Married banker sacked over affair with colleague sues for sex discrimination

Telegraph

08-07-2025

A married City banker sued for sex discrimination after he was sacked over his affair with a junior colleague.
Stanislav Stepchuk, who was a director at American investment bank Merrill Lynch, was in a relationship with the woman for several months but broke it off when he learnt his pregnant wife was expecting.
He sent an unsolicited explicit photo to the younger woman four days after they began messaging each other.
He claims that after the breakup the junior colleague responded with 'hostility', 'taunts' and 'threats' that his life may be in danger.
An internal disciplinary process found the father-of-two had actually been the one to threaten her and sacked him for 'acting inappropriately' by embarking on the affair.
Mr Stepchuk is suing Merrill Lynch International for sex discrimination and harassment, age discrimination, and unfair dismissal.
Details of the affair emerged during a preliminary hearing to determine if Mr Stepchuk or his junior colleague were entitled to anonymity.
While he demanded that her identity be made public, he applied to have his name remain a secret to protect his family - a request that was denied by a judge.
The tribunal, held in Central London, heard Mr Stepchuk became a director at the financial institution in March 2018.
In January 2023 he began exchanging 'sexually explicit and highly personal' WhatsApp messages with a junior known only as Colleague A.
In these messages, she told him she was a virgin who lacked sexual experience.
Just four days into their communications he sent her an unsolicited 'intimate photograph' of himself.
The tribunal heard that the pair were sexually intimate on two occasions.
Mr Stepchuk was married at the time and tried to break things off in summer 2023 when he learnt that his wife was pregnant, the hearing was told.
He alleges that at the start of August, Colleague A responded to his attempts to withdraw from the relationship with 'hostility, taunts and threats'.
The banker told the tribunal that she suggested that if she disclosed the relationship to their employer it would have 'consequences' for his wife, her pregnancy, his child, and his parents and even put his life in danger.
Merrill Lynch International say their HR team had spoken to Colleague A as early as March 2023 about sexual harassment by Mr Stepchuk.
In August she raised a formal grievance alleging that she had been sexually harassed and that Mr Stepchuk had threatened her when she said she was going to HR.
In January 2024 the banker was dismissed following a disciplinary procedure, which found he had 'acted inappropriately' in pursuing a sexual relationship with Colleague A, and had threatened her.
However, they did not uphold the complaint of sexual harassment, finding the relationship had been consensual.
At the tribunal, Mr Stepchuk claims that he was discriminated against by a failure to investigate his grievance and that their approach was 'tainted' by the assumption that he was the perpetrator as a more senior man.
The bank says his dismissal was 'wholly proper'.