Citi has urged the court to dismiss a lawsuit against the lender brought by its former interim data transformation chair, who claims the bank ousted her after she refused to misreport data to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Kathleen Martin was terminated in September 2023, after nearly two years tenure at Citi. She sued the bank last month, alleging she was fired for not consenting to Chief Operating Officer Anand Selva’s request that she hide information from the OCC that would make the lender “look bad.”
However, Citi said in a Thursday filing at a Manhattan federal court that Martin “was lawfully and legitimately terminated after it was determined that she lacked the requisite leadership and engagement skills to successfully execute in the significant role of interim Data Transformation Chair.”
Martin claimed in her May complaint that she was retaliated against for pushing back against Selva — her manager and a defendant in the case — in two separate instances. These meetings concerned data metrics intended for presentation to the OCC in compliance with a consent order between Citi and the agency.
A Citi spokesperson told Banking Dive in May that Martin’s “lawsuit is without merit and we will vigorously defend against it.”
Citi further states in the filing that the complaint is subject to dismissal because it fails to point out which element of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act the plaintiff was engaged in as she sought protection under the law.
Sarbanes-Oxley protects employees from retaliation for reporting violations of specific and enumerated laws, including mail, wire, bank, securities frauds, any regulation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or any federal law related to fraud against shareholders.
“Because these allegations, even if taken as true (which they are not), do not plausibly allege that Plaintiff reported a reasonable belief of a violation of one of the laws enumerated by [Sarbanes-Oxley], her Complaint should be dismissed,” the lender wrote.
However, Martin's lawyer, Valdi Licul, a partner at the law firm Wigdor, blasted Citi’s defense.
"It is astounding that Citi can take the position that they are legally permitted to fire an employee who has made complaints about false statements to regulators," Licul told Reuters.
Martin was hired in November 2021 amidst an ongoing effort by Citi to improve its data maintenance practices. She was hired to “revamp [Citi’s] data processes and avoid further legal jeopardy” after the regulator fined Citi $400 million in 2020 due to a “pattern of misconduct” in its data governance practices, Martin’s complaint said.
Martin began reporting to Selva when he assumed the COO role and discussed a metric designating authoritative data sources under the OCC consent order. Selva asked her to misreport the data, Martin said. But Martin reported the accurate metric to the OCC since she was concerned that Selva’s request would violate the OCC consent order, she added.
She met with Selva in September 2023 to discuss the “data governance health score” on a red/amber/green reporting scale, which led to a difference of opinion. According to Martin, Selva asked her to “manipulate” the data in an undescribed manner so that the metric could be reported as green or that she not report the metric.”
However, the data governance health score was reported to the board and OCC as red.
The bank dismissed Martin weeks later, around the time of a companywide overhaul that shrunk Citi’s headcount by 7,000 employees over the next six months.
In her lawsuit, Martin claimed she “exceed[ed] expectations” and requested the court reinstate her seniority status, give her back pay and award reasonable attorney’s fees.
