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Citibank has won an employment lawsuit against a banker which it dismissed for submitting an expenses claim that included coffee and sandwiches for his partner and lying about it.
Szabolcs Fekete, a senior analyst, sued the bank alleging unfair and wrongful dismissal after the bank ousted him over the expenses that he submitted after a three-day work trip to Amsterdam in 2022. The East London employment tribunal dismissed his case last month and ruled in favour of Citi.
Fekete, who had worked at Citi since 2015, travelled with his partner, who was not a bank employee, on his trip to Amsterdam the tribunal noted. He submitted his expenses claim in late July and claimed that the amounts were well within the bank’s €100 a day limit. However a senior manager informed him that his expenses claim would be rejected because he believed the meals on the receipt had been for two people.
According to the ruling, which was made public on Friday, Fekete replied by email that: “I was on the business trip by myself and that I had 2 coffees as they were very small.”
The senior manager questioned his answer, asking: “The receipt appears to have two sandwiches, two coffees, and another drink . . . Are you advising that this was all consumed by you?”
Fekete replied: “Yes that is correct . . . On that day I skipped breakfast and only had 1 coffee in the morning. For lunch I had 1 sandwich with a drink and 1 coffee in the restaurant and took another coffee back to the office with me and had the second sandwich in the afternoon . . . Which also served as my dinner.” He added that the amounts were “well within my €100 limit”.
The ruling notes that after further queries from the manager, Fekete replied: “All my expenses are within the €100 daily allowance. Could you please outline what your concern is as I don’t think I have to justify my eating habits to this extent.”
In early August, the senior manager escalated the expenses claim to Citi’s ethics office and an internal investigator was appointed with Fekete questioned during a Zoom meeting in August. He was asked whether he had shared a meal of pasta pesto and a bolognaise with his partner but denied this.
Later in August, Fekete confirmed that some of the food had been consumed by his partner and Citi’s investigation in October concluded that he had breached Citi’s expense management policy and had lied during an internal investigation.
The bank dismissed him for gross misconduct in November 2022 after a disciplinary hearing in which Fekete, who was senior analyst EMEA regulatory exam management and oversight — said in his defence that he had been on medical leave and medication for a number of weeks after his Amsterdam trip when replying to emails about his expenses claim. He had also recently lost a family member.
Employment Judge Illing ruled that the bank was within its rights to dismiss Fekete who “was employed in a position of trust in a global financial institution” and said the case “is not about the sums of money involved”.
The judge said in the ruling: “I have accepted that the expense report may have been submitted in error. However I am satisfied that a dismissal in relation to the misrepresentation allegation alone would fall within the band of a reasonable response by a reasonable employer.”
He added: “I am satisfied that even if the expense claim had been filed under a misunderstanding, there was an obligation upon the claimant to own up and rectify the position at the first opportunity. I accept that the respondent requires a commitment to honesty from its employees.”
Citibank said: “We are pleased with the decision.”
Fekete did not immediately respond to a request for comment made via LinkedIn.
Financial institutions and regulators in the UK have in the past harshly disciplined executives alleged to have engaged in personal misconduct such as theft, even involving small amounts of money.
In 2020, Citigroup suspended one of its most senior bond traders in London after the US investment bank accused him of stealing food from the office canteen.
Japan’s Mizuho Bank fired a London banker in 2016 after he was caught stealing a chain wheel guard from a colleague’s bike worth about £5.
In 2014, the Financial Conduct Authority banned Jonathan Burrows, who worked as a managing director at BlackRock Asset Management Investor Services, from senior roles in the UK financial sector after he was found to have repeatedly dodged paying the train ticket for his commute to the City. He ended up paying £43,000 to settle the case when the extent of the years-long evasion became clear.
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