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A Long Island, New York, financial advisory firm is a “sexual cauldron” with certain offices reserved only for “sexual relationships,” employees say, and its top executives are guilty. The real-life “Wolf of Wall Street” is said to be dressed after convicted fraudster Jordan Belfort.
A $15 million lawsuit filed Tuesday and obtained by The Daily Beast alleges that senior partners at Coastline Wealth Management had no choice but to decide who would bed first after hiring receptionist Sasha Chemnitzer. He said he was betting. In the letter, Chemnitzer said he was the victim of “continuous and despicable acts of sexual harassment by executives” at the company “from the moment he joined the company.”
One of the executives became obsessed with Chemnitzer, going so far as to stalk her, according to the complaint, “professing his love through constant personal approaches, phone calls, voicemails, and endless text messages.” Another man pretended to be some kind of mentor, but in reality he was simply trying to “sexually submit” to Chemnitzer, telling her at one point, “I’m sure you’re a great fuck.” You’re a bastard,” the lawsuit says. Mr. Chemnitzer’s “repeated attempts to deny them only served to drive them mad,” the lawsuit alleges.
When Chemnitzer, who had since been promoted to customer service representative, went to the company’s human resources director, he told her that he had “cheated on her.”[ed] and invite[ed]According to the complaint, he ignored her complaints and asked for sex.
Stuck, Chemnitzer hired a lawyer, but was subsequently “further ostracized and humiliated” and stripped of his clientele, leaving him with no choice but to sue, the lawsuit says.
“No one should feel like they are being pursued as sexual prey, especially in the workplace,” Chemnitzer’s attorney, Ves Mitev, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “These defendants, by virtue of their incredible wealth, considered themselves above the law and beyond the bounds of common decency. [They] They believe they are the masters of their world and can run dens of fraud masquerading as trade intermediaries with no repercussions. ”
Garrett Taylor, co-founder and managing partner of Coastline, denied Kemnitzer’s claims in an email, saying the lawsuit is all about “misrepresentations of fact or comments or text taken out of context. Either it’s a result, or it’s just false.”
Sample message from Managing Director and Senior Financial Advisor Stefan Hagendorf to Chemnitzer.
Photo illustration: Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Suffolk County Courthouse
Taylor said Chemnitzer’s allegations are the first against anyone at Coastline in the company’s 12-year history, and that the company takes the accusations seriously, adding, “As a company and as an individual, “I am satisfied that I have done nothing to justify these allegations,” he added. against us. “
“I am saddened and disappointed that a disagreement between colleagues became the subject of a lawsuit,” Taylor said. “The underlying allegations in this lawsuit were investigated by Turning Point, an outside human resources agency that we proactively brought in to investigate the allegations and our work environment, and as soon as we became aware of them. has been fully addressed.”
He declined to provide further details, citing ongoing litigation, but said he and his partners “will ensure that Coastline and its employees are properly and timely treated once all the facts in this matter are known.” “I’m sure everyone will see that I acted against Lee.” ”
Kemnitzer started working at Coastline in February 2023 and says he became a “target” almost immediately. [Managing Director and Senior Financial Advisor Steffan Hagendorf’s] sexual frenzy,” her lawsuit states.
A bouquet of flowers that Hagendorf personally delivered to Chemnitzer on his first day at the company.
Suffolk County Courthouse
Hagendorf’s obsession with Chemnitzer “continued to grow and intensify into what he considered a romantic relationship,” and he constantly “love-bombed” her, the lawsuit states. But the lawsuit goes on to say that it was “in reality…stalker-level intrusions on a daily basis,” and was particularly characterized by “massive unsolicited vulgar text messages.” Chemnitzer told Hagendorf “unequivocally…in no uncertain terms:” [the two of them] According to the lawsuit, they had no relationship of any kind other than a professional relationship. ” Kemnitzer repeatedly asked Hagendorf to stop following her, but her pleas were in vain, she said.
Hagendorf, Taylor, wealth management director Dennis O’Leary, and partner, financial advisor and human resources director Shiraz Zaidi, “fostered a sexual and hostile work environment in which they established themselves as “wolves of the wall.” “Street” broker Jordan Belfort,” to (poorly) imitate the misogynistic and xenophobic portrayal of the 2013 Oscar-winning film “Old Boys Club.” ” the complaint states.
