A 28-year-old Swedish woman has withdrawn allegations against her former Wall Street executive boss who she accused of sexual conquest, betrayal and stalking three years ago.
In 2015, Hanna Bouveng accused Benjamin Wey in an $850 million lawsuit of using his power as owner of New York Global Group to coerce her into four sexual encounters before firing her after discovering she had a boyfriend.
Wey, 46, was ordered to pay Bouveng $5.65million in punitive damages on sexual harassment, retaliation and defamation claims at the time. The court rejected a claim of assault and battery.
After being denied $850 million, Bouveng sought $18 million and was eventually awarded $5.65 million by the judge who told to ‘take it or leave it’. The case has been in under appeal since the ruling.
On June 13, Bouveng, who was raised in Vetlanda, Sweden, filed court documents withdrawing and dismissing the claims without prejudice.
In 2015, Hanna Bouveng (left), 28, accused Wall Street executive Benjamin Wey (right) in an $850 million lawsuit of using his power to coerce her into four sexual encounters before firing her. On June 13, Bouveng, who was raised in Vetlanda, Sweden, filed court documents withdrawing and dismissing the claims against Wey without prejudice
Bouveng and her lawyers dropped the lawsuit after Wey filed a counterclaim against the Swedish 28-year-old.
Since the case was still in the appeal process, Bouveng had yet to receive the $5.65 million that Wey was ordered to pay her.
It comes three years after Bouveng filed an $850million lawsuit against her former employer, claiming he relentlessly harassed her after hiring her as a marketing intern at the company in 2013.
She testified that soon after Wey hired her at New York Global Group, the CEO began a relentless quest to have sex with her.
She claimed he pressured her into having sex with him on four occasions, but she had kept it a secret out of shame and fear that he was going to revoke her visa.
She was fired from the company in 2014 after her boss walked in on her boyfriend lying in her bed in the $3,365-a-month Manhattan apartment Wey had rented for her.
Wey also sought to defame Bouveng by posting articles on his blog accusing her of being a “street walker,” a “loose woman” and an extortionist, her lawyers said in the suit.
In 2015, Wey, 46, was ordered to pay Bouveng $5.65million in punitive damages on sexual harassment, retaliation and defamation claims. Bouveng was pictured smiling as she walked out of court following the ruling
Wey also emailed Bouveng’s father after finding her in bed with another man, according to the New York Post.
The message read: ‘I saw a six-foot-tall homeless black man named James lying on her bed.’
She said during the trial that she feared what Wey would do next after he ‘started to harass and stalk me and my family and friends’.
She added: ‘I don’t want to be in the US right now because I don’t know what he’s going to do and I feel safer in Sweden.’
Wey has denied having sex with Bouveng, and his lawyers call her lawsuit ‘extortion’.
The married financier portrayed her as an opportunist who bragged that her grandfather was the billionaire founder of an aluminum company when Wey first met her in the Hamptons in July 2013.
Wey testified that Bouveng knew nothing about finance before he hired and began mentoring her. He claimed she betrayed his generosity by embracing a party-girl lifestyle that left her too exhausted to succeed.
Wey’s wife, Michaela, broke down in tears as she was questioned about the alleged affair in court.
A year after the trial ended, Bouveng accused Wey of publishing negative comments about her online, breaching their agreement
Their court ordered agreement said that Wey would have to pay Bouveng $10,000 for every negative tweet he published about her, and $50,000 for each time he tried to communicate with her, The New York Post reported
In an exclusive interview with The Post days after the verdict, Bouveng branded Wey a ‘psychopath’ who tried to ‘control and isolate her’.
‘He manipulated me, and he broke me down in various different ways. It could be the way he was acting in the office, depending on whether I had dinner with him or not,’ she said at the time.
A year after the trial ended, Bouveng accused Wey of publishing negative comments about her online, breaching their agreement.
Their court-ordered agreement said that Wey would have to pay Bouveng $10,000 for every negative tweet he published about her, and $50,000 for each time he tried to communicate with her, The New York Post reported.
Bouveng claimed that Wey has violated the agreement dozens of times.
Wey slammed Bouveng on Twitter as a ‘homewrecker’, ‘cocaine user’ and ‘failed extortionist’, according to court papers filed in Manhattan federal court in 2016
Bouveng’s lawyers claimed that 59 posts violated the $10,000 twitter agreement.
Of those tweets, 26 also allegedly breached the $50,000 stipulation, which brings the fine to $1.3 million.
A further $510,000 was sought based on other posts, bringing the total to $2.4 million.