

Jonathan Kaye, Moelis banker resigns after video captured him punching a woman at a Park Slope pride festival after alleging he felt threatened by the pro Palestine protesters. To date no charges have been filed against the banker who is Jewish, with the Brooklyn DA’s office stating the incident continues to be under investigation amid the ongoing PR disaster.
A millionaire investment banker captured on cellphone video punching a woman in the face during a Pride event earlier this month in Brooklyn has resigned according to his employer.
Jonathan Kaye, head of the global business services franchise at Manhattan-based Moelis & Co., was filmed punching a female attendee at a Pride event in Park Slope on June 8 in the video, which went viral.
Senior Moelis banker Jonathan Kaye has resigned from the firm after a widely shared video showed him striking a woman in Brooklyn.
Kaye didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Bloomberg’s Sonali Basak reports https://t.co/W1ahDGO084 pic.twitter.com/A1WBtjcMCZ
— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) June 24, 2024
The alleged incident took place after Kaye, 52, who is Jewish alleging being verbally assaulted and accosted by the woman and three others (part of ‘Queers for Palestine’) who had attended the festival donning Pro-Palestine regalia amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza involving Hamas and Israel.
The banker was put on leave by the boutique firm shortly after the episode.
The 38-year-old woman told police that the assault left her with a broken nose, lacerations and a black eye.
Kaye would later claim ‘feeling’ threatened, called anti-Semitic slurs and doused in a mystery liquid moments before he was filmed punching the woman.
A spokesperson for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office told the nypost that a criminal investigation into the incident is ongoing.
To date no charges have been brought against the banker, despite the NYPD urging the victim to move forward and file a report.
To date, the alleged victim, Micah P, 38, has declined to file against the banker while insisting that the banker was un-provoked.
A rep for Moelis confirmed Monday that Kaye quit his high-paying job, without commenting further, Bloomberg reported.

Forced out, threatened with dismissal?
Not immediately clear is whether Kaye had resigned voluntarily or whether his employer had asked him to resign amid the ongoing media debacle and less than stellar PR for the investment outlet.
Also not immediately clear is the outcome of the internal investigation that Moelis launched in the aftermath of the June 8th episode.
The episode led to Kaye who lives in a Park Slope brownstone valued at more than $3.7 million being condemned by neighbors, urging the man to move out of their tony neighborhood. It is understood the banker owns various homes in the area which he rents out.
Neighbors at the time demanded that the NYPD arrest the banker, with others describing him as the ‘neighbor from hell.’
Last year, Kaye gave an interview to a podcast during which he preached about mentoring junior bankers while opining on the keys to success.
‘You should learn the hard skills as fast as you can, but in the end, it’s really the skills of grit and resilience, learning how to listen, understanding what is motivating other people, and empathy — those are the indispensable skills that separate you from a calculator,’ he told the “LSE Focal Point Podcast.”
Elsewhere in the wide-ranging interview, Kaye spoke about his ‘rough’ start in the industry and how ‘Wall Street could be a merciless place.’
Kaye urged prospective employees to commit to ‘doing what you say you’re going to do, being consistent, carefully managing your reputation, carefully managing difficult people, and staying away from toxic people.’
🚨REVEALED: Jonathan Kaye, millionaire investment banker filmed punching woman, felt threatened after four ‘Queers for Palestine’ protesters hurled anti-Semitic slurs at him and left him bleeding moments before viral video incident. pic.twitter.com/svklXXX7p5
— Elijah (@Elijahwasike) June 10, 2024
‘I learned some of the basic concepts that probably seem obvious, but when you’re in your 20s, you kind of have to learn them all from scratch,’ he said.
Prior to his role at Moelis, Kaye was managing director of global mergers and acquisitions at Citibank.
Not immediately clear is what financial compensation Kaye would now be offered after ‘deciding’ to leave the company and presumably spare the investment bank the bank of being associated with the aggrieved episode.