JPMorgan executive sues former banker for defamation over claims she turned him into ‘office sex slave’

A JPMorgan Chase executive accused of forcing a subordinate to engage in non-consensual and humiliating sex acts has fired back by accusing him of defamation in her own counterclaim.

Lorna Hajdini, 37, an executive director in the bank’s Leveraged Finance division, alleged that Chirayu Rana, 35, orchestrated a months-long campaign of false claims that destroyed her career and damaged her reputation, in a suit filed in New York Supreme Court on Tuesday.

‘Ms Hajdini categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation of unlawful conduct, including any allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault, drugging, blackmail and racial discrimination asserted by the Plaintiff,’ her lawyers wrote in the counterclaim, obtained by the Daily Mail.

‘These allegations are entirely false, malicious and fabricated and were concocted for the improper purpose of personal enrichment at the expense of defendant and others.’

The attorneys went on to accuse Rana of ‘peddling his lies that Ms Hajdini was a racist, sexual predator,’ claiming his goal was to ‘destroy her reputation for leverage to extort millions of dollars’ from her and the bank.

They described Rana’s initial complaint as ‘the culmination of a months-long campaign to smear Ms Hajdini in the workplace, to third parties, the press and now this court with fabricated assertions.’

The countersuit also claims Rana made similar ‘eerily similar’ sexual harassment claims against an executive at another job, though much of the details about that case were redacted in the file. 

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Rana turned down a $1 million settlement offer from JPMorgan, equivalent to two years of his earnings. He instead demanded $11.7 million to settle the case, sources said. 

Hajdini’s counterclaim asserts she never served as Rana’s supervisor, and when they worked together in person Rana ‘never reported at [JPMorgan] that Ms Hajdini had subjected him to any of the sexual and racial harassment or numerous sexual assaults that he now claims were nearly constant features of his employment to that point.

‘Instead, Plaintiff waited until May 2025 to report his lies about Ms Hajdini’s conduct to JPMC for the first time – nearly 12 months after it supposedly began.’ 

The countersuit goes on to accuse Rana of making similar claims in the past and claims he lied about his father’s death so he could collect bereavement leave while he was employed at JPMorgan. 

But much of Hajdini’s countersuit focuses on the toll Rana’s claims have had on her life.

‘As a direct and proximate result of Plaintiff’s conduct, Ms Hajdini has suffered severe and lasting harm to her reputation, career, personal relationships and emotional well-being, including the enduring stigma associated with these false allegations in an increasingly permanent digital environment,’ the suit says.

It claims she and her family ‘have been mocked, ridiculed and harassed around the clock, with Ms Hajdini serving as the ongoing focal point of countless jokes, memes and AI-generated images and videos of a persistently vile, degrading and sexual nature – all a direct consequence of Plaintiff’s lies.’

The suit also notes that she was asked not to work with an educational organization that was dear to her heart amid the backlash. 

The organization is not named in the suit, but the Daily Mail previously reported that Hajdini volunteers for the charity Minds Matter, which helps underprivileged teenagers go to university.

‘In short, Plaintiff’s reprehensible and unforgivable lies about Ms Hajdini… have made her life a daily, living nightmare from which she has been unable to escape.’

Hajdini is now seeking to recover the costs of mental health treatment, attorneys’ fees and the costs of ‘private and/or shared-ride transportation to avoid media and other scrutiny’ as well as any other damages to be determined at trial.

JPMorgan is apparently backing her in the counterclaim.

‘We fully support Lorna and her right to defend herself and protect her reputation,’ a spokesman told the New York Post. 

‘As we have said from the outset, we don’t believe the allegations against her or the firm have merit.’ 

A bank spokesman also previously told the Daily Mail that an internal investigation had found no evidence to support Rana’s allegations in the lawsuit, saying: ‘We don’t believe there’s any merit to these claims.’

‘While numerous employees co-operated with the investigation, the complainant refused to participate and has declined to provide facts that would be central to supporting his allegations.’

Rana claimed in his own lawsuit that Hajdini started harassing him in May 2024, when she dropped her pen on the floor next to his desk and, while bending to pick it up, rubbed his leg and squeezed his calf.

He claims she then remarked, ‘Oh, you did play basketball in college? … I love basketball players.’ She then allegedly uttered an obscene remark about the effect basketball players had on her.

The alleged sexual advances became more explicit and frequent, it is claimed, while she continued to threaten to ruin his career if he did not comply. On occasions, he attempted to comply but could not physically do so, evoking more insults from his abuser, he alleges in his complaint.

