Yes, you heard that right. For once, a leading financial institution was not in favour of ‘big assets’. Debrahlee Lorenzana, a curvaceous, voluptuous 33-year-old was recently fired from Citibank because of a rather peculiar dress code, or the ‘lack’ of it. The ‘unofficial’ version is that her sense of style was causing mercury levels to rise in male staff; she stands by her version that there was no willing exposure – she was born with the enviable body. With the help of a surgeon’s scalpel, of course. More on that later.
Popularly known now as the “banking beauty”, Debrahlee was quick to go on the offensive that Citibank axed her for her sensational body type, [that has the right mix of ectomorph (thin frame), mesomorph (hourglass figure) and endomorph (she went under the knife to enhance her cup size)], a body that was reportedly “too distracting” for her male colleagues, while the bank reassured that her expulsion was purely ‘performance-related’. In hindsight, (and I intend no puns), the oomph-factor seems to have won over “performance’, only to put Citibank in a tight spot (again, I apologise for the overabundance of unintentional puns in this post).
The banking beauty got a lot of attention in the media, enough to set Discovery Health Channel on an investigation about whether Debrahlee’s lawsuit was aimed at getting more attention.
The former Citibank employee aimed for a straight cross between Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra, if I may resort to odious comparisons . And it does not end here. Discovery did a four-part series in 2003 on Debrahlee when she was going under the knife for the fourth time, chasing a Double-D. Understandably, she had every reason to flaunt it, and to give her credit, she seems to have done a rather ‘clever’ job of not flaunting it obviously.
Poor Citibank had to come under her wrath. This Citi is not likely to sleep anytime soon. And I don’t believe it has heard these wise words before – “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. Citi found the oomph intimidating and ordered Debrahlee to pack up.
But hey, guess what? Citi’s loss is JP Morgan Chase’s gain. Keep a watch on JP’s bottom line this earnings season. I don’t think they’ll be filing for bankruptcy in the near future.