Jonathan Kaye Axed
Link to his bio on Moelis' website now gives you a 404.
Seems he's been let go but haven't gotten confirmation from folks I know there.
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Ahh yes. Moelis not wanting to be associated with a person who very publicly beat someone is actually Moelis being the problem
You're aware of the facts of this case. I don't know why you're choosing to be deliberately dishonest.
He punched them because they were saying extremely offensive things and getting in his face. Maybe he felt they were going to do something to him. Didn’t they swarm him?
This is just sad.
Seems he resigned. My guess is he was paid a good enough severance that he can retire and Moelis gets to avoid any more negative press.
Moelis needs some bad press from this. I would like to see Ackman and others blow up their spot for not standing behind their man.
To the monkeys on this forum: consider this notice that if you defend yourself in an altercation and you work for Moelis, your days are numbered as long as the person involved is a protected class
The real moral of this story is don't start fights you can't win. I bet "she" (lol) had quite the headache after
What the fuck do you expect Moelis to do? Heck if this was McDonald’s he would still be let go. You can’t physically attack others and not expect any consequences. Grow up lol
You can't physically attack anyone and not have consequences? Actually this happens all the time in NYC. You're just not allowed to defend yourself apparently.
You guys seriously need to do better. Imagine living through the last few years and still taking clickbait headlines as gospel and disengaging any critical thinking. Pathetic.
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I think your argument is against your position. The Palestinian protestor physically attacked the banker by spilling drinks on him (that's a physical attack, not verbal), and got consequences. But somehow the banker got the blame for fighting back instead of running away.
FAFO needs to become a new national way of thinking. You cannot harass and assault people and expect nothing to happen.
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"What more could you expect from a citizen?"
For them to not attack someone else.
Cope
You are coping over a guy you don't know, who doesn't care about you, resigning because of the consequences of him throwing a [chef's kiss] punch at someone? That is certainly... a choice.
Good 🤣🤣
Love to see it but he'll probably get a job somewhere else by the next week. That or he starts his own practice.
good for him he’ll probably get a nice guarantee at evercore in a couple weeks
Evercore is wayyyy more lib than Moelis, zero chance he's getting in there. Moelis was probably the best bank he could have worked for given the situation and it still didn't save his job. Privately owned, mostly sponsor-backed business (i.e., fewer large corporate clients who might raise their voice), conservative firm leadership (EVR, CVP, PWP, PJT all lean left in their leadership).
It would be nice if self defense wasn't a political left vs right issue, and just a common sense issue on a case by case basis. But I guess that's what a decade of social media rotting people's brains ends up doing.
Why do you say those EBs lean left in their leadership?
NYSE: MC - not private
My bet is on Cantor or one of the MMs (HL, Baird, HW, Piper, or WB). He’d fit in well with the MMs’ sponsor-driven sell side focus, and Cantor obviously doesn’t care about scandals. Plus both sets of banks have much more conservative leadership than the EBs.
HL is public. No way
lol, why would Moelis want to deal with a PR nightmare, justified or not? there's no loyalty in this game, just like a senior banker would walk away from their firm if the package is sufficiently enticing somewhere else, a bank will walk away from an employee if it's too much hassle to retain them. people acting like Moelis should somehow be the moral police here. they probably came to an agreement and paid this guy out his deferred etc for him to resign quietly.
The only rational comment here is
I fully agree with this comment. But what PR nightmare? Do you really think that clients are making a fuss about this? Do you really thing regulators are making a fuss about this?
Other than for like maybe one week in largely local news, what actual PR problem is there? A bunch of comment boards may be sounding off but are the people in WSO and such actually relevant?
think it's more about a potential PR nightmare, as of right now, it's just kind of a wild story. if this thing devolves into a messy lawsuit, assault charges, etc, it would probably not be positive for the brand/reputation. To be fair, don't think it needs to be a PR nightmare for a bank to cut someone.
The real question is whether he's going to be run out of his home in Park Slope by an angry mob. It is probably the most liberal (wealthy) neighbourhood in NYC. Not actually sure how bro has survived so long there if he's put off by protestors/pride etc because that's just a normal week in Park Slope.
You again....
