Less than two weeks after losing his lawyer, Chirayu Rana, the ex-JPMorgan banker who accused his colleague of allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting him, has told a court he’d like to drop his New York State case — and move it to federal court, claiming to have significant new evidence to share.
In documents filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday, Rana’s team of new attorneys argued that the original suit filed against executive Lorna Hajdini and JPMorgan in April left out federal violations, including racial discrimination and retaliation, according to the New York Post. “The public has been fed a wildly distorted version of this case, manufactured from sensational headlines that bear no resemblance to what actually happened to Mr. Rana,” attorney Jon L. Norinsberg said in a statement. “The full scope of racism, abuse, and retaliation he endured at JPMorgan has not been told.” His lawyer said that “in the coming weeks we will file a new complaint that lays out the full record and the substantial new evidence we have uncovered.”
Rana’s representation also argued that the countersuit filed by Hajdini last month — in which she accused Rana of defaming her when he claimed that she demanded sex from him, threatened his job, taunted him with sexually explicit and racist comments, and drugged him — is “not actionable under the First Amendment and New York law” because “some or all” of Rana’s statements were “opinion or rhetorical hyperbole.” The team did not cite specifics, notes the Post; among other things, Rana claimed Hajdini told him, “If you don’t fuck me soon, I’m going to ruin you … Never forget, I fucking own you. If you don’t fuck my brains out tonight, I’m going to sabotage your promotion.”
