Ex-BofA executive says ‘no truth’ in lawsuit’s racism claims

A FORMER Bank of America Corp. executive accused of abusing one of the bank’s traders denied that he used racist language and said the allegations were "deeply upsetting."
A FORMER Bank of America Corp. executive accused of abusing one of the bank’s traders denied that he used racist language and said the allegations were "deeply upsetting."

LONDON – A former Bank of America Corp. executive accused of abusing one of the bank’s traders denied that he used racist language and said the allegations were “deeply upsetting.”

Anthony Dullaghan, the bank’s former head of short-term fixed income, said that claims he had referred to clients as “French rats” were untrue. The allegations were made in a witness statement released Tuesday in a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by Maurice Marco, an executive on the bank’s Euro Commercial Paper team.

“If I swore about clients it would be in frustration and was never racially motivated,” Dullaghan said in his own witness statement made public Thursday at a London employment tribunal. “I have now retired and it is deeply upsetting for me to be embroiled in this dispute when there is absolutely no truth in the allegations.”

According to Marco’s statement earlier this week, Dullaghan repeatedly referred to French clients as rats and called a Middle Eastern customer a derogatory term involving a camel. A lawyer for the bank said Tuesday that Marco exaggerated and took his shirt off during a heated argument.

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Marco told the employment tribunal that he had panic attacks after Dullaghan assaulted him during a trading floor disagreement when Dullaghan was “pushing the index fingers of both hands firmly” into his chest and asked Marco to “sort this out outside.”

Dullaghan denied assaulting Marco and said he “touched his shoulder” while Marco was screaming and shouting in an attempt to “indicate that he should turn around and leave the floor in order to defuse the situation.”

“I have never threatened to hit anybody or fight anyone in my life, nor have I threatened to take anyone outside to start a fight,” Dullaghan said.

Marco is one of a number of executives to sue banks at London’s employment tribunals in recent months. Winnings are capped at about 80,000 pounds ($100,000) unless claimants can prove they were victims of discrimination or abused for blowing the whistle on corporate misconduct.

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