Later that May, Rana claims Ms Hajdini invited him out for drinks, but he declined. In response, she is alleged to have said: ‘If you don’t f*** me soon, I’m going to ruin you… never forget, I f***ing own you.’

Twice, he says, Ms Hajdini propositioned him for oral sex in the office, on one occasion asking: ‘Birthday BJ for the brown boy? My little brown boy.’

If he continued to spurn her advances, she allegedly told him, she would ensure he was never promoted to executive director, according to his lawsuit.

‘You’re gonna need to earn it, my little Arab boy toy,’ she allegedly told him during a bank staff social event at which she is accused of groping him under a table: ‘I bet your little Asian, fish head, wife doesn’t have these cannons,’ as she revealed her breasts.

Rana is also suing JPMorgan for allegedly defaming him by disparaging him to other finance companies that were considering offering him a job, telling them he was ‘lazy’, ‘incompetent’, and an ‘introvert’ as well as unfaithful to his ‘domestic partner’ and a heavy drinker. 

He said the bank said he had been ‘fired,’ which was again incorrect, he says in his lawsuit.

Rana’s tenure at JPMorgan appeared to come to a head mid-last year.

Last May, he filed an internal complaint of discrimination and harassment, alleging a pattern of sexual abuse and racial discrimination, according to his lawsuit.

He was placed on involuntary administrative leave on June 6, a day after being reprimanded by a superior, according to the complaint.

He left the company more than three months later.

Rana’s attorney said his client had spent months attempting to resolve the matter privately, but alleged JPMorgan ‘repeatedly postponed and prolonged settlement and mediation discussions.’

His decision to file the lawsuit came after a ‘great deal of emotional and personal perseverance,’ his attorney, Daniel Kaiser, said.

Two unidentified witnesses have since filed affidavits in support of Rana’s lawsuit.

One claimed in their statement that they were staying at an apartment with Rana in September 2024 when they were woken in the night by a woman who was ‘clearly intoxicated and speaking loudly’. Rana later identified the woman as Ms Hajdini, according to the statement.

‘A short while later, I was awoken by Ms Hajdini, who was completely naked,’ the alleged witness wrote. ‘Ms Hajdini sat on the couch and lit a cigarette. She then asked me to come to the bedroom with her and “join them”. I told her no. She said, “Come join, come join”. I again told her no.’

The witness claimed Hajdini then told them, ‘You know, I own [Rana], so you’d better come join.’

They again refused, and Hajdini returned to the bedroom and closed the door, according to the filing.

From inside, the witness claimed they heard arguing, with Rana ‘loudly pleading’ with Ms Hajdini ‘to stop, and to leave’.

‘It became quiet. Then, sometime later, [Ms Hajdini] came out of the bedroom and left the apartment,’ the witness said in the filing.

The second witness claimed Rana had told him in mid-2024 that a woman in the office was ‘making his life hell’ and that he later saw Hajdini kissing Rana’s neck and grabbing him and that he appeared uncomfortable.

Additional new exhibits include an affidavit in which Rana says he was diagnosed with PTSD last October, which he attributes to the alleged assaults, plus a letter from his counselor confirming he had been treated for PTSD.

He also claimed in his own affidavit that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had opened a criminal investigation into Hajdini – but the Daily Mail later found that the investigation was closed due to a lack of evidence.  

A JPMorgan insider with knowledge of the matter told the Daily Mail at the time that they believed Rana’s allegations were beginning to fall apart – as they had anticipated.

‘We believed from the outset the allegations were fabricated,’ the source said. ‘I just feel so sorry for Hajdini because she’s so highly thought of here. I hope she can move on from this.’

Rana is also facing scrutiny over his claims, after a post from roughly ten months ago on the website Ask A Lawyer emerged, which appeared to show a person identifying as Chirayu Rana seeking advice from an AI chatbot on filing a lawsuit against a male boss at the company.

Although the post refers to a male superior at a different company, it includes allegations strikingly similar to those made in Rana’s lawsuit against Hajdini and JPMorgan.

The timing suggests it was posted more than a month after Rana says he raised similar allegations about Hajdini internally at JPMorgan in May last year.

Rana is seeking damages for lost earnings, emotional distress and reputational harm, as well as punitive damages and changes to the bank’s practices.

The Daily Mail has reached out to JPMorgan Chase and Rana’s attorney for comment.