Bank of America Misled Trading Partners, Lawsuit Alleges
May 17 2016 - 8:03PM
Dow Jones News
By Christina Rexrode
A Bank of America Corp. executive accused her employer of
misleading trading clients, in a lawsuit in which she called the
bank a "bros club" and said it discriminated against her for being
a woman.
The lawsuit by Megan Messina, 42 years old and a managing
director in Bank of America's structured credit products division,
said that when she raised concerns about her treatment and
allegedly questionable treatment of clients, the bank tried to push
her out. She is now on administrative leave.
A Bank of America spokesman said Tuesday that "we take all
allegations of inappropriate behavior seriously and investigate
them thoroughly." He added that the bank disputed allegations in
the suit about business with Pacific Investment Management Co.
The lawsuit described alleged instances of misconduct in recent
months, including colleagues allegedly front-running trades by
clients including Citigroup Inc., and allegedly withholding
information from client Blackstone Group LP.
A representative for Citigroup declined to comment. A
representative for Blackstone didn't immediately comment.
The suit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in
Manhattan.
According to Ms. Messina's suit, the bank twice sent executives
to apologize to clients, once after client Anchorage Capital Group
complained that the bank knowingly provided false data and once
after a bank employee allegedly "doctored" the Pimco trading
records.
Representatives for Pimco, a unit of Allianz SE, and Anchorage
declined to comment.
"We fully dispute the allegations in this complaint regarding
the Pimco transaction in 2015," a Bank of America spokesman
said.
The lawsuit by Ms. Messina, a single mother of three children,
opens with allegations of gender discrimination. It said her boss
excluded her from emails, meetings and other gatherings while
including her male peers and her clients. Over the course of about
a year, her boss met as often as three times a day with the man who
shared with Ms. Messina co-head responsibilities for a department,
but only met twice with her, according to the suit.
In their first meeting, he asked her, "Have you colored your
hair?" and "Have your eyes always been that blue?" according to the
lawsuit.
In their second meeting, about 10 months later, her boss told
her that she outperformed her co-head on client surveys and
informal customer feedback, but she received a bonus of $1.55
million while he received a bonus of $5.5 million, the lawsuit
alleged.
According to the suit, Ms. Messina's boss's revenue-producing
direct reports included her -- the only woman -- and 10 male
colleagues. She received a total of $2 million for 2015, while nine
of those men made between $3 million and $6.5 million in total, the
lawsuit said. One male peer made less than her, $1.5 million. The
lawsuit doesn't specify a source for the figures.
Ms. Messina joined Bank of America in 2007 after nearly a decade
at Salomon Smith Barney. The lawsuit estimated that she has been
underpaid by $8.25 million during her time at Bank of America.
Ms. Messina also filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission and a complaint with the Labor
Department alleging whistleblower retaliation, the lawsuit
said.
Write to Christina Rexrode at christina.rexrode@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 17, 2016 19:48 ET (23:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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