Ex-Citigroup Asia Managing Director Shaw Sues Bank in Hong Kong

(Bloomberg) — Philip John Shaw, a former head of Pan-Asia Execution Services at Citigroup Inc., sued the US bank to contest his summary dismissal in March 2019, after other ex-sales traders filed similar claims with the city’s employment tribunal earlier this month.  

Shaw has filed a lawsuit in Hong Kong’s High Court against Citigroup Global Markets Asia Ltd. for contract and employment tort, according to a writ of summons. He is seeking monetary compensation, including retirement and other financial benefits he was deprived of when he was fired, and for reputational damage he suffered as a result of the alleged wrongful termination. A Citigroup spokesman declined to comment.

The unfair dismissal cases from Shaw’s ex-colleagues were lodged shortly before the expiry of a six-year statute of limitations. Shaw, who had been a managing director, was the highest-ranking manager on the team of Asia equity sales traders that Citigroup fired after regulators in the Asian financial hub uncovered problematic practices in the bank’s Asia markets division that had gone on for around a decade. 

In March 2023, Hong Kong’s Securities & Futures Commission banned Shaw from re-entering the industry for 10 years, saying “his conduct fell far short of the standards expected of a member of senior management” of the firm. 

The previous year, the SFC fined Citigroup HK$348.3 million ($44.8 million), and reprimanded it for “pervasive dishonest behavior” and severe internal control failures in its Asia markets division. The regulator said sales traders had mislabeled so-called indications of interest when trying to drum up business, and at times misrepresented the bank’s offers to buy or sell shares as client interest. 

Citigroup disbanded its Asia high-touch equities sales trading desk in 2019, after accusing multiple staffers of gross misconduct and firing them without notice. The Hong Kong-based employees who were terminated also lost the retirement benefits they had accrued at the firm, Bloomberg News reported earlier. 

After the regulatory action, former Citigroup Asia sales traders based in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong filed wrongful dismissal claims against the bank, accusing it of conducting unfair and hostile internal investigations and scapegoating them. They also claimed the sales practices had been implicitly condoned by management for years. Citigroup denied they were unfairly terminated and has said it conducted thorough investigations before disciplining them. 

In the UK, Citigroup last year reached a settlement with Ian Weir, who had been part of the Asia Pacific markets team, after an employment tribunal ruled in his favor. A Japanese court ruled last summer that Citigroup has to compensate a fired trader. 

The most recent judgment was in Hong Kong in December 2024. Cindy Lui, an ex-sales trader on the same team, was awarded her earned pension benefits and contractual pay equivalent to what she would have received if Citigroup had given her notice before terminating her. 

Lui has sought a review after the court denied her request to be compensated for loss of job opportunities. Neither party was awarded costs and the the next hearing is scheduled for April 2, according to a court diary. 

After the ruling on Lui’s case, four of her ex-colleagues lodged similar wrongful dismissal claims earlier this month. 

In Shaw’s case, the Hong Kong High Court writ of summons is typically valid for 12 months from the date of issue. That window will give him time to decide whether to pursue litigation based on the outcomes of his ex-colleagues’ cases at the Labour Tribunal. 

–With assistance from Kiuyan Wong.

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