An ex-IT employee for Fulton County sued his former employer, alleging he experienced ethnic discrimination and then was scapegoated and fired for the 2024 cyberattack that he claims was caused by his negligent supervisor.
Omotade Adeniyi, a U.S. citizen from Nigeria, filed a federal lawsuit against Fulton County, where he was employed for nearly 14 years before he says he was unjustly terminated.
It was only in his last two years that his workplace treatment and environment began to change with the arrival of a newly hired supervisor, William Clemons.
According to his complaint cited by local news outlets, Clemons started making “repeated discriminatory remarks regarding his national origin and the ethnic composition” of the team he supervised in 2023.
The suit alleges that Clemons called Adeniyi the N-word and even referred to him and other team members, who included another employee from Nigeria, as “African Americans United Nations.”
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Adeniyi filed complaints, but the human resources department took no measures to stop or discipline Clemons, according to the suit.
Finally, in January 2024, when the ransomware attack debilitated the county’s systems, Adeniyi’s work computer and hardware were treated as the breach points, even though the computers of other employees were how the hackers gained entry, according to the lawsuit.
Adeniyi claimed the cyberattack was the direct result of his supervisor’s actions.
The complaint states that Clemons instructed his staff to issue laptops to Adeniyi’s subordinates “without proper configuration.” In doing so, the supervisor “bypassed standard security protocols,” which allowed cybercriminals to access the county’s information technology system.
Investigators discovered that computers belonging to one of Adeniyi’s American colleagues and another employee from Nigeria were breached in the attack, but only the Nigerian staff member was punished.
Adeniyi and the other Nigerian employee were placed on administrative leave afterward, then fired in July 2024.
The American employee was subsequently promoted to Adeniyi’s position as the new technical operations manager – System Engineering.
Clemons, who currently serves as the county’s chief technology officer, was never penalized for actions that compromised the county’s systems, according to the complaint.
He is not a defendant in the case Adeniyi is bringing against Fulton County.
Adeniyi’s complaint states the hack started in December 2023, but it wasn’t discovered until the next month. Afterward, Fulton County delayed fixing the issues from the attack while trying to negotiate a lower cost for repairs. The county ended up paying for a $10 million software upgrade after the hack.
The LockBit ransomware group took responsibility for the attack. Fulton County officials said they never paid the hackers a ransom.
Adeniyi submitted a formal complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last December and received the right to sue this past June.
Adeniyi’s complaint seeks compensation, alleging that he and the other Nigerian staff member were let go for no legitimate reason and only because of their national origin.
A county spokesperson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Fulton does not comment on pending litigation.
