Ex-Barclays Cartel member told “life isn’t fair” as he was shown the door, court hears
A former Barclays trader was told "life isn't fair" shortly before being fired, a court heard today.
Chris Ashton was disciplined by the bank in April last year. He was previously a member of "The Cartel", a chat room used by senior traders at a number of banks to share information in a bid to shift currency benchmarks in their favour.
Barclays claimed Ashton flouted its code of conduct by using offensive language and sharing confidential information.
However, Ashton has argued that his firing was unfair, that he had blown the whistle on the improper use of chat rooms by traders and that he was made a scapegoat so the bank could pacify watchdogs.
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The ex-Barclays banker argued during his April disciplinary hearing that it was not fair to apply the standards which had resulted from the rate-fixing scandal being made public to his actions which had taken place long before.
According to Bloomberg, Ashton told the court that Justin Bull, the bank's former chief operating officer, "leaned forward, spread his arms and said 'Well, life isn’t fair'".
Ashton added: "I found it not only unfair, but entirely unreasonable and deeply offensive."
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The ex-Barclay's employee was promoted in October 2013, a year after he alerted his employer as to how the chat rooms were being abused and four months after the rate-fixing scandal had broken more widely to the public.
Ashton claimed his promotion gave the bank a way to "pin the blame" on him for the scandal.
A statement from Barclays read: "Barclays does not comment on matters which are subject to on-going litigation except to confirm that we will be vigorously defending this case."