November 11, 2014
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Editor
The woman whose scandalous divorce filing accused boutique bank Jefferies and Co. of rampant drug use in its health care and biotech investment group has apologized to the bank and her soon-to-be ex-husband, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
Christina Kelly made the allegations during vicious divorce proceedings from Jefferies investment banker Sage Kelly, accusing him of indulging in “alcohol, cocaine, mushrooms, Special-K, heroin” as well as other drugs like ecstasy.
The filing also dragged the firm itself into the accusations, saying Kelly was once “so drunk at the annual party that he hosts for members of his department at Jefferies & Company that he began to urinate”—and it included a list of Jefferies employees with whom both Kellys had used illegal drugs.
The story took another bizarre twist recently, when its chief executive, frustrated her divorce filings alleging extensive drug use at the unit, spontaneously volunteered the group for drug tests.
“We went to our partners in health care investment banking yesterday afternoon and said, ‘The two of us are going to go take a drug test, and do you want to join us?’” recounted CEO Richard Handler in a memo sent to clients Oct. 31.
But it appears the two have since reached a compromise, with a substantial financial settlement producing a statement from her saying Kelly is a “great father” with “high integrity” who “deeply loves our children.”
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed and William Beslow, Christina Kelly’s lawyer, declined to comment.
Kelly also took aim at news accounts of the story, saying they were inaccurate, but not specifying which details were incorrect. All information about possible drug abuse were taken directly from Mrs. Kelly’s own divorce filings.
“A substantial portion of what has been written in the press and other media over the past few weeks is inaccurate, untrue or hyperbolic, and I apologize to those who have been affected thereby -- including those at Jefferies and those associated with Jefferies,” she said.
“The presentation of the facts in divorce proceedings is a function of subjective viewpoints,” she said.
Jefferies did not issue a statement on the apology.
