C Citigroup Inc

By Simon Clark 

Citigroup Inc. suspended a junk-bond trader in London for repeatedly failing to pay for food taken from the bank's cafeteria.

Paras Shah, the head of Citigroup's high-yield bond trading for Europe, the Middle East and Africa was suspended last month, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Shah earned about GBP1 million ($1.32 million) annually including a bonus. He didn't respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Shah joined Citigroup in 2017 after working as a trader for more than six years at HSBC Holdings PLC, according to his LinkedIn profile. He graduated with a degree in economics from the U.K.'s University of Bath in 2010. He also gained work experience at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The Financial Times reported his suspension earlier on Monday.

It isn't the first time a worker in London's finance industry has paid a price for alleged misconduct away from a core job function. In 2014, the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority banned BlackRock Inc. fund manager Jonathan Burrows for life for repeatedly evading the correct fare on his train journey to work. The train company said Mr. Burrows had evaded fares worth GBP43,000, while the fund manager said the amount owed was significantly less. The FCA said at the time that it expected finance workers to act with honesty and integrity at all times.

"Any act which calls someone's honesty into question is likely to get them into serious trouble with their employer and quite likely with the regulator as well," said Ed O'Bree, a partner at Bovill, a London-based consulting firm that advises on regulation.

High-yield or junk-bond traders buy and sell the debt of companies considered to be more risky, such as those which have been acquired by private-equity firms. Citigroup's revenue from all fixed-income trading soared 49% to $2.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019 from the same period a year earlier.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 03, 2020 14:39 ET (19:39 GMT)

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