A Wall Street financier lasted only two minutes when he bedded a sexy staff member from Sweden who is now suing him for sexual harassment, according to the opening statement Monday by her lawyer.
Benjamin Wey, 43, left 25-year-old Hanna Bouveng feeling “debased,” after the encounter, which she claims she agreed to only after his “relentless” pressure.
“He has sex with her and it’s over in two minutes,” her attorney, David Ratner, said in Manhattan federal court.
“She was horrified and debased.”
Bouveng is suing Wey for $850 million, claiming he forced her to dress provocatively and pressured her into sleeping with him in December 2013 at the Tribeca apartment he rented for her.
He then allegedly fired her when she complained.
“This is a case about a 43-year-old Wall Street big shot taking advantage of a 23-year-old woman. He hired her, and then started a relentless campaign to have sex with her,” Ratner said.
He described how the married Wey — the CEO of New York Global Group — allegedly groomed Bouveng after meeting her in the Hamptons by promising her professional opportunities and showering her with lavish gifts like a 0 Prada handbag that cost $2,000.
Wey took Bouveng on business trips, always talking up the professional aspect of the trip. But when the naive brunette got to their hotel, she was surprised to find that Wey had booked them both into the same room, Ratner said.
“Her dream was to work on Wall Street,” Ratner told the jury at the end of his openings.
“Now she’s working in a cafe.”
Defense attorney Glen Colton said Bouveng — who speaks five languages — didn’t tell anybody about the sexual incidents until after she was fired, and called her initial complaint to Wey “extortion.”
“She said she would go to law enforcement and report the rape if he didn’t settle the case,” Colton said.
Wey, meanwhile, used a site he runs called TheBlot Magazine to spread salacious lies about Bouveng, she has claimed.
“He puts on the blog that she’s a prostitute, that she hangs out with cocaine dealers,” Ratner said in court. “Every day after the complaint was filed, there were articles about Hanna Bouveng and what a terrible person she is.”
The jury trial continues on Tuesday.
