Citigroup discriminated against Armenian-Americans, federal regulator says

abcnews.go.com:

The bank discriminated against Armenian Americans, federal regulators say.

NEW YORK — Citigroup intentionally discriminated against Armenian Americans when they applied for credit cards, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Wednesday.

The bureau said some bank employees argued internally that Armenian Americans were more likely to commit fraud and referred to applicants as “bad guys” or as affiliated with organized crime.

The CFPB found that Citi employees were trained to avoid approving applications with last names ending in “yan” or «ian» — the most common suffix to Armenian last names — as well applications that originated in Glendale, California, where a significant portion of the country's Armenian-American population lives.

As part of the order, Citi will pay $24.5 million in fines as well as $1.4 million in remedies to impacted customers.

The origins of the case come as a result of some organized crime syndicates operating in Southern California that involve Armenian Americans. The leaders of the Armenian crime rings have been charged with identity theft and other financial crimes, including stealing COVID-19 financial relief funds in recent years.

Citi, based in New York, said a few employees were attempting to stop potential fraud due to this “well-documented Armenian fraud ring operating in certain parts of California" that often involved individuals running up credit card debts, then leaving the country.

However, in the bureau's order, these Citi employees used identifiable information that broadly discriminated against Armenian Americans in general.

“We sincerely apologize to any applicant who was evaluated unfairly by the small number of employees who circumvented our fraud detection