After a bombshell sexual harassment lawsuit that rocked the tabloids, a former Wall Street worker has won a whopping $18 million from her former boss.
Hanna Bouveng, 25, from Sweden, sued Benjamin Wey, 43, owner of the New York Global Group, claiming he pressured her into a sexual relationship and retaliated by firing and harassing her after she broke it off.
According to Bouveng, Wey, who is married, began pursuing her after he hired her in 2013, but she rejected him. Eventually, after renting her an apartment, gifting her with the likes of Prada bags, and plying her with alcohol, he wore her down — and she was apparently traumatized. “She was debased. She was degraded. She was defiled. He was delighted … He thought he owned her,” attorney David Ratner reportedly told jurors.
And this is where the retaliation comes in: Wey began publishing nasty stories about Bouveng on his blog, and, jealous of her new boyfriend, he emailed racist comments to her father. The harassment escalated to the point where Bouveng felt the need to leave the country and go back to Sweden — but Wey found her in the café where she was working, an allegedly threatening gesture that “felt like an intent to destroy whatever I would do,” Bouveng said.
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