‘Goldman Sachs traders bet they could gang rape me’, says victim
GOLDMAN SACHS has launched an investigation after a former employee claimed six of her colleagues tried to rape her at a client dinner.
The firm has reportedly offered to meet the former junior associate, who said the men tried to sexually assault her in London in March 1994 for a bet.
At the time she made claims accusing the six of inappropriate and sexist behaviour, leading to three Goldman Sachs foreign exchange traders being forced to resign and another two being disciplined. But she has now come forward with the more serious allegations of attempted rape, after publicity surrounding the Harvey Weinstein scandal triggered an episode of post traumatic stress disorder.
The woman, who claims that scores of former Goldman Sachs employees are preparing to lodge claims of sexual harassment against the firm, said: “My male colleagues would humiliate me daily. For example, I was bitten and my name was either slut, mammary or dusty bin.
“It culminated in a bet to gang rape me in a private dining room.”
She added: “I only managed to escape after a waiter interrupted the incident. Three of my abusers resigned and they all went on to prosper at other banks. I was slut shamed, lost my job and my mental health.”
The former employee made the claims in an email to Lloyd Blankfein, the bank’s chief executive.
In a separate account of her alleged ordeal published on a website called Stand Up To Goldman Sachs, she said she had signed a non-disclosure agreement after her original allegations were investigated.
But she added: “My career and health never recovered. When The New York Times reported the Weinstein rape allegations in late 2017 I had a chronic PTSD episode and I knew I couldn’t stay silent any longer.”
In a series of posts on Twitter she added: “I have broken my NDA but have to be fearless. More than 75 former Goldman Sachs employees allege sexual assault, conspiracy to rape, harassment.”
The woman also praised a male Citibank employee who rescued her from the alleged attempted rape, along with a black cab driver who drove her home without charge.
The woman described the build-up to the alleged attempted rape as a series of daily humiliations in a department where she claims she was paid far less than her male counterparts.
She claimed she was bitten by one male trader in the months leading up to the dinner in London and that she was subjected to sexual harassment, including repeated name calling and having pornographic material left on her desk.
The allegations follow a similar case at Credit Suisse, which is reviewing its handling of a 2010 assault allegation from a former female employee.
Goldman Sachs has provided the woman with its policies on harassment and has reportedly offered to meet her.
It said it expressed its “sincere regret at the events that she experienced” and that the action the firm took at the time of the original claims reflected the seriousness of the events and “our lack of tolerance for this behaviour”.
A spokesman for Goldman Sachs told The Daily Telegraph: “We took the concerns raised by this individual very seriously when she first brought them to our attention in 1994.
“As was reported extensively by the media at the time, and as the witnesses interviewed corroborated, she was the subject of offensive and inappropriate behaviour. We viewed this behaviour as completely unacceptable then and we still hold that view.
“Three of the men involved immediately lost their jobs and two others were disciplined. Given the seriousness of the allegations and the amount of time since the events took place, we undertook a thorough investigation of our records, which confirmed that neither she nor her lawyer made any allegation of physical sexual assault at the time.”