Banker sues over sacking after cheating on his pregnant wife with colleague

A senior banker who cheated on his pregnant wife with a junior colleague is suing for sex discrimination after he was sacked over the affair.

Stanislav Stepchuk, who was a director at American investment bank Merrill Lynch, sent an unsolicited X-rated photo to the younger woman just four days after they began messaging each other.

The pair then entered a relationship, which lasted several months, before Stepchuk ended it when he found out his wife was pregnant.

An employee tribunal heard that Stepchuk claimed the junior colleague responded with ‘hostility’, ‘taunts’ and ‘threats’ that his life may be in danger.

But an internal disciplinary process found that the father-of-two had been the one to threaten her before the bank sacked him for ‘acting inappropriately’ by embarking on the affair.

Now, 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 Stepchuk or his junior colleague were entitled to anonymity.

Stepchuk’s plea to keep his name a secret to ‘protect his family’ was denied by the judge, but the woman was granted anonymity.

The tribunal, held in Central London, heard that Stepchuk became a director at the financial institution in March 2018, before beginning to exchange ‘explicit and personal’ messages with the colleague in January 2023.

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, during which Stepchuk was married.

After breaking off the affair upon learning of his wife’s pregnancy, Stepchuk alleged the colleague said she would disclose the relationship to the bank and threatened ‘consequences’ for his wife, pregnancy, his child and his parents.

Merrill Lynch International said its HR team had spoken to the woman as early as March 2023 about sexual harassment by Stepchuk.

In August, she raised a formal grievance alleging that she had been sexually harassed and that 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 the colleague and had threatened her.

However, they did not uphold the complaint of sexual harassment, finding the relationship had been consensual. Stepchuk is now claiming he was discriminated against by a failure to investigate his grievance.

He also says the bank’s approach was ‘tainted’ by the assumption that he was the perpetrator as a more senior man, but Merrill Lynch says his dismissal was ‘proper’.

A full hearing to determine the outcome of Stepchuk’s case will be held later this month.

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