A former Morgan Stanley dealmaker in Paris told an employment tribunal that the lender unfairly withheld $1.5 million in deferred pay a year after he raked in more than $100 million in fees while advising Patrick Drahi on a $23 billion acquisition.
Bernard Mourad told judges Monday that the New York-based bank used an incentive plan to deny him a bonus he earned at Morgan Stanley France before he left to work for Drahi in 2015. Lawyers for the bank countered that Mourad knew the compensation scheme was designed to “reward loyalty” tied to continued presence at the firm.
That’s “totally illegal under French law” if no express consent was granted, Mourad’s lawyer, Eric Manca replied during the hearing at the Paris employment tribunal. “It’s a bit like saying that your salary for July will only be paid if you’re still working at the company four years later.”
Mourad, who left Drahi’s Altice Media Group last year to take a role on Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign, is seeking 160,000 euros ($181,000) in damages on top of 1.3 million euros in deferred pay for work he performed between 2012 and 2014 -- the vast majority in shares.
The Mourad lawsuit was filed in 2015, shortly after he quit Morgan Stanley to become chairman of Altice, which owns news outlets such as French newspaper Liberation. Bankers routinely turn to specialist labor courts throughout Europe to recoup lost bonuses and rehabilitate reputations, with varying degrees of success.
September Hearing
The case was first discussed in September, days before Mourad announced he was giving up various roles at Drahi’s telecom companies to join Macron’s campaign. After a heated exchange last year between Manca and Farmine during the roll call of the day’s cases, the panel of Paris judges had decided to delay the hearing until July 3.
In a more peaceful atmosphere at the hearing Monday, the two lawyers disagreed about whether New York or French law applies to the dispute. Hugh Fraser, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley, declined to comment on the case after the hearing.
The incentive plan, which was set up in the U.S., implements a delayed vesting schedule to acquire the rights to the payout, said Francois Farmine, the bank’s lawyer.
“Why? Because it’s a tool meant to favor loyalty,” Farmine said. “He’s trying to speed things up.”