Bear Stearns's Sexual Harassment Hush Money
Charlie Gasparino at the Daily Beast says that as one of his last acts as CEO, Jimmy Cayne agreed to pay a female employee $2 million to pre-emptively settle a sexual harassment charge against Ace Greenberg, the firm's longtime chairman. Greenberg said he wouldn't comment on the story, though he then followed it up by saying it was "bullshit."
Many corporations will do whatever it takes to put an allegation of sexual harassment to rest, especially if the allegation is made by a credible employee and involves an executive. Sexual Harassment settles seem to be on the rise and the dollar amounts of the settlements seems to be increasing. As a sign of the times, many employees who are being laid off now seem less loyal to those same corporations and behavior which they once put up with, is now the subject of litigation.
