Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Gross Details Emerged from Court Filings

Another national idol stumped. No, we were not talking about Tiger Woods. Gross details of a strange workplace relationship in a top Wall Street firm emerged from court filings. The defendant is a national idol of many overseas Chinese students, Ping Jiang. Jiang is named the most notable alumni of University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), a top ranking school famous for its small but elite science programs.

Jiang leads an all Chinese group at SAC Capital. One of his subordinates is Andrew Tong. A psychiatric evaluation posted at Deal Breakers revealed a 'strange' and gross working environment at the financial firm.

Tong, an analyst, was recruited by Jiang to his trading group, on a condition that Tong agreed to go through a training process, which would end at the time he made his first $10 million. Tong was told other members of Jiang's 20 some team also went through the said 'training program'.

The training program requires Tong to wear female clothing on daily basis, including all underwear, high heeled sandals and nail polish at workplace to make him 'less aggressive'. Tong was also asked to take female hormone (using his wife's birth control pills) to accompany the training. Tong must satisfy Jiang with a blow job at SAC during work hours before Jiang approves him to do one 'trade'. The report noted that if Jiang was not 'satisfied', a 'trade' would not be approved even after Tong performed the 'job'. At one point, Tong complained to Jiang that the female hormone made him impotent. To persuade Tong to continue taking the pills, Jiang 'choked' Tong from behind and insert dry erase markers (as in plural) into Tong's rectum. Tong admitted he got an erection as a result. At offices of SAC during work hours, Tong was constantly beat, kicked, or have Jiang urinate into his mouth in front of his colleagues. Jiang told Tong that the training program is a '...tradition of organizations working in an all male environment.'

Mr. Tong was not a no-body trying to survive on minimum pay. He quit from a doctoral program from Columbia University to make money. Before he joined Mr. Jiang's group, his annual salary was $250K plus bonus. He committed to the 'training' program because he wanted to make more money. He committed to the 'training program' for months because Mr. Jiang promised him once he went through, he would be allowed to trade independently and make millions of dollars himself.

Mr. Tong was informed that Brian Cohn, Mr. Jiang's supervisor and President of SAC, had approved the training program designed by Mr. Jiang. Cohn had a workplace behavioral psychologist Dr. Ari Kiev to evaluate the training program. Dr. Kiev observed Mr. Tong wearing feminine attire and found it acceptable.

When Tong finally complained to Elisabeth Go, an in-house counsel, and Margaret Belden, SAC's Human Resources Manager, the response was brief: "we know all about your accusations against Mr. Jiang .. we don't want to hear anymore details from you."

Mr. Tong was terminated on April 10, 2006, less than one year after he was recruited to Mr. Jiang's group at SAC.

When asked why he had abided with 'unusual' demands from Jiang, Tong cited Jiang as a national idol for USTC alumni who is powerful and successful. Tong said he would want to learn from Jiang and be as powerful and successful.

Judge Bernard Fried the New York State Supreme Court threw the lawsuit out because Tong "agreed to do so when SAC hired him, just like he agreed to glaze himself and jump out of a cake for the Big Guy’s birthday party."

Tong was born and raised in Shanghai. He graduated from Shanghai Communications University (SJTU). Tong came to the States in 1992.

Jiang was born in Jiangsu, a neighboring Province east to Shanghai. He graduated from USTC. Tong came to the States in 1989 and received a PhD degree in Chemistry from Princeton University. A 2007 Xinhua news featured Jiang as a top trader who made more than $100 million personal income in 2006.

Cohen

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