Morning Coffee: JPMorgan's 34-year-old ex-VP claims to have earned over $2m a year. Gary Stevenson's burnout

How much do you earn as a 34-year-old vice president (VP) in JPMorgan's New York leveraged finance team? We cannot say for sure, but if Chirayu Rana, the former VP fitting this description and currently embroiled in a wild court case against his former employer and former colleagues, is to be trusted, it might be a lot of money. 

Rana has submitted a revised complaint. In it, Reuters notes that he claims to have been, "one of the private credit industry’s leading deal originators, with annual compensation well over $2,000,000." This is higher than previous reports, which suggested only that Rana's salary was more than $500k a year. Rana claims to have been the "most productive banker" on JPMorgan's leveraged finance team. He joined the bank in March 2024, filed an internal complaint in May 2025, and left at the end of that year. 

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Rana is accusing JPMorgan and three former colleagues of racism and sexual assault. His earlier claim, filed in April, accused a female colleague of sexually harassing him. Both she and the bank have categorically denied this. The Wall Street Journal notes that Rana's revised claim, which has been moved to a federal court, omits some of the most lewd statements from the initial claim. It does not, for example, include the allegation that he was taunted with the suggestion that your wife “doesn’t have these cannons.” 

Rana's new claim alleges that former colleagues at JPMorgan subjected him to "degrading jokes," called him "brown boy," and said he was only hired for diversity reasons and to satisfy JPMorgan's internal points system. He also claims that former colleagues "continued retaliating against him" in his new job (from which he was let go) and that this is the reason he was forced to conclude that "litigation had become unavoidable."

Rana's federal claim includes screenshots of text messages that he says are from former colleagues calling him a "brown boy" and threatening to call ICE on him. It also includes a purported Teams message about a Nepalese barber, where colleagues appear to be encouraging him to spend Rupees. And it includes an image showing JPMorgan's 11 person TMT leveraged finance team, of which Rana is the only non-white person.  

JPMorgan denies all Rana's claims. “As we have stated from the beginning, following our investigation, we don’t believe there’s any merit to these claims. While numerous employees cooperated with the investigation, the complainant refused to participate and has declined to provide facts that would be central to support his allegations. The new venue doesn’t change this,” says a spokesperson. 

Lorna Hajdini, the JPMorgan colleague accused of sexually harassing Rana also categorically denies his assertions. “No matter how many lawyers Mr. Rana goes through and no matter how many times he shifts his story, his allegations against Lorna are categorically false.  Lorna has never had any sexual or romantic relationship of any kind with this man.  The shift in his allegations speaks volumes about the falsity of his claims against Lorna,” said her attorney. 

Rana seemingly wants at least $22m in compensation and says his career has been "irreparably destroyed." The WSJ says JPMorgan has no intention of settling the suit. There is more to come on this.

Separately, Gary Stevenson, the ex-Citi rates trader who claims to have been the "best f*cking trader in the f*cking world" and who was recently involved in a fracas outside a pub with an FT journalist who questioned this, is suffering from burnout again.

Stevenson, who runs a popular YouTube channel ascribing the UK's economic problems to inequality and calling for a wealth tax, posted a video two days ago saying that the last four years of his life have been an "intense obsession" and that he is exhausted. "I was aware, because I've had burnout before that I was pushing deeper, and deeper and deeper into burnout," says Stevenson, before accusing the FT of writing a "5,000 word hit piece" against him. 

The last time Stevenson burned out was when he was at Citi. This time, he says he's started wearing an evil eye bracelet to deflect criticism. "I'm going to take a long rest," he declares.

But Gary will be back, maybe with a podcast. Maybe in a thinktank. Maybe even as an advisor to Andy Burnham. "I know we are pausing the channel now for a long time but I'll make an exception for you (or maybe even your chancellor). We all want you to succeed," he says in notes to his last video, addressing Burnham directly.

Meanwhile...

HSBC is hiring 100 AI specialists in Singapore. (Bloomberg) 

Ares, a San Francisco-based private credit focused firm, is buying Leonard Green, a private equity firm also based in San Francisco. Leonard Green recently sold a building products distribution firm to Home Depot for $18bn and is known as a lean place with a small staff of dealmakers who earn a lot. (WSJ) 

The Pentagon is now run by 66 year-old billionaire and deputy defense secretary Stephen Feinberg who has hired many of his former colleagues from Cerberus, plus 30 investment bankers. The bankers were hired by Heidrick & Struggles with the pitch: “Your exit opportunities will be exceptional, including the potential to launch a new fund with members of this team,” and, “You will gain access to fund-raising channels that include royal families and foreign sovereign contacts.” (Bloomberg) 

It helps to be a former Citadel portfolio manager if you want to set up a new fund as an offshoot of a multistrategy firm. (Business Insider) 

Citi made two new hires for its EMEA futures execution team. (The Trade) 

Goldman is revamping its Japanese DCM business and made a hire from Citi. (Bloomberg) 

86,700 households in rent stabilized homes in NYC earned over $200,000 a year. (WSJ) 

The European Central Bank has got ‘3/5/8’ work model in which people have to consider changing jobs every three years, move at year five and are helped to move at year eight. (Financial News) 

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