Good. I know this asshole spent two decades+ going along with and gently advocating for DIE, affirmative action and never ending globohomo policies because he had already made it and “F you, I got mine!” Was all fun and games when he was preening and virtue signaling in front of the diversity committee at Moelis and with his neighbors in Brooklyn, but I guess it isn’t as much fun when the tide turns. “White man bad” and all, but guess what genius, Jews are now considered White! Guess he didn’t think that far ahead.
Oh well, reap what you sow.
Yes, thank you for showing my best satire post. It slapped as the kids say. You and Kaye can now go fuck off in Brooklyn with the hipsters.
Friendly reminder to those in the industry: you have orders of magnitude more to lose than random scumbags on the street provoking you. Unless you’re truly put in a position where you have to defend your own or your family/loved ones’ lives, do not engage. At all. The social contract as we know it has decayed to the point where you will always be seen as the aggressor and in the wrong.
To be fair, he was provoking them. Which is why he was fired.
If someone mugged him on the street he woulndn't have been fired. The social contract has not "decayed" - this guy was an aggressive idiot and paid for his "principles" with his job, and deservedly so.
Here's a thought - if you see a protest and you don't agree with what the people are protesting on behalf of, keep fucking walking.
Why are people upset about this? I wouldn't want to work with a guy who close fist punched a woman in the streets. Even if she did through water or coffee on him that's not a justifiable response he could've walked away. Also, he approached the woman in the first place. Good riddance, I would hope an MD with years of experience would have more maturity and restraint than that.
walking away sets a precedent that it's ok to throw drinks at people and you can get away with it without consequences.
Because everyone in the entire world would know if he just walked away that you can verbally harass and throw liquids at someone without consequence...
Start shit get hit. If he'd been a homeless guy pushing her in front of a train he'd be fine tho.
Should be given an award by the IDF. Am Yisrael Chai.
Your antisemitism is showing.
Unsurprising. He’s probably nearing retirement age anyway — I’m sure Moelis gave him a solid package to leave quietly.
I’m not going to opine, as I’ll likely never know the full story.
AFAIK, there was an anti-Israel protest going on…whether it was peaceful and respectful or “kill the ‘zionists’ … wink wink” is unclear. There’s been both in NYC.
He then shouted at them “you’re on the wrong side,” at which point he was allegedly shoved, with liquid doused on him. Did genuinely he feel unsafe, or was he just angry? Again, hard to say; I wasn’t there.
That is to say, I can see this both ways. It’s clear that in this day and age, however, the optics are such that there’s no choice but to dismiss him.
Can't wait until he ends up at Cantor or Jefferies
Why are there multiple posts claiming the person punched is a man? She gave an interview.. I've linked it below.
Moreover, morally (and legally), proportionality matters. It's not an overstatement to say that a person struck with that level force is at risk of death or serious bodily injury. There are many such cases. Do you really think coldcocking a woman is an appropriate response to a verbal insult or being splashed with water? We can only glean so much from the video given the opportunistic editing, but there are enough contextual clues here to conclude that it's highly unlikely that Kaye perceived himself to be at risk of death or serious bodily injury when he struck the protester (e.g. the protester's defenseless posture, the casual manner in which the blow is delivered and he saunters off). Those facts make it difficult to justify his conduct morally (and perhaps legally as well), period. On top of that, the optics are horrible.
Additionally, why is a senior MD engaging with a Brooklyn protester in the first place? That alone shows poor judgment on his part.
Finally, are you suggesting that the decline in fighting, which tracks with a decline in violent crime across the board over the past several decades in the US, is a social problem? Right, because what we really need in this country is more people casually beating one another.
The entire episode was preventable, and all we're seeing here is the predictable consequence of poor decision-making. That's it.
Note that none of what I've said excuses the behavior of the protester. She was also in the wrong. That said, many of the takes I've read on WSO around this episode are offensively stupid, so I felt compelled to respond.
