Trial reveals a seedy world of bullying, drugs and lap dancing
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The international broking firm Cantor Fitzgerald won the sympathy of the world when 658 of its employees were killed in the terrorism attacks of 11 September 2001.
But yesterday the company was in the spotlight for its allegedly aggressive culture of foul-mouthed banter inside the office and the apparent chosen relaxation for many of its brokers: snorting cocaine and visiting lap-dancing clubs.
A seedier side of the high-octane world of money broking was described as the company entered its third day defending itself in a High Court battle against a former senior employee. Steven Horkulak, who is 39, claims Cantor's European president, Lee Amaitis, bullied him and, in effect, forced him to resign from his £350,000-a-year job in June 2000. Mr Horkulak is suing the company for £1.5m, claiming constructive dismissal.
Mr Amaitis, an American, had an image as a "Brooklyn bruiser". But his public face changed after he spoke movingly of Cantor's loss from the attacks on the twin towers in New York, in which his two best friends were killed.
Yesterday, he took the stand at the Royal Courts of Justice in London and heard evidence alleging that he frequently laid into Mr Horkulak, once one of his star employees.
Mr Horkulak said in a witness statement that Mr Amaitis threatened to "break him in two" on one occasion. On another, he said that he would "rip his head off".
Mr Amaitis, 53, allegedly told Mr Horkulak and a colleague on another occasion that their idea for a new type of technology was "a piece of shit". According to Mr Horkulak's account of the meeting, his manager was so cross that they had not come up with a better prototype that he delivered his verdict at screaming pitch, with a "red face and twitching eyes".
Mr Amaitis, who denies bullying Mr Horkulak into leaving the company, admitted that he was a "direct" person but denied the threats of physical violence. "I have never hurt anyone. Why would I do that? It is ridiculous," he said.
He also made the point that macho grandstanding was part of life in the world of City broking houses. Employees vied with each other to clinch the best deals for clients and were heavily encouraged to do so with telephone-number sized bonuses. He told the court: "Our own business started by shouting at each other in a [trading] pit. If people shouted at me for particular things in business I wouldn't take that to be hostile."
The case is the latest instance in which Cantor has been forced to wash its dirty linen in public. Its first run-in with the media came not long after 11 September, when the firm was wrongly accused of going back on its promise to pay bonuses to the families of its dead employees.
But other stories of the lifestyle of many of its senior staff have come to light.
Last year, another legal dispute with a rival firm, Icap, provided an insight into the drinking and drug-taking habits of some of its senior executives. They were also said to have made regular trips to topless bars.
Mr Horkulak, who now works at another brokerage, Tullett, has admitted that he had a drink and drug problem for some of the time he worked at Cantor. Mr Amaitis, who describes his own personality as "obsessive compulsive", has a drugs conviction.
According to evidence in this trial and the Icap trial, visiting lap-dancing clubs - or "going whoring" as many City brokers call it - is a popular night out. Mr Horkulak said in his evidence that on a business trip to Tokyo, Mr Amaitis declared it was "time for the ballet" - a visit to a lap-dancing club called For Your Eyes Only.
Mr Amaitis is engaged to Kylie Flynn, a 28-year-old Australian who worked in one of Tokyo's table-dancing clubs, though the couple say she never did any dancing there. They are unable to marry until Mr Amaitis divorces his wife, Jody, who lives in New York. His fondness for horse riding and boxing is also well known in the City.
Cantor, a highly successful firm, is quick to point out that most of its employees lead relatively straightforward lives - if they did not there would be no one to come in and make the money every day.
The fact that Cantor still exists was not guaranteed in the months immediately after its workforce was depleted. It closed two of its offices, in Frankfurt and Paris, and pared down its operation in Tokyo to survive. But, as the court cases about the allegedly bad behaviour of its managers continue, Cantor could risk squandering the public sympathy that the events of 2001 brought the firm.