“The defendants regularly drank alcohol in the office during work hours and bragged about their sexual conquests to each other and to employees. [Kemnitzer]had sexual relations in the office so regularly that it was widely known to employees that certain offices were only for the purpose of “sexual relations,” the lawsuit alleges.
A senior partner said he would “drink until he was brown or black and bet on whether the self-driving car would get him home without a hitch.” “In the short period preceding the incident at issue in this case, three women, unable to bear the boiling alcohol-fueled sexual cauldron of Defendant Coastline Wealth Management, Inc.・I quit my job at Wealth Management.
All four defendants knew that Ms. Kemnitzer was a recovering alcohol abuser and “took advantage of her vulnerability to abuse drugs.” [her] Sexual surrender, especially when defendant O’Leary tried to position himself as a pseudo-life coach for plaintiff, when in reality he used overt manipulative tactics and the famous gas to control plaintiff sexually. “attempted to use writing techniques,” the complaint alleges.
Photo of alcohol used in Chemnitzer lawsuit.
Suffolk County Courthouse
In early October, nine months after Mr. Chemnitzer took the job at Coastline, someone – a “third party” Mr. Chemnitzer alleges – accused Mr. Hagendorf of having “many” extramarital affairs, according to the complaint. He is said to have disclosed one of their relationships to his wife. But Hagendorf believed it was Chemnitzer who sold him out and “aggressively confronted him.” [her] According to the complaint, he was at work when it came to the alleged affair.
Mr. Hagendorf “became angry, threatened and verbally abused” Mr. Chemnitzer as he sat at his desk, the lawsuit continues. “You will receive what comes to you,” he allegedly shouted at her. When Kemnitzer tried to leave the office, Hagendorf continued to do so, yelling, “You’re going to regret it,” and making “threatening threats” in text messages after Kemnitzer drove away, according to the complaint. It is said that he continued to do so.
Hagendorf’s lawyer said Kemnitzer had good reason to be fearful and that Hagendorf had asked her to notarize his application for a pistol permit about three weeks earlier.
“Push me away…you can get what you want,” Hagendorf wrote in a text, a screenshot of which is included in Chemnitzer’s lawsuit. “Find someone online [sic] Or should I look for another man…but I’m sure any man will do, and I’ll make her drink alcohol and do bad things to her. ”
Chemnitzer immediately approached O’Leary about the “escalating and highly inappropriate hostile situation…in which he falsely believed that he would cooperate,” the lawsuit states. Instead, he downplayed Hagendorf’s behavior, calling it an “uncomfortable situation and a need to de-escalate,” according to a screenshot of another text to Chemnitzer.
“He enjoys your company,” O’Leary wrote, according to the complaint. “You’re extremely attractive, funny, smart, and I’m sure you’re an amazing person.”
At this point, Chemnitzer said he requested an independent and impartial personnel investigation. What she did get, however, was a meeting with Taylor, O’Leary and Zaidi, during which the trio attempted a “strong move”. [Kemnitzer] The complaint states that she was ordered not to make any further complaints about the abusive and threatening behavior she experienced on the job. Mr. Chemnitzer said he was instructed that the matter was best kept within the company.
Chemnitzer later heard Hagendorf through the door “loudly telling a false story of the events of October 6, 2023 and attempting to take responsibility for it.” [Kemnitzer] for his violent conduct,” the complaint states.
According to the complaint, when Mr. Chemnitzer hired Mr. Mitev as his attorney, he was later given permission to work from home, but was quickly dismissed. Taylor, one of the company’s co-founders, told The Daily Beast that his salary continues to be paid.
The experience left Kemnitzer with “extreme and unusual mental and emotional pain and suffering, feelings of shame, self-loathing, humiliation, anxiety, crippling social phobia, social phobia, loss of self-esteem, sleep deprivation, and “a sense of absolute existential dread that caused lasting psychological distress, the full and complete aftereffects of which have not yet been fully understood,” the lawsuit states.
She is seeking punitive damages of “at least $15 million to defend and justify the public interest.”
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