Hired for Sex

Employee Says She Was Hired for Sex Under Guise of IT Job

Soleil Bonnin is suing Fannie Mae for $20M

By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff

This Monday, Aug. 8, 2011, file photo shows the Fannie Mae headquarters in Washington.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

(NEWSER) – A Fannie Mae employee says she thought she was hired to work in the mortgage company's IT department but was instead expected to act as the personal plaything of a senior director, CNN reports. Soleil Bonnin is seeking $20 million in damages from Fannie Mae, which she sued this week. According to the Daily Beast, Bonnin met IT department manager Joseph King at a Washington DC strip club where she was working as a dancer and he offered her a job. She says she was hired by Fannie Mae in 2016 to work in the IT department—despite having no IT experience—and King offered to mentor her in her new career. Bonnin's lawsuit states it quickly became clear her $90,000 salary had nothing to do with IT work.

Bonnin says King demanded sex from her and took her on work trips that had nothing to do with Fannie Mae business. She says he would pressure her to take long lunches with him and to "drink excessive amounts of alcohol." The lawsuit alleges King was physically abusive and sexually assaulted Bonnin on one trip. She says she feared being fired if she didn't go along with his demands. The lawsuit claims a supervisor knew about King's behavior and reimbursed him for his lunches and trips with Bonnin. "Fannie Mae promotes a culture that mistreats women, including hiring and paying them to have sex with upper management, and tolerates illegal, extreme, and abhorrent sexual harassment," the lawsuit states. King was fired from Fannie Mae after Bonnin got a protective court order against him last fall.