Citigroup Inc. has sued Gautam Hazarika, a former Singapore-based director in its global markets unit, accusing him of handing confidential information to Deutsche Bank AG before joining the German bank.

Deutsche Bank’s head of corporate flow sales for Asia, excluding Japan, denied the allegations and is today scheduled to ask Singapore’s High Court to set aside an order allowing Citigroup to search his apartment, car and home computer.

 

Hazarika was in “flagrant breach” of his employment contract and duties to Citigroup by sending e-mails containing trade secrets to Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Plc and his personal account, the New York-based lender said in its Nov. 30 lawsuit. Deutsche Bank isn’t a defendant in the Citigroup suit.

 

Citigroup’s suit comes after Merrill Lynch & Co. sued Deutsche Bank for allegedly raiding its bankers and misappropriating trade secrets last year and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc fired its Singapore-based chief currency trader in May last year for sending e-mails allegedly containing confidential data.

 

The cases highlight the intense rivalry among banks for bankers who can “bring across a decent book of clients,” said Siraj Omar, head of litigation at Premier Law LLC in Singapore, who isn’t involved in the suit. “The idea is to make things as difficult as possible for the bankers who are leaving, which is only logical from the banks’ perspective.”