LONDON (BLOOMBERG) - US bank Citigroup suspended one of its highest-profile bond traders, who likely earned over £1 million (S$1.8 million), for allegedly stealing food from the company's cafeteria, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Mr Paras Shah, head of high-yield credit trading for Europe, the Middle East and Africa left Citigroup last month over the issue, the person said, asking not to be named because the matter is private.

The bank suspended him following numerous allegations that he had been stealing food from its headquarters at Canary Wharf in east London, the Financial Times reported on Monday (Feb 3).

Ms Danielle Romero-Apsilos, a spokesman for the bank, declined to comment on the nature of the departure. Mr Shah did not respond to a request for comment sent through LinkedIn.

Mr Shah, 31, joined Citi in 2017 after seven years at HSBC, and within two months he was promoted to lead the high-yield credit trading business for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Mr Shah, whose job entailed matching buyers and sellers of junk bonds, is likely to have received a seven-figure pay package, according to rival traders and junk bond investors, and was suspended weeks before Citi was due to pay bonuses to senior staff, the FT added.

Financial institutions and regulators in the United Kingdom have in the past harshly disciplined executives alleged to have engaged in personal misconduct such as theft, even involving small amounts of money, the FT said.

Japan's Mizuho Bank fired a London banker in 2016 after he was caught stealing a part from a colleague's bike worth about £5. In 2014, the Financial Conduct Authority banned a former BlackRock executive from senior roles in the UK financial sector after he was found to have repeatedly dodged paying the train ticket for his commute to the City of London.

Mr Shah's LinkedIn profile showed that he graduated from the University of Bath in 2010 with a degree in economics after attending the Latymer grammar school in Edmonton, north London, the Daily Mail reported.