The Wall Street CEO on trial for pressuring his Swedish subordinate into having sex with him admitted in court Thursday that he decided to fire her after he found her boyfriend lying in bed in the expensive Financial District apartment he rented for her.
Benjamin Wey, 43, testified that he decided 25-year-old Hanna Bouveng’s job performance had dropped off after he discovered she was “cheating on him,” and then bizarrely claimed the pair never had sex and he didn’t even find her sexually attractive.
“Isn’t it true that you fired Hanna Bouveng two hours after finding a naked black man in her bed?” Bouveng’s lawyer David Ratner asked Wey, who took the stand in Manhattan federal court.
“Yes,” answered Wey, who claimed not to have recognized Bouveng’s boyfriend when he barged into the apartment on April 22, 2014, even though he’d hired an investigator to research the man and had seen photos of him.
Wey lasted just two minutes the first time he bedded Bouveng, her lawyer said in opening statements earlier this week.
Wey came up with a barrage of reasons why he went to Bouveng’s apartment that day, including that he was worried about her clubbing, that he heard there was an intruder in her apartment, and that he thought she might be selling confidential information from his billion-dollar investment firm, New York Global Group.
“You deny that you ever found her attractive?” Ratner asked during five hours of testimony in Manhattan federal court.
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“I think she’s a pretty young lady,” Wey said, before answering no when Ratner asked whether he thought she was physically attractive.
Wey tried to claim that he fired Bouveng because he thought she was partying too much, but Ratner immediately introduced into evidence text messages Wey sent Bouveng’s leggy friend Chemme Koluman.
The young woman can be seen in the evidence photos drinking — with Bouveng — at Manhattan nightclubs.
“Send me your resume,” the CEO tells Koluman in one email.
“Why is Hanna bad for your image but Chemme would be OK, and you’re asking for her resume?” Ratner said.
Wey’s testimony continues Friday.