A broker at a unit of interdealer brokerage TP ICAP Group Plc sued her employer and Citigroup Inc. alleging both firms failed to protect her from a trader at the Wall Street bank who she claims harassed her for years.
Christine O’Reilly, a New York-based employee at ICAP, alleged in a lawsuit on Monday that she was forced to put her company’s profits ahead of her own wellbeing and endure relentless harassment and unwanted advances from the trader at Citigroup, a prized client.
TP ICAP said in a statement that it is the firm’s “policy not to comment on pending litigation.” A representative for Citigroup declined to comment. Seth Redniss, a lawyer for O’Reilly, declined to comment.
O’Reilly is suing ICAP for alleged discrimination and maintaining a hostile work environment, according to the complaint filed in Manhattan on Monday. She also claimed Citigroup failed to properly supervise its then-employee, who isn’t named as a defendant in the lawsuit, or take action against him after O’Reilly complained directly to a supervisor at the bank.
In one instance, O’Reilly alleges that when she rejected advances by the trader, Benjamin Waters, he threatened to reduce Citigroup business to ICAP. The lawsuit refers to Waters as a “non-party co-conspirator.” The Citigroup representative said its staff mentioned in the lawsuit are no longer with the bank.
Waters declined to comment. The complaint describes him as acting as a “high-value Citi trader” on the bank’s Delta One MSCI desk in London, with the power to direct billions of dollars in volume to ICAP.
O’Reilly claims Waters called her repeatedly outside work hours, requested photographs of her and in one instance allegedly tried to enter her London hotel room despite her refusals, according to the lawsuit.
As part of her suit, O’Reilly claims that her ICAP supervisor, Janie McCathie, told her to “play the game” and put up with the Citigroup trader’s behavior because he was a big business generator. O’Reilly said she was expected to tolerate and flirt with the trader, even after rebuffing his advances and reporting them.
McCathie, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, declined to comment.
O’Reilly, who according to the lawsuit joined ICAP as an intern in 2013, is seeking compensation for loss of earnings, emotional distress, attorneys fees and other damages.