Claiming mistreatment – and eventual termination – due to his ethnicity and faith, a Muslim is working with the EEOC on a suit against Merrill Lynch. Whatever transpired, it’s already looking messy, as plaintiff and defendant can’t even agree on what the plaintiff’s job was.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Merrill Lynch this week over its treatment of an Iranian Muslim, who the commission says was an analyst in the bank’s global markets and investment banking model development group.

The worker, Majid Borumand, asserts that he was denied promotions and ultimately fired because of his ethnicity and faith. A Merrill Lynch spokesman, Mark Herr, said the company was not guilty.

“We regret the E.E.O.C. believes there are grounds for its filing,” he told The Associated Press. “We respectfully, but strongly, disagree with the E.E.O.C. and deny all of Mr. Borumand’s allegations.”

The E.E.O.C. said Mr. Borumand was hired in 2002 under an immigration program that allowed American firms to recruit talented foreigners; Mr. Borumand has a doctorate in theoretical physics and a master’s in mathematical finance.

While employed at the company, Mr. Borumand was subjected to “remarks that reflected animus toward his national origin and religion,” the E.E.O.C. said in a complaint filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

The federal agency identified Mr. Borumand as an analyst in Merrill Lynch’s global markets and investment banking model development group, but the company disputed that description, and said that he was a senior programmer in a global equity technology group.

(Continue reading this story on New York Times)

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