Nothing to see here (anymore), Mr. Commissioner.
Steve Cohen wants a baseball team. He is currently undergoing a background check to that end. Major League Baseball is attempting to determine whether he’s of sufficient character to replace a family of petty nincompoops who lost a fair bit of their fortune to Bernie Madoff and are now hard up for cash to help build a ridiculous arena in a ridiculous location for a ridiculous (if improving) hockey team in that role.
It’s unlikely to be as intimate an examination as that undertaken by Preet Bharara a few years back, and the results are likely to be less unpleasant: After all, he’s passed muster among this group before in spite of the incident, and not enough of the men voting on his candidacy to take over the New York Mets—and they are all men, of course—are likely to be able to say “no” to the valuation hike each of them is likely to enjoy in consequence of the Mets changing hands for $2.45 billion to stop it. Plus, the alternative—Alex Rodriguez and his partner Jennifer Lopez, who would be the first female principal owner of a baseball team since Sue Burns died in 2009—is possibly even less attractive, and the sex discrimination allegations against Cohen’s hedge fund aren’t likely to sway the likes of, say, Guggenehim Partners’ Mark Walter (who will reportedly be voting against Cohen anyway, although probably for other reasons). Still, at a delicate moment such as this, and on the precipice of a very public position, the fewer outstanding #metoo allegations (and they are indeed plural), the better (even if they would just mean business as usual in Flushing).
Laura Bonner wanted something, too, specifically a promotion, and also if possible to be paid as much as her male colleagues and maybe even a less hostile work environment. But Laura Bonner doesn’t work at Point72 Asset Management anymore, and so those things are off the table, anyway. And so, happily for Cohen (and possibly even more happily for former Point72 President Doug Haynes), she’s fine with letting things go to everyone’s “mutual satisfaction” (well, not the women still seeking satisfaction before the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, as well as any women still working on Cummings Point Road—if there are any, which we’re sure there are, we think—who might have noticed a few familiar things in Bonner’s lawsuit) without any “adverse findings” against either Point72 or Haynes.
“Lauren Bonner and Point72 have resolved the claims amicably prior to a decision being issued,” arbitrator Martin Scheinman said Thursday. Terms of the settlement couldn’t be learned….
Mr. Haynes, whom Ms. Bonner accused of writing a vulgarity hostile to women on a whiteboard, among other allegations, was cleared by the arbitrator of that specific allegation, said a person familiar with the arbitration.
The person added, however, that there were no findings by the arbitrator on other issues related to Mr. Haynes because the litigation was settled.
Steve Cohen’s Point72 Settles With Female Employee in Gender Discrimination Arbitration [WSJ]