Goldman settles ADHD discrimination suit with former analyst

Goldman Is Said to Be Part of Singapore's Wider 1MDB Probe

Goldman Sachs Group settled a discrimination claim with a former analyst who alleged that the bank discriminated against him because of his attention-deficit condition.

Kwasi Afrifa, who worked alongside London traders in the equities and credit markets, had said at an earlier hearing that he was compelled to resign after the bank’s “stubborn refusal” to take steps to ease his working life. The sides settled the claim Tuesday on the eve of a renewed U.K. employment tribunal fight, according to a court official.

Terms of the settlement weren’t released. A Goldman Sachs spokesman and Mike Cain, Afrifa’s lawyer, declined to comment.

Afrifa said that he lost the chance of a lucrative investment banking career that “could amount to several million pounds in loss of future earnings,” according to a statement from his lawyers ahead of the hearing.

The 32-year-old former analyst said he took medication to deal with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and he suffered from being easily distracted. In his appraisals, managers repeatedly told him to pay better attention to detail and took him to task for failing to communicate ideas concisely as well as to complete tasks on time — issues related to his ADHD, he said.

Goldman Sachs lawyers said at the time of the earlier hearing that Afrifa was a poor performer and he would have likely been dismissed by early 2019 at the latest if he hadn’t quit.

Afrifa resigned in May 2018 from the Fundamental Strategies Group in London after he said that Goldman Sachs ignored suggested adjustments that would make it easier for him to work.

The tribunal originally heard the case in February last year but it had to be restarted after a member of the tribunal panel died before a judgment had been given.

Bloomberg News
Lawsuits Goldman Sachs
MORE FROM EMPLOYEE BENEFIT NEWS