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 Canadian born Jordan Wimmer, who lives in London, is suing her boss, Mark Lowe, alleging sexual harassment, a claim he denies, British media reported. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett |
A Mississauga-born woman, who is making international headlines by suing her multi-millionaire London banker ex-boss for sex discrimination, claims she was "served up like a piece of meat" to a powerful hedge-fund associate.
Jordan Wimmer, a 29-year-old financier who earned more than $1 million last year, is in the centre of a $7-million lawsuit against Mark Lowe, who she claims brought prostitutes to meetings and hired a hitman to kill her after their working relationship went sour.
Wimmer is also suing for unlawful deduction of wages, unfair dismissal and disability discrimination after she suffered clinical depression as a result, she says, of the way she was treated by Lowe, reports the Guardian.
The young sales executive was fired in February at Lowe's firm, Nomos Capital, which acted as a "middleman" between investors and hedge funds, the paper said.
Lowe, 59, had his chance to refute the claims yesterday at a tribunal in London. He told the tribunal that he brought an Asian woman named Ling to a 2005 business function with Wimmer and other Nomos workers in Hong Kong.
HOT PANTS
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But even though she wore hotpants, he denied she was a prostitute and said that she was an ex-girlfriend.
"I don't accept it was a business occasion, nor was I in the least bit embarrassed about what (Ling) chose to wear," he told the tribunal.
Lowe also admitted he was "not a monogamous man," after he split up with his wife in 2003.
"Ms. Wimmer felt humiliated when you brought Ling dressed provocatively to meetings. You brought Ling along, just as you brought Natalia along, to give you status. In your male-dominated world of hedge funds, it was a persona you wanted to portray," Wimmer's lawyer Julian Wilson said to Lowe.
"I'm sorry, but you really are talking a lot of arrant rubbish," Lowe responded.
He admitted he had made jokes that compared women to dogs, expensive cars, sheep and corrosive chemicals.
His quips also included graphic references to sexual acts, "lady boys" in Thailand, and even Muslim women's veils.
The hearing continues. According to her Linkedin account, Wimmer graduated in 2001 from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. Her brother, Nathan Wimmer, didn't respond to requests for comment last night.
JENNY.YUEN@SUNMEDIA.CA