A former Citigroup managing director has sued the bank in Brooklyn federal court, alleging she was terminated after flagging compliance concerns, including questions about a proposed account structure linked to Donald Trump that was allegedly designed to reduce internal oversight.
The plaintiff, filing under the pseudonym Jane Doe, claims she faced retaliation for raising alarms about anti-money laundering practices, risk management failures, and the onboarding process for high-profile clients. Citigroup says the lawsuit is meritless.
What the lawsuit alleges
The complaint, filed on June 15-16, paints a picture of a compliance-minded executive who got punished for doing her job. According to the suit, the former managing director raised concerns about how Citigroup’s wealth management division handled sensitive client relationships, specifically flagging issues with a proposed numbered account structure connected to Trump.
Numbered accounts are essentially banking arrangements where a client’s identity is shielded from most bank employees. In English: fewer people inside the bank would know whose money they were managing, which reduces the normal checks and balances that exist for exactly this reason.
