This is what happened last time a male banker accused his female boss of sexual harassment
If you're Lorna Hajdini, an executive director in JPMorgan's New York leveraged finance team, it's a difficult day. Hajdini, who didn't respond to a request to comment for this article, is the subject of accusations from an unnamed male junior on her team, who claims she sexually harassed him. He has filed a case to this effect with the New York County Supreme Court.
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A spokesman for JPMorgan said they consider the claim to be baseless. "Following our investigation, we don’t believe there’s any merit to these claims. While numerous employees cooperated with the investigation, the complainant refused to participate and has declined to provide facts that would be central to support his allegations."
It's not inconceivable that a senior female banker could harass a junior male on her team. However, other senior women we've spoken to are sceptical. "This sounds like nonsense," opined one.
The most recent incidence of a male banker claiming to have been sexually harassed by his female boss didn't end well. After he was fired in 2019, Damilare Ajao, a former employee of Commerzbank in London, claimed that his female boss grabbed his crotch and ogled him in a string vest. Last November, Ajao was sentenced to 20 months in prison after a court found that he'd intentionally lied about the alleged abuse.
Ajao's female boss wasn't named in his complaint. She was reported to have found the whole situation "insulting and painful," and to have started taking sleeping medication for stress.
Hadjini is one of several senior women on JPMorgan's New York leveraged finance team. By our count there are at least three other senior women working in leveraged finance for the bank in NYC.
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