RACIAL DUST-UP AT JPM
Ex-broker files bias suit
Anattempted Harlem “shuffle” has backfired at JPMorgan, according to a lawsuit.
An African-American former broker at the giant Wall Street asset manager is charging racial discrimination, claiming his career was badly sidelined because of his ethnicity.
The suit comes at a time whenthe firm, led by Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, has been going all out to hire and retain more ethnically diverse talent.
When JPMorgan, which manages money for some of the globe’s richest families, tried unsuccessfully to encourage one broker, Francis Abanga, to switch from the bank’s affluent New York neighborhood offices to a seemingly low-producing Harlem branch — allegedly saying it was a “good fit” — the offer ignited racial tensions, according to the racial discrimination lawsuit filed against the bank in federal court.
“He’s not going to just sit back and allow racism to occur,” one person familiar with the lawsuit said. “He’s letting the firm know it was trying to move black people a step back, to a place African Americans once used to be in our society.”
The racial firestorm was exacerbated when Abanga was told by his supervisor he would be “best” suited to the Harlem branch because he is “black,” according to his complaint.
The complaint also alleges that a regional director of banking and wealth at JPMorgan Chase later “agreed” with that assessment — that Harlem “would be the right fit.”
In his lawsuit, Abanga is alleging that JPMorgan violated discrimination laws under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the New York State Human Rights Law and the New York City Human Rights Law.
Abanga claims he was persuaded to return to JPMorgan in 2014, when the bank set him up in four prosperous Bronx branches, two each in Castle Hill and Parkchester. However, he says three were subsequently assigned to two individuals with Hispanic roots, the fourth to someone with an Indian background. And he lost out because he was “black,” he complains.
“Knowing that his career would be severely limited with the defendants because his ethnicity/color/race would dictate where he could be placed,” Abanga “felt forced to leave,” the complaint alleges.
And JPMorgan’s alleged practice of “refusing” to allow certain branches to be covered by Abanga “because of his ethnicity/race/color,” is described as “discriminatory and unlawful,” in the complaint.
A Bronx resident once lauded by JP Morgan for his “great performance results,” Abanga left the bank last year.
When reached by The Post, Abanga, who now works at Citigroup Global Markets in the Bronx, said he “can’t talk about that, my lawyer is the one who can talk about it.” His lawyer, Lauren Goldberg, declined to comment.
Elizabeth Seymour, a spokeswoman for JP Morgan, said in an e-mailed statement: “We have to decline to comment as the case is in litigation.”