As far as dating disasters go, this one takes the cake. Fired for having a personal relationship with an alleged crook, a former trader at RBC Capital Markets is now suing her former boss for gender discrimination. Lindy Boville may have made bad boyfriend choices -- she dated James Nicholson, who was arrested earlier this year and charged with running a $150 million Ponzi scheme -- but she says she had no business dealings with him and her male colleagues who did were not disciplined. Adding insult to injury, Boville claims the firm quickly handed out her accounts to male employees.
"RBC does not terminate men who display bad judgment in their personal lives, even in extreme circumstances," the lawsuit said.
Boville filed the gender-discrimination suit in Manhattan federal court last week, seeking lost pay and benefits as well as damages. She said she was among her group's top revenue producers last year, but that didn't protect her from being sexually harassed by her co-workers prior to her dismissal. According to the suit, male co-workers made repeated sexual advances and crude comments about her appearance.
An RBC spokesman in a statement to
Reuters said that Boville "showed poor judgment in helping Jim Nicholson raise money for his hedge fund and failing to disclose her activities to her supervisors. It is irrelevant that she had a personal relationship with Nicholson, and she should have told RBC what she was doing."
Nicholson pleaded not guilty in April to charges that his Westgate Capital Management was a Ponzi scheme and faces up to 65 years in prison if convicted. -
Donna Block
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