Muslim twin sisters win £4million payout to keep lid on claims City firm bought
sex and drugs for clients
By Tom Kelly, Julie Moult and Emily Andrews
Last updated at 10:55 AM on 13th November 2008
The Muslim sisters awarded £4million pound payout by a City firm were about to
make sensational claims that top executives used drugs and prostitutes, the
Daily Mail can reveal.
Twins Samira and Hanan Fariad, 31, also planned to reveal lurid allegations
that brokers regularly took clients to lap dancing clubs.
They also claimed to be victims of continual sexual harassment for over two
years working at the London office of the French firm Tradition Securities and
Futures.
A City firm has reached an out-of-court settlement with sisters Samira (left)
and Hanan Fariad over allegations that top executives used drugs and prostitutes
Tradition strenuously denies all allegations of sordid behaviour by financiers
on six figure salaries. They were due to be heard at an employment tribunal
starting next week.
But after last-minute talks the women secured a settlement believed to be worth
£4million which will stop the full details being made public.
However the Mail can reveal that one of the reasons that lawyers were so keen
to thrash out a settlement with the sisters is that they planned to make sordid
allegations that executives used prostitutes.
Brokers, they alleged, took clients to Secrets, a lap dancing club on Grays Inn
Road, Central London.
The club, which boasts of being where 'real boys' from the City 'come out to
play', charges £10 entrance fee and then £20 for a fully nude private dance.
It promises a 'magical experience' with fifty dancers from a wide mix of
nationalites dressed in 'spectacular outfits from long evening dresses,
revealing all the right curves, to fabulous sexy lingerie'.
It includes a VIP lounge with seven private booths lit with crimson candles and
decorated with stone ornaments and fresh flowers which managers claim is the
'perfect setting in which to entertain guests'.
Paul Goulding, QC, for the firm told a legal hearing: 'It is said that they
went to Secrets nightclub, it is said they took clients with them and talked
about it the next day on the phone and at their desk.'
The sisters had also planned make claims at the tribunal about the widespread
use of cocaine at the firm.
They had also alleged they were subjected to lewd behaviour and language by
male colleagues and had compiled a long list of the derogatory terms used by
male staff to describe women.
The women had also alleged that bosses removed their Jewish clients and
transferred them to non-Muslim colleagues.
Hanan had already produced a startling 150-page witness statement outlining her
complaints - believed to stretch to 200 allegations.
But the explosive document was shelved after the last minute after the bank
settled with the women, who had originally been demanding a payout of up to
£10million.
The parent company of Tradition, Compagnie Financiere Tradition, is one of the
largest broker firms in the world with offices around the globe and a turnover
in 2007 of £770million.
Mr Goulding, QC, Britain's top tribunal lawyer, succeeded in getting the court
to uphold a gagging order on the names of eight former employees of Tradition
accused of sexual misconduct to try to spare their embarrassment.
Even after a settlement was agreed on Tuesday a strict gagging order remained
in place meaning the women's allegations of sexual misconduct could not be
revealed.
It was finally lifted yesterday after lawyer's for the bank gave up their
battle to keep the order in place.
Samira started work in the Paris branch of Tradition Securities and Futures in
2001.
Three years later she was transferred to London where she was joined by her
sister. As the twin daughters of middle-class parents, both women grew up in a
smart suburb of Casablanca in Morocco.
Their cousin Dounia Fariad said: 'They were very clever. They went to one of
the best schools in Morocco and did very well in their exams.
'Their parents had high hopes for them.
'Being twins they attracted a lot of attention but they were always modest and
dressed well.'
When they passed their Baccalaureate exams - the French equivalent of A levels
- with excellent marks, they moved to Paris.
Following in the footsteps of other aspiring Moroccans, they felt that France
offered much better university and job prospects.
After two years Samira wanted to go to London to further her career, and moved
there in 2004. She was so highly regarded by her company by this point, that
she encouraged them to also give Hanan a job.
The two sisters worked for the firm in London for two years before leaving in
2006.
They have now returned to live in Paris and live in a smart apartment in an
affluent commuter area of Paris.
Samira is engaged to a fellow financier and hopes to get married soon.
As brokers, they would have been on a basic salary of around £50,000 plus
commission, which is likely to have taken their total pay into six figures.
Although the final settlement has not been disclosed, it is believed the French
nationals will walk away with the largest ever payout for an employment
tribunal.
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