For years, Christine O’Reilly, a broker at the interdealer brokerage TP ICAP, alleges she suffered sexual harassment from Benjamin Waters, a trader at Citigroup and a client, who would send her late-night messages, spread rumors they were sleeping together and once tried to follow her into her hotel room, O’Reilly claims. The unwelcome advances got so bad that in 2023, she finally blocked him on the messaging platform WhatsApp.
But when O’Reilly’s supervisor found out, the 31-year-old broker alleges she was forced to unblock the trader, “tying her job to the need to tolerate sexual harassment,” according to a lawsuit filed in a Mahattan federal court on Monday.
The incident is just one of several outlined in the suit—filed by O’Reilly against TP ICAP, Citigroup, and her supervisor, Janie McCathie—that reveal “how unethical traders at powerful financial institutions exploit control over lucrative order flows to extract inappropriate personal favors from brokers,” according to the complaint. Waters is not listed as a defendant, but the suit claims there was a second Citi employee who allegedly knew about the harassment pattern and did nothing.
“No professional should have to choose between suffering or enduring harassment and losing a career,” Seth Redniss, the lawyer representing O’Reilly, told Fortune. “That's not a choice, that's coercion.”
Citi told Fortune that “the two individuals directly connected to Citi who are named in the suit are no longer with the bank,” but declined to comment further. ICAP did respond to repeated requests for comment.
In June 2017, the suit says O’Reilly was promoted to broker on ICAP’s Delta One MSCI Desk in New York, where she began reporting to McCathie, who was based in London. It was through McCathie that she first met Waters, who the complaint describes as a high-value trader who could direct billions of dollars in cash flow toward the brokerage.
Between 2020 and 2023, the suit alleges that Waters, based in London, made persistent and unwanted advances toward O’Reilly, with McCathie’s full knowledge. Screenshots included in the suit show Waters making repeated video calls and sending text messages to O’Reilly on WhatsApp despite receiving no response.
The suit also alleges that Waters sent sexually explicit messages to O’Reilly, asking her to send photos of herself and twice sharing nearly nude photos of a woman he said he was dating. Waters also messaged O’Reilly on Instagram to ask what she was wearing, according to a screenshot in the suit.
On July 26, 2023, screenshots show that O’Reilly blocked Waters on WhatsApp. But McCathie ordered O’Reilly to unblock him, the suit alleges, and screenshots then show O’Reilly unblocking Waters on Tuesday, Aug. 8. That Saturday, Waters sent O’Reilly a photo of himself getting drinks with McCathie, “reminding Ms. O’Reilly of his perceived untouchable status,” the complaint alleges.
“This was me telling you … you didn’t read between the lines,” he wrote Aug. 25, after O’Reilly didn’t respond to the earlier message.
He then called O’Reilly, who didn’t respond, and a day later texted her, “are you even alive?”
In September 2023, Waters left a comment on one of O’Reilly’s Instagram posts, saying, “nice feet,” screenshots show. O’Reilly sent him an angry response saying he was bombarding her with messages that didn’t relate to their professional relationship and asking him what he wanted.
But when O’Reilly shared the exchange in her work WhatsApp group, her bosses scolded her for upsetting a client, and had an extended back-and-forth on the best way to mend the relationship, including drafting an apology for O’Reilly to send to Waters, according to the complaint.
“[Christine] this isn’t cool,” McCathie texted, according to screenshots. “He’s our client and is important to us.”
She later asked, “Am I ever going to see another order from him now after that message?”
“There is this view that you know what you are getting into as a woman. You are expected to play the game,” O’Reilly told Bloomberg. “It’s slimy and disgusting.”
For Citigroup, the case is the second suit in the past year alleging sexual harassment within its equities trading division. In November, a managing director alleged that a top equity banker in Citi’s North American markets division threatened her and her children if she continued to refuse his advances, and her lawsuit accuses the bank of allowing a “notoriously hostile” culture toward women to develop in its equities division. Citi is seeking to have the charges dismissed.
O’Reilly is still employed by ICAP, and has been on a leave of absence since earlier this year when she filed a formal complaint with the brokerage.
“I know this will be a nail in the coffin for my broking career,” she told Bloomberg. “I just hope that if people read these things, they realize it is wrong, it is so wrong.”
