A former Citigroup Inc. trader is suing the company for at least $112 million in damages, alleging Citigroup framed him for fixing prices on the global foreign exchange market.
Rohan Ramchandani was a foreign exchange spot markets trader at Citigroup for more than 11 years before he was fired in January 2014, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In the suit, Ramchandani said he was fired without cause in the midst of a government investigation on alleged foreign exchange rigging.
Ramchandani alleged the company leaked "false, and gravely derogatory, assertions against him" to government investigators and the media. At one point, he said, Citigroup "quite literally fabricated" an antitrust case for the U.S. Justice Department, falsely alleging that he engaged in market manipulation.
A company lawyer with knowledge of the case and Ramchandani's former manager acknowledged he did not engage in any criminal action or market rigging, the suit alleges.
In October 2018, a jury cleared Ramchandani, along with two other London-based traders, of Justice Department charges of manipulating prices in the global foreign exchange market.
Citigroup declined to comment to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
