By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, July 27 (Reuters) – The former JPMorgan Chase banker whose lurid sexual harassment lawsuit went viral added new claims and defendants on Monday, saying the largest U.S. bank’s acceptance of racism and sexual coercion irreparably destroyed his career.
Chirayu Rana said racism was ingrained in the culture of his otherwise all-white leveraged finance team, where his South Asian heritage “became the punchline for a stream of degrading jokes,” including calling him a “monkey” and “brown boy.”
JPMorgan has said it believed Rana’s allegations were meritless. Neither the bank nor its lawyers had an immediate comment.
In an 82-page complaint, Rana, who is of Nepali descent, added allegations that colleagues suggested he transact in rupees, and one texted that he should “run before we call ICEE {sic} on your family,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Rana also renewed allegations that the defendant Lorna Hajdini, a JPMorgan executive director, coerced him into sex and demanded his submissiveness as a condition of advancing his career, repeatedly saying she “owned” him.
Once a “leading” deal originator paid “well over” $2 million a year, Rana has been “effectively blackballed,” the complaint said. “His reputation has been destroyed, his professional relationships shattered, and the career he spent years building reduced to rubble. This was not an unintended consequence of defendants’ misconduct. It was its intended result.”
MULTIPLE CASES BRING UNWANTED ATTENTION
Hajdini has also denied Rana’s claims and countersued him for defamation, saying his lies “wreaked havoc” on her life, subjected her to around-the-clock ridicule, and were designed to attract maximum press coverage.
Lawyers for Hajdini did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The case is one of several matters involving JPMorgan employees to permeate social media this year, generating unwanted attention for a bank that generated $37.6 billion of profit in the first half of 2026.
JPMorgan is challenging a $4.25 million arbitration award to a former wealth manager who was fired after expensing a Super Bowl platter, while a former employee was caught on video dumping out and then walking away with a commemorative trash can during a parade for the NBA champion New York Knicks.
THREE NEW DEFENDANTS
Rana filed his lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, after a state judge on July 16 dismissed a version filed in April so Rana and his new lawyers could add claims.
