Chirayu Rana, a former banker at JPMorgan Chase, has filed an amended complaint in Manhattan federal court that adds new defendants and expands on allegations of racial discrimination and sexual harassment. The lawsuit, which gained significant public attention earlier this year, now includes claims against three additional individuals and seeks unspecified damages for the alleged destruction of his professional career.
Rana, who is of Nepali descent, alleges that racism was embedded within his leveraged finance team at the bank. He states that colleagues made degrading jokes about his South Asian heritage, referring to him as a "monkey" or "brown boy."
The complaint also cites text messages in which coworkers suggested he conduct business in rupees and warned him to flee before they contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding his family.
The amended filing adds JPMorgan managing directors Brandon Graffeo and Jon Wolter as defendants. Rana claims Graffeo led the degradation of his standing and that both men worked to damage his reputation within the private credit and leveraged finance sectors after he resigned under pressure last October. He asserts this campaign caused his subsequent employer to terminate him in April.
Associate Kelly Crowe is also named, with allegations that she labeled Rana an "HR liability."
Rana continues to accuse executive director Lorna Hajdini of sexual coercion. He alleges she demanded sexual submission as a condition for career advancement and repeatedly stated she "owned" him. Hajdini has denied these claims and filed a countersuit for defamation, arguing that Rana’s allegations were fabricated to generate press coverage and harm her life.
A JPMorgan spokesperson rejected the new claims, stating the bank does not believe there is merit to the allegations. The spokesperson noted that while numerous employees cooperated with an internal investigation, Rana refused to do so. The bank also criticized Rana’s legal team for feeding the public a "false and misleading narrative."
