11/14/2023 0 Comments Shearson lehman smith barney![]() ![]() “I want to vindicate the Bill of Rights,” Martens said in an exclusive interview with The Post, which has aggressively covered the twists and turns of her battles with Citigroup and the legal system for more than 10 years. The reason Martens keeps fighting, as she explains it, no longer has anything to do with her own specific allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination, little to do with Citigroup and everything to do with basic American freedoms. To this day, the company insists that Cuneo was a good manager. Cuneo allegedly told associates that if Martens hurt his career, he would “snap her neck.” By that time, she had received rape threats and death threats. Ten months after she hired the lawyer and aired her complaints publicly, Martens was fired. She was also awarded smaller bonuses than the men and was regularly left out of golf outings and other opportunities to drum up new business from wealthy clientele. Even when Martens graduated from the training program and started working as a broker, her most lucrative clients were regularly taken away from her and reassigned to male brokers on the staff. She has testified that men in the same class made $30,000. When Martens started off in the broker-training program in 1985, she was paid $24,000 per year. The women took home lower salaries than the men, even for the same work. The women were regularly groped when they passed by the men, especially in the “Boom-Boom Room,” a basement office made over to celebrate happy hour, complete with alcoholic drinks and – sometimes – paid strippers. ![]() Here’s what she said: She and other women in her office were regularly referred to by their male co-workers as “whores,” “tramps” and “bitches.” She coped by simply closing her office door and concentrating on her work.īut nine years later, as the frat-house atmosphere of the office just got too much to take, she decided to complain – first internally and then by hiring a lawyer. She thought nothing of it she was excited about the new job.Īlmost immediately, Martens realized that her boss, Nick Cuneo, was crude and favored male employees. Like all other new employees, she signed a document mandating arbitration rather than jury trial for any complaints she might develop against the firm. Martens decided to become a broker and in 1985 took a job in New York with Shearson Lehman, which later became part of Smith Barney. ![]() The story is told in a just-published book, “Tales from the Boom-Boom Room,” by Bloomberg News reporter Susan Antilla. Now, at a time when most of the other 2,000 women who eventually joined her nationwide suit have settled, gotten their financial payoff and moved on with their lives, Martens continues the fight. She and Judith Mione were lead plaintiffs in the shocking class-action suit that has already cost Smith Barney’s parent, Citigroup, hundreds of millions of dollars. She was the woman to whom hundreds of other women turned to cry their tales of woe. She was the first woman to complain, the first to hire a lawyer, the first to file a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and sexual discrimination. The merger is expected to be official sometime late next month.Īs part of the deal, Primerica is expected to acquire 8,500 investment brokers, 400 branch offices, data processing and support operations, and the Shearson Lehman Brothers Plaza and the Faulkner Data Processing Center in New York City.When news of raunchy grope sessions in Smith Barney’s infamous “Boom-Boom Room” first made headlines six years ago, it was all because of Pam Martens. Primerica announced plans to buy Shearson Lehman Brothers' retail brokerage unit last March for approximately $1 billion, plus an estimated $150 million over three years. It doesn't involve public finance," he added. "We are acquiring their retail distribution and asset management. It has nothing to do with corporate finance or any other finance departments," the official said. The layoffs are "largely in the operations back-office side, where there are redundancies. The public finance departments of Smith Barney and Lehman Brothers are not expected to be affected by the layoffs, a Smith Barney official said. Primerica has said it expects between 1,000 and 2,000 jobs to be lost after the merger with Shearson Lehman Brothers is completed. and oversee all consumer finance services operations. Lipp will direct the company's relationship with Travelers Corp. Zarb will assume responsibility for several Primerica subsidiaries, including Primerica Financial Services, American Capital Management & Research, RCM Capital Management, and Transport Life Insurance Co. Lipp, both Primerica vice chairmen, have been named Primerica group executives, Primerica said in a press release. ![]()
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