Hong Kong’s securities regulator banned Richard Heyes, a former Citigroup Inc head trader, for five years, the latest twist in a long-running saga that the bank has struggled to move past.

Heyes used to be Head of Pan-Asia Equities at Citigroup Global Markets Asia before he retired in 2020. The Securities and Futures Commission said on Tuesday that he is banned from re-entering the industry until Sept 14, 2030.

His lapses include failing to ensure that adequate policies and system controls were in place, and that proper training had been provided to traders, according to the regulator. It said Heyes also exerted “significant pressure on the trading desks” to grow market share, “while failing to be vigilant for telltale signs that his subordinates were achieving this by dishonest means.”

For years, Citigroup’s Asia equities sales trading desk had sent out so-called indications of interest to clients that were at times mislabeled as “natural” — meaning they were from other clients — when they actually represented the bank’s own interests or positions it was willing to take.

The problematic activities took place from 2008 to 2018 before they were discovered by the SFC during an inspection. Afterwards, Citigroup fired multiple sales traders in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. Heyes had handed out the termination letters to the Hong Kong staffers, Bloomberg News previously reported.

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The case, which led to several wrongful dismissal lawsuits against Citigroup, has put a spotlight on the question of who should take the blame when banks get caught breaking the rules.

“This relates to historic conduct. Citi has implemented significant remedial measures to strengthen our compliance and internal controls to address this legacy issue from 2019,” said James Griffiths, a Hong Kong-based spokesperson for the bank. He added that Citi’s client activity increased about 30 percent in Hong Kong this year.

The regulator on Tuesday said Heyes ought to have understood from emails from staff that traders were misrepresenting facilitation trades as agency trades to clients, in order to gain additional market share. “However, as he failed to take note of the relevant emails, the traders’ misconduct went unchecked,” the SFC said.

Traders fired by Citigroup after the incident have one by one sued the bank for wrongful dismissal, saying that the bank had condoned the activity for years. Some of them won partially, some settled, and some withdrew their cases due to expensive legal fees. Many have found it hard to get new jobs, Bloomberg News has reported.

The SFC earlier fined Citigroup roughly $45 million following the regulatory investigation, and reprimanded the bank for “pervasive dishonest behavior.”