A female broker claimed a “toxic alliance” between her financial services firm and Citigroup enabled one of the Wall Street giant’s traders to subject her to four years of sexual harassment — with both companies allegedly ignoring her complaints, according to a lawsuit.
Christine O’Reilly, 31, said Citi’s Benjamin Waters tried to barge his way into her hotel room after a corporate event at a trendy London bar, bombarded her with phone calls and suggestive drunken messages, and spread false rumors that they were involved in a sexual relationship, according to the complaint filed in a Manhattan federal court Monday.
When she raised red flags about the trader’s alleged obsessive behavior to her supervisors at London-based TP ICAP, she was told to “tolerate and flirt with Mr. Waters to maintain the business relationship with Citi,” the lawsuit said.
She also reported Waters’ behavior to his boss at Citi, Bhavin Parikh, but to no avail, according to the complaint.
“The parallel failures of both Citi and ICAP created an interconnected hostile work
environment where Mr. Waters, as a Citi employee, could freely harass Ms. O’Reilly, an ICAP
employee, with the knowledge and facilitation of ICAP senior management,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit is the latest sexual harassment scandal to engulf Citi after a string of complaints about the behavior of its executives and how they treat female high-flyers — including a case brought last year by managing director Ardith Lindsey that is still before the court in New York.
Waters is not named in O’Reilly’s complaint, but it accuses Citi of allowing Waters to “extract inappropriate personal favors from brokers.”
It also names ICAP and one of her supervisors, Janie McCathie.
However, O’Reilly describes in her lawsuit how Waters, a London-based broker who worked on the bank’s Delta One desk, allegedly first “developed an inappropriate personal interest” in O’Reilly in February 2020 at the Ned, a high-end bar and restaurant in London’s financial district.
Waters is accused of making crude sexual remarks at the corporate event at the popular club before following her back to her hotel, where he allegedly tried to force his way into O’Reilly’s room.
His obsession continued with text messages on WhatsApp and social media throughout 2020 and 2021, the lawsuit said.
Last September, O’Reilly posted a string of photos on Instagram to which Waters allegedly replied: “Nice feet,” according to court exhibits of the text messages.
O’Reilly then replied: “What do you want Ben — all constant messages no business? I cannot make it clear I do not give a f——— enough so…. What?”
She also claimed Waters, a native of Auckland, New Zealand, continued to persist with his unwanted advances even after she reported it to her immediate supervisors.
One of those bosses, McCathie, insisted the broker “tolerate and flirt with Mr. Waters to maintain the business relationship with Citi,” according to the complaint
Her lawsuit said her supervisor was “tying her job to the need to tolerate sexual harassment.”
Screenshots of text messages between the pair showed that McCathie told O’Reilly “you need to play the game” in July 2022.
After O’Reilly blocked Waters on WhatsApp and restricted him on Instagram, McCathie told her to unblock him, the lawsuit said.
Waters later allegedly threatened to cut all business ties with ICAP as a result of O’Reilly’s complaints.
“I am getting less trades as a result of you,” McCathie wrote to her on WhatsApp last September after O’Reilly threatened to go to the firm’s compliance department, the complaint said.
The lawsuit described how McCathie had told O’Reilly on a conference call in February to “go f— yourself” and that she was “useless.”
She then allegedly wrote on an internal chat that could be read by everyone on both the London and New York desks that O’Reilly was “a joke” and “mental.”
The Post has approached McCathie for comment.
O’Reilly did not respond to the Post’s request for comment.
She has been on leave from ICAP after reporting the four years of abuse to its human resources managers last March.
A spokesperson for Citi declined to comment but confirmed both of its employees mentioned in O’Reilly’s lawsuit no longer work for the bank.
It is unclear when Waters and Parikh left Citi. Both of their LinkedIn profiles are still to be updated with the news of their departure.
The Post has approached both men for comment.
A spokesman for TP ICAP told the Post: “It is TP ICAP’s policy not to comment on pending litigation.”
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