On April 29, the Daily Mail broke the story of a New York County lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase executive Lorna Hajdini, in which an anonymous former banker accused her of sexual harassment and abuse—more specifically, of alleging she turned the married banker into her “office sex slave.” The details were lurid and shocking, but by April 30, the plaintiff was identified as Chirayu Rana, and the New York Post claimed that his allegations were a “complete fabrication” as the original court document was withdrawn for corrections. For a moment, it all seemed like an outlandish, if reputation-ruining, hoax. But on May 4, the lawsuit reemerged in the Manhattan Supreme Court docket with a host of new allegations.

What, exactly, is happening at JPMorgan?

Let’s go back to the beginning. On April 27, Rana filed his original lawsuit. Now a principal at investment firm Bregal Sagemount, he proceeded anonymously as John Doe after claiming to have received threats toward himself and his family (Rana is married). The document alleged that Hajdini, a senior-ranking colleague in the bank’s Leveraged Finance division, coerced Rana into “non-consensual and humiliating sex acts,” beginning in spring 2024. He accused Hajdini of drugging him with Rohypnol and “an erection-enabling pharmaceutical substance” on multiple occasions, and in one instance, berating him into a sex act and threatening to sabotage his promotion if he didn’t comply. The lawsuit also claims that Hajdini called Rana by racist nicknames, including “brown boy” and “Arab boy toy.”

Rana went on to accuse JPMorgan Chase of essentially enabling Hajdini’s alleged behavior, placing him on involuntary leave after he reported her, but leaving her unpunished. As of this writing, Hajdini is still seemingly employed by JPMC. According to new reporting from the Wall Street Journal, JPMorgan offered Rana a $1 million settlement before the case went viral.

“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,” a JPMorgan spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Playboy. “We continue to believe these allegations have no merit and new information raised as a result of the public filing only reinforces that conclusion.”

Three days after Rana filed the lawsuit, the case took a sharp turn when the New York Post revealed that his legal team retracted the original court document, citing a need for corrections. A spokesperson for JPMorgan told the Post that they “don’t believe there’s any merit to [Rana’s] claims,” following a probe by in-house lawyers and the bank’s human resources department, which dove into employee phone and email records but found no supporting evidence. Hajdini has also denied the claims through her lawyers.

Discourse around the lawsuit accelerated after news of the document’s withdrawal. “[Rana] has tarnished [Hajdini] with a complete fabrication,” a friend of Hajdini’s anonymously told the Post. Everyone from Megyn Kelly to anonymous X users seemed eager to mock Rana. On her SiriusXM show, Kelly discussed one of his initial claims with podcaster Adam Carolla; specifically, that Hajdini once said “your little Asian, fish head wife doesn’t have these cannons,” as she forcibly performed oral sex on him. “I don’t believe that at all,” Kelly said.  

With Rana’s claims refuted by JPMorgan (and by legions of strangers on the Internet), the case appeared all but closed — until he refiled his lawsuit on May 4. As the New York Post reported, the revised court document expands on Rana’s previous claims toward Hajdini. Many headlines have focused on a particularly shocking new piece of evidence: a statement from an anonymous witness, who claims that Hajdini, drunk and completely naked, once invited him to join her and Rana in a threesome. After rejecting the advance, the witness says he heard Rana tell Hajdini, “No, no, no, you have to leave. I’m not going to do this. Please stop.”

A second anonymous witness appears in the newly filed lawsuit, per the Post. They claim to have seen Hajdini kissing Radha’s neck in public during the summer of 2024. 

Hajdini and JPMorgan continue to deny these claims. In a statement emailed to Playboy, a JPMorgan spokesperson said the company doesn’t believe the claims have any merit. “While numerous employees cooperated with the investigation, the complainant refused to participate and has declined to provide facts that would be central to support his allegations,” the statement said. The JPMorgan spokesperson also provided a statement from Hajdini’s lawyers. “Lorna continues to categorically deny the allegations. She never dated this individual, never had a sexual or romantic encounter with him of any kind and never gave him any drugs,” the statement said. “She maintains that his false claims are entirely fabricated and tarnishing her reputation.”

With such devastating allegations on the line, it’s hard to know what comes next for Rana and Hajdini. As noted by the New York City law firm Phillips & Associates, the city’s sexual harassment cases often take years to resolve. 

According to a study from the nonprofit Zero Abuse Project, at least one in six men have been sexually abused or assaulted. The study found that men are less likely to disclose these incidents than women, and that victims are at a far higher risk for mental health issues like alcoholism, post traumatic stress disorder, and depression. Statistically, women are at a much higher risk of falling victim, but that doesn’t change the fact that male victims of sexual assault and harassment exist.

As for JPMorgan’s fate? No matter the outcome, they’ll be fine — the bank has a history of emerging from sex scandals unscathed.

This story has been updated to include statement from JPMorgan and Hajdini’s attorneys, which were sent to Playboy after this article was published.