City banker who ‘stole canteen food from Canary Wharf offices’ is suspended Paras Shah is thought to have been on a seven-figure salary

A top city trader has been suspended after allegedly stealing food from his office canteen.

Paras Shah, one of Citigroup’s most senior London-based bond traders, is reported to have left his post last month.

According to the Financial Times, the bank suspended Shah, who is head of Citi’s high-yield bond trading for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, after claims that he had stolen the food from the canteen at its Canary Wharf offices.

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The newspaper cited four sources were familiar with the matter. Citigroup were unavailable for comment.

Citigroup

According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr Shah joined Citigroup in 2017 after spending more than six years as a trader at HSBC.

He holds an honours degree in Economics from the University of Bath and graduated in 2010. After graduation he joined HSBC that same year.

Mr Shah, 31, who is likely to have been in a seven-figure pay package was contacted for comment. He was suspended weeks before Citi was due to pay bonuses to senior staff.

According to the newspaper, who spoke to two former colleagues of Mr Shah, he was a successful trader and well-liked.

Crackdown

Financial institutions and regulators in Britain have cracked down on executives alleged to have engaged in personal misconduct.

Marius Caracota, a London trader at Japan’s Mizuho Bank, was fired in 2016 after he was caught taking a £5.00 chain-guard from a colleague’s bike.

He insisted he had thought the accessory was his own and sued the bank over his dismissal. He lost the case last year.

And in 2014 the Financial Conduct Authority banned a former executive from senior roles in the UK’s financial sector after he was found to have over several years repeatedly dodged paying the full train fare for his commute from East Sussex to the City.

Jonathan Burrows, who had worked as a managing director at Blackrock Asset Management Investor Services, eventually paid £43,000 to settle the case when the extent of the evasion became clear, but had to resign from his high-flying job.

The executive who earned £1m a year and had two mansions worth £4m was dubbed one of the UK’s biggest train fare dodgers.