Citi reverses course on firing of Japan trader five years on
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Ken Ohtaka's dismissal was rescinded after the two sides reached an agreement last month, according to a copy of the settlement seen by Bloomberg News.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 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 $45 million.
After the SFC began reviewing the trades, Citigroup launched its own probe, just months after Ohtaka joined the firm in 2018. The review eventually led to Ohtaka's firing in late 2020, following the dismissal of a dozen traders in Hong Kong and Singapore the previous year. In Tokyo, six traders either quit on their own or were given the option to resign to avoid being fired, according to Ohtaka. Four others were disciplined, resulting in bonus cuts, he said.
The bank declined to comment on specific cases.
Ohtaka, 58, was among several former employees who sued the bank over their dismissals. Ian Weir, an ex-sales trader for Asia-Pacific markets based in London, agreed to settle his case before a London tribunal in October. Citi denied in its submissions to the tribunal that Weir was unfairly dismissed. In December, former equity sales trader Cindy Lui won her wrongful dismissal suit before Hong Kong's Labour Tribunal.
During the probe by Hong Kong regulators, Ohtaka said he assured his Japan team that they had fully complied with local financial regulations and internal bank policies, and that the inquiry shouldn't extend to Tokyo.
In the midst of the probe, he was appointed chair of Citigroup Global Markets Japan's execution governance committee. He said he tightened equity-execution rules, including revising several operational protocols to better protect clients and staff. The Hong Kong office rejected some of the measures as too restrictive and growth-stifling, Ohtaka said.
The bank declined to comment on the alleged Hong Kong measures from more than five years ago.
Ohtaka was fired for allegedly misleading clients into thinking there were natural buyers for two stocks. Citigroup alleged he posted a single batch of 87 so-called indications of interest, or IOIs, that were tagged 'order in hand natural,' even though there wasn't a corresponding client order. That's according to the bank's termination letter seen by Bloomberg News. IOIs are preliminary expressions of trading demand from buyers and sellers in certain stocks.
Ohtaka said he never received IOI training, and denied posting and uploading the low-volume batch. The judge in the wrongful dismissal case found it implausible he intentionally misrepresented the orders as real demand. The judge said the IOI post in question didn't violate regulations and the dismissal constituted an abuse of rights.
The court ruled that Ohtaka's employment contract is valid and Citigroup didn't have cause to terminate him. The court ordered the bank to compensate him with salary that he would have earned until the time of the judgment, plus interest.
Citigroup filed an appeal and threatened to fire Ohtaka again if the judge affirmed the lower court's ruling, according to a Nov. 1 letter from the bank seen by Bloomberg News.
While the appeal was stalled, the high court judge in November instructed both sides to attempt to negotiate a settlement and set a Dec. 24 deadline, according to a summary prepared for the court by Ohtaka's lawyer and seen by Bloomberg. Negotiations dragged on until April, partly because Ohtaka refused to accept a confidentiality clause, which is typical in settlements like these. The firing was revoked and both parties agreed to terminate the employment contract, according to the settlement.
Ohtaka offered to take a reduced payout in return for a public apology, according to a court submission by his lawyer. The bank refused, he said. The bank declined to comment beyond its statement.
Ohtaka said he plans to retire from the finance industry and will use the settlement proceeds to help establish a scholarship fund for high-achieving, underprivileged children. –BLOOMBERG
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