Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says claims by a former executive that the bank retaliated against him for blowing the whistle on its failure to comply with anti-money-laundering policies should be heard outside of court or dismissed.
The former executive, Chris Rollins, sued the bank earlier this month, claiming the company’s leaders ruined his reputation, blamed him for failures of its anti-money laundering procedures and fired him after 16 years of service.
In a filing on Monday at the District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan), Goldman Sachs said Rollins agreed to arbitration when he became a managing director in January 2011.
The company asked U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos to put the lawsuit on hold while Rollins’s claims are heard in arbitration or to throw out the case entirely. The suit is a “misplaced attempt” to involve U.S. courts in a dispute that is centered on events that took place outside of the country, Goldman Sachs said.
Rollins was discharged in February 2017 after an internal investigation found that he had engaged in “misconduct warranting termination,” the bank said.
Rollins “alleges that after the investigation in the United Kingdom into his misconduct began, he ’reported’ concerns internally and tries to recast himself belatedly as a whistle-blower,” Goldman Sachs said.
Source: bloomberg.com
