MORE STRIKES VS. COHEN’S METS BID
New biz-bias claims may be last straw
Opponents of billionaire Steve Cohen’s efforts to buy the Mets are licking their chops over fresh discrimination complaints filed against his firm, Point72 Asset Management, The Post has learned.
Back-to-back complaints by women who worked for Cohen’s Stamford, Conn., hedge fund have been filed with Connecticut’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities in recent months, Bloomberg reported last month.
And while the claims’ contents are unknown because the Connecticut anti-discrimination agency seals all proceedings, Cohen’s challengers for the team have been pointing out the Bloomberg story to powerful Major League Baseball owners and other interested parties in light of explosive sexual-discrimination allegations filed against the firm in 2018, sources said.
“This is f--king huge,” a source close to a rival bidder told The Post. “All the owners need is another excuse” to nix Cohen, this person said.
Ex-associate director Lauren Bonner’s Manhattan federal court lawsuit described the $16 billion hedge fund firm as a “boys club.”
The firm subjected female staffers to misogynist treatment, Bonner’s suit claimed.
She cited a whiteboard in a highranking manager’s office with the word “Pussy” scrawled across it for weeks, as well as male executives who admitted they don’t hire women because their “wives won’t let them.”
The case has since moved to arbitration.
Point72, which has been fighting the charges, declined to comment for this story.
The Post learned about the latest discrimination claims last week when a man using technology to disguise his voice called to point out the Bloomberg story and suggest it could hurt Cohen’s bid for the Mets.
“Do you remember Lauren Bonner?” this person said.
The caller, who declined to provide a name, then dropped the names of MLB owners reportedly leaning against Cohen due in part to fears over the new complaints — should they ever come to light.
The owners named by the anonymous caller didn’t return requests for comment.
But Major League Baseball sources confirmed that they are aware of the allegations.
“Given Cohen’s history, we don’t need this,” one MLB source told The Post, referring to Cohen’s 2013 settlement with the feds after his former firm, SAC Capital, pleaded guilty to securities fraud.
Another MLB source said some owners don’t expect the claims to push the hedgie out of the running because they were filed against Point72 and not Cohen personally.
Owners leaning against Cohen may use it as an excuse to nix him, this person said.
The Mets have been up for sale since February when Cohen, 64, walked away from a deal to buy the team for $2.6 billion.
Cohen is now back with a new bid, but he’s also competing against at least two other interested parties, including a group led by former Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez and a team led by Philadelphia 76ers owners Josh Harris and Dave Blitzer.
At least three-quarters of MLB’s 30 team owners must approve the of the new owner.
Shannon Gitlin, a former Point72 investor relations executive, filed her complaint in April, Bloomberg said. Her lawyer declined to comment.
Sara Vavra, the firm’s former head of global macro trading, filed her complaint in June, Bloomberg said.
Vavra, who was the firm’s highestranking female executive before she left the firm last year, did not return a request for comment.
But she made a brief appearance in Bonner’s 2018 discrimination lawsuit, which claimed women at Point72 were sometimes paid 50 cents for each dollar earned by a man and that women were regularly denied promotions for being viewed as too aggressive.
“Ms. Bonner has heard male executives complain that Ms. Vavra . . . is ‘too aggressive’ and is building her team in an aggressive manner. All other sector executives are male,” the suit said.