Lorna Hajdini, a female JPMorgan executive accused of sexually harassing and racially abusing a male subordinate, has filed a countersuit against her #MeToo accuser.
Hajdini filed her suit on Tuesday night in a New York state court in Manhattan, claiming that the accusations have destroyed her reputation and “wreaked havoc” on her life, per Reuters:
In papers filed on Tuesday night in a New York state court in Manhattan, Lorna Hajdini said her former colleague Chirayu Rana fabricated allegations that she raped and drugged him, in order to attract maximum press coverage, cause her pain and extract millions of dollars from her and JPMorgan.
“Unfortunately, it has succeeded despite its falsity,” the countersuit said.
Hajdini has “been mocked, ridiculed, and harassed around the clock,” becoming the focus of jokes and memes of a “vile, degrading, and sexual nature — all a direct consequence of plaintiff’s lies,” according to the countersuit.
Hajdini’s suit seeks unspecified damages for defamation and emotional distress.
Earlier this month, the Daily Mail broke a story about a lawsuit with allegations of sexual harassment against Hajdini from one of her male subordinates after he joined the leveraged finance team in the spring of 2024. Identified in the suit only as “John Doe,” he claimed, among other things, that Hajdini turned him into her “sex slave,” would frequently threaten his career advancement if he rejected her sexual overtures, and would regularly subject him to racial abuse.
The New York Post later identified the male staffer as Chirayu Rana, a former principal at investment firm Bregal Sagemount, adding that a previous internal investigation by JPMorgan found no evidence of wrongdoing by Hajdini prior to the lawsuit being filed.
One week later, the Wall Street Journal reported that JPMorgan had offered Rana a settlement of $1 million in March, just one month before he filed his suit in April. According to sources familiar with the situation, the settlement equaled roughly two years of Rana’s compensation to avoid a lawsuit. He allegedly refused the offer and later had his attorneys make a counterproposal of $11.75 million in April.
A JPMorgan spokesperson later told PEOPLE that negotiations had taken place.
“While we cannot comment on confidential discussions, we did try to reach an agreement to avoid the time and expense of litigation and to support an employee who was being threatened with the very reputational harm now unfolding,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“We continue to believe these allegations have no merit and new information raised as a result of the public filing only reinforces that conclusion,” the spokesperson said.
JPMorgan expressed support for Hajdini in a statement on Wednesday.
“We fully support Lorna and her right to defend herself and protect her reputation,” a spokesperson said. “As we’ve said from the outset, we don’t believe the allegations against her or the firm have merit.”
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