A lawsuit is accusing Goldman Sachs of a 'culture of fear,' saying it mishandled claims of rape, sexual assault, and harassment of female workers in the 2000s
- Former Goldman Sachs workers filed a lawsuit over sexual-misconduct allegations from 2000 to 2011.
- They say the bank mishandled dozens of claims including rape and harassment at work.
Women who worked at Goldman Sachs more than a decade ago have come forward with a wave of public allegations against the bank, including claims that coworkers raped, sexually harassed, and discriminated against them.
The women say Goldman "tolerates and/or rewards men who engage in misconduct towards women," "condones the sexualization of women," and has retaliated against women who've brought complaints.
Court documents released Thursday and first reported by the New York Post detail more than 75 allegations of misconduct including rape and sexual assault by Goldman Sachs employees, that the documents say were reported internally from 2000 to 2011.
In some cases, the women accused the bank of only issuing warnings to the men at the center of allegations, the documents show. The filings name three women among the 1,400 plaintiffs, one of whom went public with her allegations in 2005.
"The plaintiffs' presentation of the complaints does not reflect reality at Goldman Sachs," a Goldman Sachs representative told Insider in a statement. "Many are two decades old and have been presented selectively, inaccurately and are incomplete. Discrimination, harassment, and mistreatment in any form are unacceptable at Goldman Sachs, and when identified, swift action, including termination, is taken."
The court papers allege that "at least seven" women employed by Goldman Sachs "reported criminal sexual assault, attempted rape, or rape" by male colleagues.
One female employee said she was "drugged and raped by male employee" after a company baseball game, the lawsuit said; another said she was "persistently harassed, groped, and propositioned for sex by male manager" at an orientation retreat.
It also said a male manager "rated the outfits of female employees on the desk, rubbed the shoulders of female analysts, told a female colleague he is 'big down there,' and asked if female employee's roommates are 'easy fucks.'"
One male manager was accused of propositioning a female employee for sex after taking her to an abandoned office. In another internally reported incident, a manager was accused of telling an employee that "with that feisty nature, you would be good in bed."
A trial date has been set on June 5 in the US Southern District of New York.
The documents come less than a month after a former Goldman Sachs banker, Jamie Fiore Higgins, wrote a tell-all book, "Bully Market," on the treatment of women at the company.
Among her claims, as first noted by the Financial Times, were that male colleagues made cow noises at her and mimicked squeezing breasts when she went to use a lactation room at work.