Bloomberg defends treatment of women at media empire despite multiple lawsuits

Mike Bloomberg defended his media company’s treatment of women — claiming it had an “enviable record” despite being hit with dozens of lawsuits from female staff accusing the Democratic presidential candidate of ruling over a predatory environment.

The multibillionaire was grilled on the campaign trail Sunday following an article that revealed Bloomberg LP had been slapped with nearly 40 discrimination and harassment suits from 64 employees over the past two decades.

“Not everybody is happy but we have an enviable record of treating people the same in terms of compensation and promotions and authority,” the 77-year-old said when asked if he had made mistakes in the way he treated female employees at his media company.

A Business Insider investigation last month found the former three-term mayor of New York City, who is worth about $54 billion, was repeatedly accused of creating a “reckless playground” for male executives to “target young, female, naive employees” for sex.

It also found he allegedly made sexually explicit comments to staff including, “If you looked like that … I would do you in a second,” according to court documents.

“There will always be somebody that’s not happy,” Bloomberg said Sunday. “But we do very well in terms of attracting men and women to come to work in the company and the retention rate with both of them is as good as I think any real company, so I’m very proud of what we do.”

When asked if he would do anything differently, Bloomberg said no and touted the fact that a woman was running his campaign.

“Fundamentally, I think our policies of how we treat, how we respect people and promote people and give them opportunities is something I’m very proud of. Senior management in our company, there’s a lot of women,” Bloomberg said.

“The woman who runs my campaign, runs my foundation, runs my life … I mean …,” he trailed off.

As of last month, five lawsuits against the candidate and his company were ongoing.

In a suit filed as recently as 2016, a female Bloomberg employee, identified only as Margaret Doe, accused her male boss of twice raping her, plying her with drugs and threatening to terminate her employment if she didn’t continue sleeping with him.

A spokesman for Bloomberg LP said sexual harassment at the company was “prohibited and offenders face termination.”

“Our diversity and inclusion efforts — including training on preventing harassment and gender bias — are designed to foster a culture where thousands of people are proud to work every day,” the spokesman said.

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