By Jack Queen and Tatiana Bautzer
June 16 (Reuters) – A former Citigroup executive alleged in a lawsuit that she was fired in retaliation for raising regulatory and compliance questions, according to the complaint, which a source familiar with the case said involved a request to open a bank account connected to President Donald Trump.
The complaint, filed in Brooklyn federal court on Monday, is heavily redacted and was filed anonymously by Jane Doe, a former managing director in Citigroup’s wealth management division. It includes allegations that she was fired shortly after raising concerns about taking on a new client.
The lawsuit did not identify the potential client but the source said it was President Donald Trump, confirming an earlier report in the Financial Times.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Citigroup, in a statement on Tuesday, denied the allegations in the lawsuit and said it had “absolutely zero merit.” A spokesperson did not comment when asked about the identity of the client referenced in the lawsuit.
The source said the bank considered a request to open a numbered account, which would have restricted internal access to the identity of the client. The source added that the complainant also had asked for further information about the source of the funds.
In a court filing on Tuesday, Citi requested that the identity of the plaintiff be revealed, saying she had been publicly criticizing the bank before the lawsuit.
The bank said in the filing that the executive was “one of a limited number of individuals with knowledge the political figures were opening accounts at Citi.”
The complaint said Doe was targeted with a “sham” human resources investigation and fired after she flagged “compliance risks that she believed to violate federal securities laws.”
The former executive said in the lawsuit that she had identified deficiencies in Citi’s internal controls for risk management, anti-money laundering, reputation risk, and data compliance.
(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru and Jack Queen and Tatiana Bautzer in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Edmund Klamann)
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