1) thank you very much for linking the interview. the interviewer indeed is a woman. not sure why people decided to make up stuff about her being trans.
the interview itself sounds very made up. first clear lie was that she splashed him with water when he was approaching her - the water was splashed on his back, which means he was trying to get away and she splashed him trying to provoke him. secondly, it's very unlikely he would just start shoving people with no reason and no conversation whatsoever. they also clipped the video right at when the strike happens, which shows that they don't want to show what happened before - instead they prefer to go with a clear made up story (skinny Jewish senior banker in a suit was passing by, the group of New Yorkers got terrified of him, never said anything to him, he just started shoving them from nowhere, the girl tried to defend herself by splashing him with water when he charged her, but the water magically ended up on his back only).
2) don't you sometimes want to address stupidity when you see it? I also saw pro-Palestinian protesters and felt to myself that it makes no sense that they are advocating for Jewish forces to withdraw and let Hamas unpunished for what they've done, let Hamas regroup and gain forces and continue terrorist attacks. I don't think it would be bad judgement to try to talk.
3) decline in fighting is good. but letting people throw drinks at you and get away with it without consequences is not good.
You’ve got to think the woke wave has gotten so bad and there are so many Jewish CEOs and Jewish owners of businesses that they’d commend him for this and work with Moelis more out of principal…
I guess Moelis is public so that alone meant he was cooked. So sad. These nobodies have free reign to terrorize anyone and can dangle their careers over their heads that they worked decades for. At what point is it too much? Can you get naked, shake your balls, and call someone a slur in their face and expect them not to react?
They have cucked people from reacting. We’re all human. Our dignity requires we stand up for our own principals at times. Jobs be damned. This “lady” got in his face and was verbally assaulting him. I don’t know man. I was on his side. It’s crazy what we’ve gotten to.
Tbh I thought NYC was one of those places where pepper spray was illegal lol. Turns out it is legal, but there's limits on strength and you have to purchase it from "authorized dealers".
Oh that's easy, you give them everything on your person and pray they don't kill you. Do anything perceived as a defensive use of force and you'll likely be arrested for a hate crime.
No one "ganged up" on him. He approached them. And he escalated.
This guy doesn't deserve any sympathy. What happens if he was in a board room with Saudi Aramco officials and started harassing them about their pro-Palestinian stance? Why is this any different. We should absolutely expect better judgement from this guy than the random person on the street.
Insane the NY Post article shows a photo of his fucking house…
Also, he had liquid thrown on him - isn’t that assault in some cases? What is the line where you can finally defend yourself? What if he thought the liquid was acid?
Insane. I 100% stand behind him.
intentionally throwing water at someone is an assault in all cases. which is why the woman is not filing a lawsuit. instead she prefers to get back at him through media, where laws matter less than feelings.
The (1) legal standard, (2) moral standard, and (3) HR standard, are three totally different things.
The law is incredibly clear on this. There are no honest disagreements about the morality of this. And I don't think anyone really disagrees with the HR standard being applied here. Just a bunch of people are either coping and seething or are not meaningfully engaged with this situation.
Thank God justice was done
Monkey shit all u want stay mad
General opinion seems to imply he should’ve punched Ken Moelis in name of self defense instead of resigning.
Deleted
He is a weak man that cannot control his emotions and lacked the discipline to hold back against a smaller target. Losing a $5mm/year career over a spilled drink is simply Darwinism
so a strong man lets people throw drinks at him and does nothing? if you're a small target, don't throw drinks and try to pick a fight with a big target. in addition the banker was alone, while the girl had a bunch of friends with her (including male friends).
at what point self-respect is more important than money? especially if you already have money. would you do nothing if I threw a bottle with piss at you? because you're scared that you may lose your job if you do something?
“A man provides, and he does it even when he’s not appreciated or respected or even loved”
-Gustavo Fring
If knocking someone out is your solution to a spilled drink then you also have no discipline. I learned this shit in high school not sure how grown adults can’t figure it out.
Honestly, he makes the Hawk tuah girl look like a saint
Have you seen the full clip? The media very conveniently left out much of the incident that led to this
Hot take, but I don't think he truly retaliated and is most likely in the wrong. As someone that grew up around a lot of Jewish people and can probably identify someone of Jewish descent better than.the average person, my Jewish friends believe that most people can tell that they're Jewish, when that's just not the case. To the world (especially probably the group of people he got into a fight with), Jewish are just regular white people.
What I feel happened was that the protest was going on and made a snide comment causing the group of protestors to retaliate. Things likely escalated once the crowd figured out the reason he made his snide remark and then the crowd probably started saying some racist/anti-Semitic rhetoric that cause Kaye to lash out.
