Dozens of women employed at Goldman Sachs more than a decade ago revealed new allegations of how they were subjected to years of discrimination, sexual harassment and assault by their male managers in the Wall Street giant.
Explosive allegations in recently unredacted court documents, released Thursday by lawyers who represent about 1,400 plaintiffs who have filed a sex discrimination class action lawsuit, detail the lewd and criminal behavior of the firm’s senior bankers.
On Thursday, a judge set a trial date for June 5, 2023 in the US Southern District of New York for the year-long litigation .
Documents list at least 75 reported cases of sexual misconduct by male managers, as well as seven criminal complaints alleging serious offenses including rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.
The company was also accused of keeping managers on warnings, despite repeated complaints from subordinates.
“For example, a manager took his employee to an abandoned office and proposed sex,” the court documents allege. Later, the male manager “called her separately and told her that he was masturbating to the sound of his voice.”
“He also insisted that she come to his apartment, where he showed photos he had taken of other female Goldman employees in lingerie,” the complaint said.
The attorneys published internal complaints that were filed with Goldman officials between the years 2000 and 2011 describing how a manager told a female subordinate that “with that feisty nature, you would be good in bed ”.
Another Goldman manager told a subordinate that he loved her and repeatedly made sexually suggestive comments and innuendos during their business trips, the lawsuit states.
According to court documents, the woman was quoted as saying, “I was talking to this guy who just got promoted to Vice President… I told how it bothered me to be touched by guys, and he was very supportive and gave me advice on what to do, and next thing I know, his hand is on my butt too!”
A Goldman Sachs spokesperson told the New York Post: “The The filing of the complaints by the plaintiffs does not reflect the reality at Goldman Sachs. Many are two decades old and have been selectively, inaccurately, and incompletely presented.”
The spokesperson added: “Discrimination, harassment, and mistreatment in any form are unacceptable at Goldman Sachs. , and when they are identified, prompt action is taken, including dismissal.”
“Out of respect for people involved, we are not going to comment on the individual complaints”.
The court documents continue to list other cases of unwanted contact. An employee is said to have shown his co-workers a sexual video he made with an unidentified woman and then “perpetuated the rumor that the woman was a co-worker.”
A employee alleged that an employee drugged and raped her after a company baseball game.
The lawsuit also alleges that a manager harassed, groped and propositioned a female subordinate during an orientation retreat.
After she rejected his advances, he followed her to her room, tried to lie down with her and did not leave her alone until he could close the door, according to the lawsuit.
The court documents also allege that Goldman is “aware of these problems” and that it “tolerate managers that engage in gender stereotypes, sexual harassment and/or gender favoritism”.
An employee alleges that it is “widely known” that a “participating managing director” was “inappropriate with j women young men” and that “other women have inappropriate experiences with him”, and that she is “terrified to be alone with him”.
The documents continue to list other alleged incidents, including one in the that the company offered only a “verbal warning” to a manager who allegedly groped his assistant.
Another male associate received a “strong written warning” after he spread the word rumor of a sexual video.
“In fact, the perpetrators of sexual harassment have been promoted or allowed to remain in senior management positions,” according to the attorneys representing the plaintiffs.
One of the three named plaintiffs who filed the legal action against Goldman, Cristina Chen-Oster, made public her accusations for the first time in 2011.
The MIT graduate who rose to become a vice president of Goldman alleged that a colleague work immobilized her cont against the wall and put his hand up her blouse as he tried to force himself on her.
Court documents allege that even after After she reported the incident to the company, her assailant was promoted to CEO.
The other plaintiffs named in the case are Allison Gamba and Shanna Orlich.
Gamba alleges she was passed over for promotion, despite generating a department record $9.5 million as a Goldman trader on the New York Stock Exchange, while less qualified male colleagues were elevated in rank and salary.
When she called her boss and asked if he had nominated her for the CEO position, he told him: “I would have been a laughing stock if I had nominated you.”
“I knew that they were not going to promote me anymore,” Gamba told Vox in 2011.
“My head was against the glass ceiling”.
Orlich worked and n Goldman as an associate that traded distressed loans. She alleged that her manager hired prostitutes “wearing short black skirts, strapless tops and Santa hats” for a Christmas party.
Last month, a former Goldman banker, Jamie Fiore Higgins, published a memoir alleging that the investment bank’s Manhattan headquarters was so riddled with misogyny that a colleague kept a spreadsheet ranking female recruits based on their physical attributes.
Higgins, aged 46, from Somerset County, New Jersey, writes that a colleague told her she was promoted “because of her vagina” .
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