Harassment At The Broker's Office

Top producers have power over part of their assistants’ pay

- Sabrina Willmer

He was one of Morgan Stanley’s top financial advisers in Beverly Hills. She was a Brazilian waitress and bartender at an L.A. Sports Club. He asked her to fly to Brazil to work as a translator for him and one of his celebrity clients, pop star Katy Perry, she recalls. He then offered her entree into the securities industry as an administrative assistant.

In March, the assistant, Lorena Alcantara, accused the adviser, Michael Ladge, of sexual harassment, saying he had an ulterior motive for hiring someone with no administrative experience and limited English skills. Ladge’s real purpose “was to try to exploit his power with Alcantara, to subject her to demeaning and harassing behavior, to use her beauty to attract clients, and to pursue a sexual relationship with her,” her attorney wrote in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Ladge, a member of Morgan Stanley’s elite “Master’s Club” for top advisers, showed Alcantara pictures of his sex partners, including prostitutes, according to her complaint. In a sworn statement filed with her suit, another former administrative assistant corroborated much of her account. Ladge denies wrongdoing, according to Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Christine Jockle, who says the company “plans on vigorously defending itself.” The case is going through arbitration.