The Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has decided to close its investigation into charges made by a former junior trader at SAC Capital alleging that his supervisor had sexually assaulted him and forced him to take female hormones.
The charges were filed in a discrimination lawsuit by former SAC trader Andrew Tong against his supervisor, former star trader Ping Jiang and SAC Capital, the big hedge fund. They included allegations that Jiang, who has since left the firm, sexually assaulted Tong and forced him to take female hormones which led to Tong wearing women’s clothing.
But on Monday, the EEOC alerted Tong through a "dismissal and notice of rights" that it was "unable to conclude that the information obtained establishes violations of the statutes." The notice said that "it does not certify that the respondent (SAC) is in compliance with the (equal opportunity) statues. No finding is made as to any other issues that might be construed as having been raised by this charge."
Still, the notice is a victory for SAC and Jiang; both had steadfastly denied all the charges made by Tong, which were first filed in a lawsuit seeking damages over alleged sexual harassment. That lawsuit continues, but Tong is now without a powerful ally in the form of the EEOC.
The commission investigated the charges, interviewing dozens of SAC employees, to determine if it might join the case. The notice signals it will not.
The EEOC doesn’t join most of the cases that it investigates, only those that it believes prove a broader type of discrimination as it did when it joined a case filed by a former Morgan Stanley trader who alleged widespread discrimination at the firm and won a multi-million dollar verdict.