There are workplace lawsuits, there are Wall Street lawsuits, and then there are lawsuits so lurid that they appear to have been written by someone who looked at the excesses of The Wolf of Wall Street and decided what the story really needed was HR, Rohypnol, Viagra, racial abuse, office politics, anonymous threats, and the world’s largest American bank. The JPMorgan case that has exploded online sits in that strange modern space where a court filing becomes a viral morality play before a court has tested a single claim. At the centre is a former JPMorgan banker who filed a sexual harassment suit under the name “John Doe”, accusing senior executive Lorna Hajdini of coercing him into non-consensual sexual acts, racially abusing him and threatening his career. JPMorgan says it investigated the claims and found no merit. Hajdini, through lawyers, has denied the allegations. A second report has since identified the anonymous accuser as Chirayu Rana and claimed allies of Hajdini have branded the lawsuit a “complete fabrication”.
