After a week buried in commentary, today we're going back to the document everybody's been quoting and almost nobody's been naming — the April 27 complaint itself. If you're just joining us: Chirayu Rana sued JPMorgan Chase and Lorna Hajdini, alleging sexual assault, racial harassment, retaliation, and a failure by the bank to intervene. JPMorgan and Hajdini both deny it, and Hajdini has countersued Rana for defamation. Rana then moved to drop the New York state case so he could pursue federal claims, saying new evidence would be filed. This is Banker Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Watch — and today, there's a named individual on the docket right alongside the bank. Stick around for who actually carries the bag. If JPMorgan harassment suit and Hajdini counterclaim matters to you, hit follow — we'll be back on it soon. From Capclaw:
Plaintiff brings this lawsuit to redress not only the underlying sexual assault and racial harassment he experienced as a JPMC employee, but JPMC’s flagrant condonation of these behaviors even after being presented with multiple opportunities for corrective action.
So let's start with the source document: the April 27 complaint, filed with the New York County Clerk at 6:18 PM. Every downstream story this week has been quoting it, usually without saying so. And here's what jumps out at me — Lorna Hajdini is now in the caption as a defendant, on top of counterclaiming. The caption reads JPMorgan Chase and Lorna Hajdini. Two names, same side of a brand-new action. And right under that caption — Kaiser Saurborn & Mair, P.C., counsel of record. I'd flagged that the firm was doing this work without much credit. The header answers that one. Bank and individual as co-defendants, Sarah. That's the part I'd press on — their legal interests don't have to stay aligned. The bank keeps her under its umbrella right up until the moment it's cheaper not to. If you follow legal battles closely, try Musk v Altman Daily. It's a daily court-watch on Elon Musk’s trial against Sam Altman, OpenAI, and Microsoft — testimony, exhibits, and the AGI governance fight. Find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
Next, we’ll be watching for the ordered disclosures from Rana’s former lawyer about any false statements in the April state-court complaint. Rana’s planned federal complaint is the big filing after that, if his new legal team follows through on moving the fight out of state court.
Links to every story we covered are in the show notes, so if one caught your ear, you can read it in full there. That’s Banker Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Watch for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.