Millionaire investment banker ‘punches woman in face during Pride event’
A millionaire investment banker was captured on video allegedly punching a woman in the face during a Pride event in New York.
The suspect, a man wearing a beige colored suit-style jacket and holding a bag on his left hand, slugged a woman using his right fist, causing her to fall on the street on a crosswalk, the clip shared on X (formerly Twitter) shows.
‘Wow!’ someone is heard shouting in disbelief during Brooklyn Pride in Park Slope on Saturday night.
Other voices are heard saying, ‘Oh my god. You’re an asshole, a horrible person’, and ‘Go f*** yourself. Yeah, go f*** yourself’, as the man looks back at the scene and walks away.
The video was captioned, ‘This guy punched me in the face today and broke my nose and busted up my friends arm can anyone find him?’
Social media users quickly identified the suspect as Jonathan Kaye, the managing director of Moelis & Company, a global independent investment bank.
‘Under his leadership, this franchise has become a recognized global leader having advised on over 100 transactions across the sector,’ states his bio on the company’s website.
The victim, whose X handle is @hellosami, shared a post by Moelis & co stating that the company ‘celebrates Pride Month, the extraordinary contributions of the LGBTQ+ community, and our commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace for all’.
‘So why did your managing director Jonathan Kaye punch a black woman at Brooklyn Pride yesterday?’ she wrote.
The New York Police Department stated it is ‘aware of the video’.
‘We encourage anyone who has been a victim to file a police report,’ an NYPD spokesperson told Metro.co.uk. ‘There are currently no complaint reports on file.’
Moelis & Co has placed the employee on leave while investigating the video.
‘We are aware that one of our employees was involved in a serious incident in Brooklyn on June 8,’ the company told Bloomberg on Monday. ‘We take this matter very seriously, and this employee is on leave as we continue to conduct our investigation.’
The attack on the woman comes just months after multiple women reported being punched in the face in similar attacks in New York City.
Former Real Housewives star Bethany Frankel, a Parsons School of Fashion student and an influencer were among women who took to social media to say they were punched by random men in March.
In late March, a school bus aide was heading home after work on Grand Avenue near Dean Street in Brooklyn when she was sucker punched by a man so hard that her jaw broke.
And in April, another woman was slugged in the face by a random man while walking outside of a McDonald’s on the Avenue of the Americans near West 14th Street in Manhattan.
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