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Federal Agency Rocked By Pervasive Culture Of Sexual Harassment: Report

An FDIC sign is posted on a window at a Silicon Valley Bank branch in Wellesley, Mass., on Saturday, March 11, 2023. From winemakers in California to startups across the Atlantic Ocean, companies are scrambling to figure out how to manage their finances after their bank, Silicon Valley Bank, suddenly shut down on Friday. U.S. customers with less than $250,000 in the bank can count on insurance provided by the FDIC. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

A new report sheds light on a pervasive culture of sexual harassment plaguing a major federal entity under the watch of President Joe Biden.

Law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton was tasked with investigating the workplace at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) in 2023, and released its 234-page report on Tuesday. Throughout the investigation, 500 individuals, close to one-in-ten employees at the entire FDIC, reported “experiences of sexual harassment, discrimination, and other interpersonal misconduct” in the workplace to the firm’s tip line.

The incidents reported to the firm, the report said, “did not occur in a vacuum,” and were rather the result of a “misogynistic,” “patriarchal,” “insular” and “outdated” workplace. In its executive summary, the firm pulled out specific accounts of such sexual harassment that it discovered during its investigation.

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