Both sides are most likely wrong, but as everyone here has awknowledged, Kaye has significantly more to lose. But from my anecdotal experience, I just don't believe that a group of (ignorant) protestors could just identify a random Jewish man on the street and start attacking him.
Kaye likely provoked them and it escalated, but I don't believe he thought it'd go as far as it did.
There's definitely physical traits for some Ashkenazi Jewish people, but Mr. Kaye is pretty much indistinguishable from any white dude on the street. I went to a pretty Jewish high school in the DC area and the vast majority of Jewish students are in the Mr. Kaye camp.
lol really? the guy looks like he is literally the brother of ari-emmanueal
That guy looks about as Jewish as he could without wearing a yarmulka or wearing the full get up with twists in his hair like Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn…
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Nothing antisemitic was said. Keep playing the victim when ur really the perp
I’m a Jew, 100% Ashkenazi Jewish descent, born and raised in the NYC area. When I see someone walking down the street, I can tell by their face whether they are Jewish or not. It’s intangible, it can be something as insignificant as how they look from a certain angle. I’d say 9/10 times, when I strike up a conversation with someone who I think looks Jewish, they are.
I assume you disagree with me, but you're actually kinda proving me point. From my experience, people that are Jewish tend to believe that people can tell that they're Jewish, but it's strictly because they themselves are Jewish.
What you're describing is akin to the very common adage that you know when you get a new car or want a certain car, you start seeing that car everywhere? It's not because that car all of a sudden it became so popular and everyone owns one. It's called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. You yourself are Jewish and because you are Jewish, you are inherently interested in searching for other Jewish people and be involved in more Jewish culture.
My black friends can identify if a black person is African or African American, when I can't, but even my African friends can often tell what country another African is from, even though I can't.
Not to stereotype, but Jewish people tend to stick together and are well represented in very successful careers. It is unlikely that the group of degenerate protestors knowingly come across Jewish people in their daily lives, especially enough to identify and attack a random man at night that isn't vivdly wearing traditional Jewish attire.
Obviously context it’s important, but people are crazy saying that was rational behavior from this dude. He looked like a psychopath in this video, and everyone on this thread should not be surprised that as a middle aged MD at Moelis, he is probably indeed a psychopath. Runs in the industry as we all know.
Surprised it wasn't an Apollo principal.
An Apollo principal probably understands risk/reward
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Ken himself is Jewish, you genius.
Username is gold.
Wait so is he gonna get a job somewhere else or whatv
Candidly not sure how people are trying to act like this wasn't an inevitable decision. As most people here realize IB is a sales-focused role at the top-level, which means you are not only selling (1) yourself, but (2) your expertise and (3) the overall reputation of your firm.
As such, why would Moelis keep a walking liability and PR headache on their payroll? To firmly entrench their spot as the summer laughing stocks of the Street when they could just wash their hands of the guy and promote whichever MD was next on the totem pole (and has been itching for years to get said seat)? As someone else has already said this should just show you how duplicative and commoditized you really are in this industry. Please don't try to utilize a drink thrown in your face/body/back as an excuse to clock someone, much less a woman, in the face in broad daylight when iPhone 24s are ubiquitous. Go back to turning your comments your wanna-be VP is waiting.
he punched a dude dressed as a woman but ok
Where is this coming from, lol. You can clearly see the victim is a woman....
Great form, should have followed with another jab before they fell.
A good man, family man was destroyed to appease a guy in a wig who likely sucks off the government's teat to survive
Would love to see some evidence on this 😂 cope harder baby
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What a POS. Punching a woman/transgender in the face is always not ok, whatever they said to him. Period dot dot dot. Does he beat his wife when they argue? I guess not.
This is maybe a selection bias, but I'm surprised to see that a significant amount of people here are actually on his side (these are probably butthurt Moelis bankers, who knows). Anyway, this is not about Moelis nor Israel, but about a man who fist punched a woman.
WSO is full of overly conservative insecure men that get their panties in a wad over hating minorities and anyone who gets repercussions for committing a crime who happens to have a top seat so that’s the answer. I’d take it with a grain of salt haha
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