Trader sues ANZ for defamation

A high-performing ANZ trader is seeking a $20m defamation payout after the bank condemned one of his LinkedIn posts.

Mr Ozdemir has been em­ployed full-time at ANZ for seven years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

A high-performing ANZ trader is seeking a $20m defamation payout after the bank condemned one of his LinkedIn posts that blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic.

Bogac Ozdemir, the Singapore-based global head of credit, local markets and G4 rates trading, posted on the professional website in March that “we are all in this mess because of China and I don’t believe anything from there”, adding that “Americans do not have a government anymore”.

Later that month, after Mr Ozdemir was targeted on social media, ANZ issued a statement saying that the post did not reflect its views and showed “a distinct lack of judgment”.

The trader issued proceedings on July 8 in the New York State Supreme Court, alleging ANZ had “published statements on the internet ... including that he lacked judgment and was a ­racist”.

Mr Ozdemir claimed the statements were made “in response to pressure applied by Chinese financial regulators after Ozdemir published a blog linking China to COVID-19”.

He is seeking special damages of “not less than $20m, plus punitive damages, interest and costs”.

Mr Ozdemir, who remains an ANZ employee, told Bloomberg he wasn’t given notice of the bank’s statement before it was issued, and had since been offered a separation agreement.

ANZ reportedly said in a statement at the time that the matter related to the “appropriate use of an external communication channel by a person identified as a senior ANZ staff member”.

It declined to comment further on Tuesday.

Mr Ozdemir has been em­ployed full-time at ANZ for seven years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Before that, he was global head of US dollar swaps trading at Barclays Investment Bank, also in New York, for almost two years.

He has also held senior positions at French banks BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole.

Mr Ozdemir roams far and wide in his LinkedIn posts, debating history, politics, economics and philosophy.

A month ago, he wrote that when his career began at Citibank in 1997, there were “some rules on how to conduct yourself but the bank did not try to determine what you think, what you say, what you post or what your values should be”.

“Everything changed last 2 decades as FED destroyed most small businesses and help create mega corporations that pay half of what they paid in 2004 in Big Mac currency,” he wrote.

“Paisanos got poorer but had — for the first time — a chance to communicate with one another. That ruined everything.

“Same people who did everything to destroy God, religion and family values now become your new religion.

“Your corporation determines what you can think and what you can post.

“This new era finished Westphalia because it doesn’t matter now if you are a citizen.

“You can be an Australian but can be still prosecuted by a Foreign Government for what u post if your Lord (CEO) shakes hands for your head.

“Neo Feudalism is not a conspiracy theory but a fact now. Unfortunately your only defense is those politicians waiting for some crumbs from those CEOs to get elected.

“Why people not revolting against this?”

Recently, Mr Ozdemir’s posts on LinkedIn carry a disclaimer that the views he expresses are “entirely mine and not reflective of, or authorised by, ANZ”.