ソースはAP通信 Ex-Exec Sues Japanese Company in NY By LARRY NEUMEISTER ? 2 days ago
NEW YORK (AP) The former creative director of the U.S. arm of Japan's largest advertising agency sued the company Wednesday, saying he was pressured to visit a brothel and engage in other sexually explicit activities on company outings, then was fired after he complained. In a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Steve Biegel said he and other company employees were put in awkward, sexually charged situations by Toyo Shigeta, the chief executive officer of Dentsu Holdings USA. The company said it would fight the lawsuit, which it described as a disgruntled former employee's attempt to get "money to which he is not entitled." "When Dentsu refused to yield to Mr. Biegel's unreasonable demands, he made outrageous allegations which the company has refuted," Dentsu said in a statement, adding that Biegel had never complained about the alleged incidents while working for the company. Biegel said in the lawsuit he was the executive responsible for developing television, radio, print and outdoor advertisements for many of Dentsu's most important clients when he was asked to go on a trip in June 2004 to the Czech Republic where a commercial was shot for Canon Inc.On one evening during the trip, Shigeta ordered Biegel and another employee of the company to go on an outing with him but refused to say where they were going, the lawsuit said. Shigeta took them to a brothel, leaving Biegel, who is married, offended and humiliated that he had been forced or duped into going there, the lawsuit said. It said Shigeta later demanded they participate in prostitution and became angry when they did not, accusing them of being "no fun." The lawsuit said Shigeta later told them that having sex with prostitutes was a proper style of conducting business and commemorating business dealings.