NEW YORK–A former employee of Deutsche Bank has filed suit alleging he was fired for highlighting operational shortcomings that led the bank to suffer a $30-million loss.

The former senior operations manager, Noah Ramos, has alleged in a civil lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court that he urged senior bank executives to report a series of operational breaches related to loans to wealthy clients to Federal Reserve regulators who oversee the bank, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

Instead, the lawsuit alleges, senior executives conspired to misrepresent the control problems to the U.S. regulator as accounting errors, and spread the losses across other bank businesses to disguise them, the report adds.

According to the lawsuit, shortly after joining the bank Ramos discovered the lending business improperly accrued around $173 million by failing to apply some customers’ loan payments from deposit accounts. 

‘Improper Accumulation’

“It was akin to funds in a bank account not being used to pay off a credit-card balance, resulting in the pileup of late fees and charges,” the Journal explained. “The improper accumulation of funds led to an unanticipated loss in the lending business of $29.5 million in 2023, Ramos alleged.”

The Wall Street Journal said Ramos’s lawsuit alleges Deutsche Bank fired him in 2024  in retaliation. The bank claimed he violated its equal employment opportunity policy when he showed anti-Asian bias in the presence of colleagues, an allegation he denies. Ramos is seeking damages of $100 million or more, the Journal reported. 

“The allegations made in this claim have been thoroughly investigated and were determined to have no merit. We will vigorously defend ourselves,” a Deutsche Bank spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal.