Ex-JPMorgan banker Chirayu Rana wants to withdraw his explosive “sex slave” lawsuit against the bank and a female supervisor — but the bank is now fighting to stop Rana from unceremoniously dropping his claims.
Rana and his legal team must answer for the claims in the lawsuit, which JPMorgan lawyers called “materially false,” according to documents filed last week.
Defense lawyers also don’t want Rana to be able to walk away from the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit and refile the claims in federal court.
In a pair of blistering legal salvos, attorneys for JPMorgan and bank bigwig Lorna Hajdini tore into Rana’s frantic attempt to pull the plug on his high-profile state lawsuit, accusing his new high-profile lawyers of “gross negligence” and “gamesmanship.”
Rana’s “new counsel has entered this case with an approach similar to that of his prior counsel — promising the press new evidence to support Plaintiff’s claims while simultaneously seeking to delay this litigation and any accountability for Plaintiff’s lies,” lawyers for Hajdini wrote.
Attorneys for Hajdini and the banking giant also accuse Rana of “blatant forum shopping” and of trying to avoid complying with a judge’s order to re-file his suit under his real name.
Rana “is not entitled to a do-over on his claims because he has retained new counsel,” writes Cardelle B. Spangler of Winston Taylor, repping JPMorgan.
“If he no longer wishes to litigate in this forum, he is free to walk away, but he should not be permitted to re-file these claims with another court,” the filing continues.
“Such overt gamesmanship unfairly prejudices [JPMorgan] and should not be permitted.”
The legal brawl has gotten so toxic that JPMorgan is now demanding a judge to force Rana’s former lawyer — who dropped his client hours before the suit’s first hearing — “to promptly make any disclosures necessary” regarding false evidence or statements, hinting at an aggressive push to uncover alleged fabrications in the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit — which became an internet sensation after it was filed in April — Rana claimed he was drugged and made a sex slave by Hajdini, who also allegedly made racist claims about him and his wife.
The most infamous line from the suit was Rana’s claim that Hajdini stripped off her top and said, “I bet your little Asian, fish head, wife doesn’t have these cannons.”
JPMorgan and Hajdini have said from that jump that Rana’s allegations are entirely made up.
Both defendants argue that Rana should be forced to either stay in state court — or that the suit be dismissed for good, and that he pay out legal fees.
Hajdini, who has filed a counterclaim alleging Rana defamed her, said her defamation allegation should be argued out before Rana is allowed to file in any new court.
Her attorneys claim they asked Rana’s team to provide a draft of their federal complaint twice, but they declined to do so.
Rana’s lawyers hit back on Monday, claiming opposing counsel is making demands to the court as if it were a “a genie lamp that provides her heart’s desires regardless of whether they are tethered to fact, law, or reality.”
Attorney Jon Norinsberg claims Hajdini’s filing is rife with “hysterics and overwrought descriptions,” and “continues to exploit publicly filed court documents to smear” his client.
Norinsberg dismisses claims of forum shopping, and said Rana plans to comply with Thursday’s deadline of filing the suit under his real name — but in federal court.
“It is a familiar playbook used by defendants,” Norinsberg wrote, “attack the survivor, distract from the allegations, and portray themselves as the victim.”