A former senior trader at Credit Agricole in New York sued the bank alleging he was subject to “stereotypically offensive, overtly racist, and degrading comments” as a Latinx person and denied career advancement and monetary rewards.
(Bloomberg) — A former senior trader at Credit Agricole in New York sued the bank alleging he was subject to “stereotypically offensive, overtly racist, and degrading comments” as a Latinx person and denied career advancement and monetary rewards.
Jose Ruiz, onetime head of emerging-markets foreign-exchange trading at Credit Agricole, filed suit Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan. The complaint named as defendants the bank and one of Ruiz’s former managers, Anthony Botting, who was global head of various foreign-exchange trading teams at the time.
Credit Agricole didn’t immediately respond to request for comment. Botting also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment via his Linkedin page.
According to his suit, Ruiz, a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of California, Los Angeles’s business school, joined Credit Agricole in 2010 and was promoted to managing director four years later. He had formerly worked at American Express and the Bank of Ireland.
Ruiz claims that, in 2015, he began experiencing “targeted, unfair treatment and discrimination” from the London-based Botting. According to the suit, Botting denigrated Ruiz’s skills and past experience and spoke to him in a “disrespectful and demeaning” manner. Ruiz alleges Botting also took business away from him and gave it to two White traders he hired.
According to the suit, Ruiz raised concerns about Botting to human resources at Credit Agricole in October 2018. Afterwards, he claims he was “ostracized by his colleagues and managers, who stopped inviting him to management meetings, as well as to team dinners and outings.”
At the end of 2018, his bonus was cut to $160,000 from as high as $320,000 in preceding years, Ruiz claims. He says he was fired for pretextual reasons in May 2020.
Ruiz is seeking punitive and compensatory monetary damages.
The case is Ruiz v. Credit Agricole, 22-cv-10777, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Updates with details from suit throughout.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
