Judge Rejects CU’s Dismissal of Former Exec’s Sexual Harassment & Retaliation Claims
Judge’s new ruling also does not dismiss allegations against three former ex-leaders of Municipal Credit Union.
A federal judge rejected a request by the conserved $4.3 billion Municipal Credit Union in New York to dismiss allegations by a former senior executive who is claiming her supervisors ignored and retaliated against her over complaints of sexual harassment by disgraced former MCU President/CEO Kam Wong.
Former MCU Vice President of Mortgage Operations Anie Akpe-Lewis is claiming in her lawsuit that rather than investigating and remediating the alleged sexual harassment by Wong, the credit union and some of her supervisors allegedly subjected her to reduced bonuses, denied her regular evaluations, excluded her from monthly meetings with her colleagues, and ridiculed her for her afro hairstyle.
“Given Plaintiff’s (Akpe-Lewis) minimal pleading burden at this stage, the facts should be further explored during discovery,” U.S. District Court Judge William F. Kuntz’s for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn wrote in his ruling released last week. “Accordingly, Defendants’ (MCU) motion to dismiss Plaintiff sexual harassment claim is denied.”
What’s more, Judge Kuntz also denied MCU’s motion to dismiss Akpe-Lewis’ retaliation claims, writing, “Plaintiff is entitled to develop a more robust factual record on her retaliation claim.”
The judge also did not dismiss claims by Akpe-Lewis that MCU allegedly failed to maintain a proper whistleblower policy after the former credit union executive claimed she discovered an increasing number of defaults on MCU installment loans, which she alleges were indicative of illegality, including fraud. Akpe-Lewis also claims to have disclosed additional financial improprieties between May 2018 and January 2019, and by June 2019, she was fired.
However, Judge Kuntz dismissed Akpe-Lewis various allegations of wage claims under the Wages and Fair Labor Standards Act and that she was retaliated against for complaining about these issues.
“Plaintiff, an exempt employee who earned well over one-hundred thousand dollars at the time of discharge, does not claim that MCU failed to pay minimum wage or overtime,” Judge Kuntz wrote. “Nor does the Plaintiff identify any section of the FLSA that purportedly was violated, Accordingly, Plaintiff FLSA claim is hereby dismissed.”
Akpe-Lewis’ various breach of contract claims against MCU also were dismissed.
In addition to Wong, who is in federal prison for embezzling nearly $10 million from New York City’s oldest credit union, the lawsuit named seven other senior managers. They included P. Kay Woods and Mark Ricca, who both served as MCU’s CEO at different times after the credit union was conserved in May 2019 after a widespread fraud and corruption scandal was exposed; former MCU Chief Credit Officer and interim CEO Norman Kohn; Sonita DiFranco, former director of real estate lending; and HR Consultants Shannon Mashburn and Stella Jiang. All of the people listed were Akpe-Lewis’ supervisors.
Judge Kuntz dismissed Akpe-Lewis’ allegations against DiFranco, Jiang, Woods, and Ricca ruling that the claims made against them were insufficient to establish individual liability. However, Akpe-Lewis allegations against Wong, Kohn and Mashburn were not dismissed.
In her lawsuit, Akpe-Lewis claimed that from October 2007 to December 2017, she was “repeatedly a target of a continuous, unwanted and hostile illegal pattern of quid pro quo sexual harassment by Wong, and that she was constantly being propositioned by him to have an intimate and illicit sexual relationship.”
The former credit union senior executive also claimed she repeatedly reported Wong’s harassment to Kohn, but he allegedly “summarily dismissed” her complaints, admonished her and never investigated them.
In addition to arguing that Akpe-Lewis’ sexual harassment claims should be dismissed, court documents show that MCU’s lawyers also argued that Akpe-Lewis’ retaliation claims should be thrown out, because she is alleged to have rejected Wong’s advances as early as October 2007, but she wasn’t terminated from her job until June 2019 and suffered no alleged adverse actions until at least eight years later in 2015 when she began complaining about her bonus reductions.
“No facts are alleged to connect these adverse actions to the alleged rejection of Wong’s advances,” MCU lawyers wrote documents. “Thus, Plaintiff has not alleged facts sufficient to state a claim for quid pro quo harassment either.”
A court conference between MCU’s and Akpe-Lewis’s lawyers has been scheduled for December before a magistrate judge.
READ MORE: Documents Reveal New Fraud & Corruption Allegations at MCU