with complaints because the people there weren't his “friends,” the person added.
The analyst also told the supervisor that he and another junior banker were the only members of Ruff's team who were scheduled to come to the office for work on Nov. 12, a Sunday, according to the source.
Ruff had complained to his team the previous day that analysts were not working on Saturdays, even though Citigroup had declared Saturdays off limits for junior bankers' work, three sources said.
The analyst accepted an offer from Citigroup to move to another team, four people familiar with the matter said.
Paul Abrahimzadeh and Russ Chong, co-heads of Citigroup's North American equity capital markets business, told employees in January that Ruff was on leave, according to three sources. Abrahimzadeh and Chong did not provide a reason for Ruff's absence or its expected duration and asked staff not to speculate.
Citigroup is defending itself against a separate lawsuit alleging workplace harassment in New York. Arith Lindsey, a managing director, has accused Citi of downplaying her complaints about a senior stock banker who she says subjected her to years of abuse, including sexual advances and death threats.
Lindsey's lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan seeks damages for violations of New York state and city civil rights laws.
Citigroup has said it will defend itself against Lindsey's claims and said it will not tolerate abuse.
Andy Morton, global head of markets at Citi, urged employees in November after news of the lawsuit broke to speak up if they see inappropriate behavior. “No colleague should ever be discriminated against or harassed,” he wrote in a memo to staff.
(Reporting by Echo Wang in New York; Editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Pravin Char)
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