Trader earning nearly $2 million a year suspended for stealing cafeteria food

A high-flying trader earning nearly $2 million a year has been suspended for repeatedly stealing food from the bank’s cafeteria.

A high-flying Citigroup trader earning nearly $2 million a year has been suspended for repeatedly stealing food from the London bank’s cafeteria.

Paras Shah, head of Citigroup’s high-yield “junk bond” trading for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, abruptly left his post last month, the Financial Times first reported on Monday.

The 31-year-old joined Citigroup in 2017 after seven years at HSBC and was one of the most high-profile credit traders in Europe on an estimated salary of around £1 million ($A1.94 million) including bonuses, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Mr Shah is said to have repeatedly helped himself to snacks and sandwiches at Citigroup’s Canary Wharf headquarters without paying, four sources told the Financial Times. Two former colleagues told the paper he was a well liked and successful trader.

The offices of Citigroup, left, at Canary Wharf in London. Picture: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Mr Shah’s favourite sandwich is said to be cheese and pickle.

Both Citigroup and Mr Shah — who earned his economics degree at the University of Bath and gained work at experience at Goldman Sachs — have declined to comment to media outlets. He has since deleted his LinkedIn profile.

On Wednesday, a reporter with the UK’s Daily Mail spoke to Mr Shah’s cousin Dinesh outside his north London home. “The family have been trying to contact Paras but he’s not responding to our calls,” he said.

“We’re worried about him, that’s why I’ve come to his house. He obviously doesn’t want to speak to anybody about what’s happened. We are all very upset about this. Paras comes from a very good family and this is not the kind of behaviour we expect.”

Dinesh said Mr Shah’s favourite sandwich was cheese and pickle. “That’s what he enjoys the most — but he makes them at home,” he told the paper.

It’s not the first time a high-profile finance worker has been caught out for stingy behaviour. In 2014, Blackrock fund manager Jonathan Burrows was hit with a life ban by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority after allegedly dodging £43,000 ($A83,000) worth of train fares.