Merrill sues over racially denigrating e-mails

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Merrill Lynch & Co Inc has sued an unknown defendant, alleging that the person impersonated one of the brokerage’s managers and sent racially denigrating e-mails to civil rights leader Al Sharpton and several black investment brokers at the firm.

The defendant, who has not been identified but is believed to be based somewhere in the U.S. Midwest, began sending racially charged e-mails in September, according to the complaint filed late Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

“The e-mails sent by defendant contain explicit racial remarks that are meant to be offensive to the African-American employees of Merrill Lynch,” it said.

Sharpton said he and his office had been “inundated” recently with threatening e-mails and phone calls but did not know if that had come from one or multiple sources.

“Hopefully this lawsuit can lead to people feeling that they can’t just go unchecked and operate with bigotry,” said Sharpton.

The e-mails have been made to appear as though they were sent by a Merrill Lynch regional administrative manager and included racial slurs, the company said.

In some instances, the e-mails were made to appear as though they had been signed as being from the manager, and at times they also made specific reference to the Merrill Lynch trade name, according to the complaint.

The e-mails were sent from a Hotmail account, which the defendant allegedly opened in the manager’s name. As a result of the e-mails, the company had “received complaints from some of its African-American employees,” and the bank manager’s name had been tarnished, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit did not say how or whether the unnamed defendant might have been associated with Merrill Lynch. A company spokesman could not immediately comment on the suit.

Merrill has sued for trademark infringement, fraud and defamation and asked the court to stop the dissemination of the e-mails, according to the complaint.

Sharpton said the case was emblematic of an increase in hate crimes nationwide, including in Jena, Louisiana, where three nooses were found hanging from a tree at a high school.

“I don’t know if we can identify this one person, but there has been a huge and disturbing increase in this type of crime,” he said. “They need to be prosecuted as hate crimes.”

In a separate statement, Microsoft spokesman David Bowermaster said his company “opposes discrimination in any form and will take swift action when it learns its products or services are being used in an abusive or harmful manner.”

“In taking such action, Microsoft maintains its commitment to protecting the privacy of its customers,” Bowermaster said. (Reporting by Paritosh Bansal and Christine Kearney)