BULLISH BEHAVIOR
Broker sues Merrill over harassment
Merrill Lynch loaded the dice in Las Vegas — and cheated a local female high roller out of at least $1 million in commissions, according to a gender discrimination lawsuit filed recently.
Former Merrill Lynch broker Betsy Whipple, 52, who filed the civil complaint in US District Court in Las Vegas, also claims she was screamed at by her male managers, and she accused the firm of attempting to steal her assets and cheating her on her signing bonus.
The stress caused her to lose two pregnancies, she alleged. Whipple, fired by Merrill in December 2016, now works for Newbridge Securities.
The broker, who lives on a sprawling 1,500-acre Nevada horse ranch with a newly planted vineyard, managed assets of more than $20 million at Merrill, which she also accuses of cooking the books — claiming the firm wrongly coded her payments at the institutional rather than retail level. That action denied her bonus payouts and the ability to scale up the pay grid, she claimed.
As a result, Whipple alleged, she got hammered for a transaction fee of as much as $200 per each trade she submitted, rather than pulling in a much higher commission.
Merrill was attempting to steal from her, she claimed, in a “manipulated strategy” that included the wrongful transfer of a $3 million account to another broker instead of being transferred for her benefit.
She once wooed a $5.5 million account only to see it transferred out to an “institutional” unit, which denied her bonus money and commissions of as much as $350,000, she claimed. Whipple also claimed a computer C drive with vital information on the account was then intentionally damaged by an assistant manager.
Whipple filed two complaints against two male assistant managers for unprofessional conduct. She alleged the job stress caused her to lose two in-vitro pregnancies. “Both were compromised by management screaming at her, causing her blood pressure to rise and the fertilizations to fail,” her lawsuit claims.
Whipple told The Post that Merrill has already reached out to her, “but for all intents and purposes, we [have] realized Merrill isn’t serious about resolving this issue.” In a statement, Merrill said Whipple’s allegations “are completely without merit.”
“We have policies to ensure that all employees are treated fairly, and regularly make certain that those policies are properly implemented,” the statement added. “She was treated appropriately at all times, and we will defend ourselves in this matter.”