A senior banker from Citigroup was fired after his supervisors discovered he lied about claiming his partner’s lunch as a work expense.
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Szabolcs Fekete, a former senior analyst at the Wall Street-based company’s London office, was terminated after claiming that an order of pasta pesto and a bolognese was a lunch he purchased for himself. The expense is connected to a three-day work trip to Amsterdam last July, and he also bought two coffees plus two sandwiches during one meal, The Telegraph said.
He initially told his supervisors that he had eaten the food by himself because he skipped breakfast on the day of the double order but later confessed to using the work expense food for his partner, who was not an employee of Citigroup.
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Fekete was fired last November for gross misconduct, and the company won a lawsuit last month against him after he challenged the termination. Documents stated that a senior manager of Citigroup told Fekete that his expense claim would be rejected if the receipt showed that it was purchased for two people. He said the meals were within the bank’s €100($106) daily meal allowance.
” 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,” Fekete said in an email to his supervisor.
The case was sent to Citi’s ethics department and an investigation was launched. An employment judge ruled that the case was not about the money but being accountable.
“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.
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.”
