Now that Chuck Prince is out at Citigroup, everyone can say what they
really thought of him. Todd Thomson, the former head of Citi’s wealth-management department, who was fired in January after a delicious spate of reports questioning his spending (his extravagant office was commonly referred to as the “Todd Mahal”) and his relationship with
CNBC’s Money Honey Maria Bartiromo, jumps in first. Thomson told Reuters today that he suspected Prince himself orchestrated the “smear campaign” against him, because he was trying to divert attention from the issues at Citibank and also, perhaps, because he considered Thomson a rival. “There was a very significant rift between me and the now ex-
CEO,” he told Reuters (click the picture to watch the video). “I’ve never been accused of having anything other than an appropriate relationship with Maria Bartiromo. And I do have an appropriate relationship with Maria Bartiromo.” Bartiromo concurs: “Something happened between Todd Thomson and Chuck Prince, and somehow I got wrapped up in it,” she told the
Times the other day. “Clearly, there was another agenda going on.” An agenda! A rift! A triangle! It’s all so Shakespearean! These people have been
wronged!
It was kind of weird that time when Thomson insisted on taking Bartiromo alone on a private jet to Asia while other Citi employees flew commercial. Also, that time he gave $5 million to sponsor a Sundance special Bartiromo was supposed to host? Awkward. Oh, and he did get her on the advisory board at Wharton School, of which he is chair. Hm, yeah. Sorry, Todd. Even if the Prince was the messenger, it still kind of looks like something was rotten in the state of Denmark.
Ex Citi exec Thomson says he was smeared [Reuters]
Related: Anchor’s Ties to Citigroup Attract Scrutiny [NYT]
