Looks like we have ourselves a Russian model, Detroit-style.
I wonder how Marion Brown is doing.
Michael Flynn invited female Russian operative Svetlana Lokhova to accompany him to Moscow
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| Svetlana Lokhova dubbed 'Crazy Miss Cokehead' by her bosses |
A banker dubbed 'Crazy Miss Cokehead' by her bosses claims her £3million pay-out was not worth the gruelling legal battle and the toll on her health.
Cambridge University graduate Svetlana Lokhova, 34, was driven to a breakdown by a 'vicious' campaign of sexual harassment by bullying male colleagues.
She won her case against Russian investment bank Sberbank after judges accepted she was unfairly forced to leave her £750,000-a-year role in London.
But Miss Lokhova says her huge pay-out – including £3.14million for lost earnings, £44,000 for hurt feelings and £15,000 in aggravated damages – has been a hollow victory.
Speaking for the first time since the ruling at the Central London Employment Tribunal, she said most of the compensation would go to the taxman and her legal team.
Asked if her fraught three-and-a-half legal battle and millions of pounds spent on legal bills had been worth it, she told the BBC: 'Of course it wasn't worth it.
'People who think you come out of court as a victor – that's just not true.
'Everyone loses out.
'What a waste of three years of my life, a waste of health, a waste of money.'
The Russian shipping broker's daughter said 'hell' would be a nice way of describing what she had been through, adding: 'The effect that it had on my life is absolutely terrible and it's very difficult to feel victorious.
'It's actually very, very sad. Sad for everyone, there is no victory in this.
Miss Lokhova began working on the equity sales desk at the bank in 2011, but immediately noticed a 'strange' atmosphere and heard reports that bosses were calling her 'derogatory names' behind her back.
Six months into her new post, she was placed on sick leave by her doctor after the 'toxic atmosphere' became too much to bear.
But it was only when her lawyer contacted the company to ask them to hand over written communication about her that she learned the extent of the bullying.
Her direct boss David Longmuir had sent emails to colleagues and clients in major investment banks calling her names like 'Miss Bonkers', 'Crazy Miss Cokehead' and a 'schizo nightmare'.
She said yesterday: 'I just remember opening the first page and everything just going blank and me just bursting into tears and dropping the file.
'My whole career flashed in front of me, and to have somebody just basically just take it away from me like this, I just couldn't understand.'
In 2012, the bank conducted a disciplinary hearing against Miss Lokhova's boss Mr Longmuir.
The hearing apparently lasted just five minutes and he accepted his comments were unacceptable. He was later given a £168,000 pay off by the bank.
A year later, her case for sex discrimination, harassment and victimisation proved a bruising experience when she was wrongly accused of being a drug user.
She voluntarily took a drugs test, which proved negative, saying: 'I've never taken any drugs in my life'.
But it took another 18 months before she was finally awarded £3.2million damages, which included a pay-out for 'aggravated damages' because judges said the bank accused her of using drugs, knowing it was not true.
Miss Lokhova says she will never be able to work in finance again and that almost all of her pay-out will go on legal bills.
The Moscow-born banker told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I am one of the lucky ones in the sense that I obviously had some personal wealth because I have been in banking for a very long time.
'I then obviously borrowed heavily from friends but, even now, I am left with a situation where lawyers have charge over my houses, so everything is basically going to go to lawyers.'
The case follows another high-profile sex discrimination claim after an executive said she was denied millions of pounds in bonuses when she fell pregnant.
Sonia Pereiro-Mendez, 37, received an out-of-court settlement this month from investment bank Goldman Sachs after claiming she was subjected to sexist comments and cheated out of her fair share of pay and bonuses.
Before she could give evidence, the mother-of-two reached an agreement with the bank believed to be worth in excess of £1million.
A spokesperson for Sberbank said: 'Sberbank CIB has appealed the Employment Tribunal's decision and cannot therefore comment on specifics, save for noting its view that the judgment itself contains numerous legal and factual errors.
The firm continues to believe that the incidents under consideration were isolated and are unrepresentative of its working environment.
Sberbank CIB and its management are committed to equal opportunities, will continue to have due regard to all lessons to be learnt and have long-since taken steps to prevent such a situation from arising in the future.'
U.S. v Prevezon Et Al. Complaint by Beverly Tran on Scribd
U.S. v. Prevezon Et Al. Exhibit B by Beverly Tran on Scribd
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