A federal judge has refused to dismiss a whistleblower claim against Ohio Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy after a former executive at his investment firm alleged that Ramaswamy demanded she violate securities laws and participated in firing her when she refused.
U.S. District Judge Julien Xavier Neals issued the 24-page ruling Aug. 25 in Rosely v. Strive Asset Management, rejecting Ramaswamy’s attempt to dismiss an individual whistleblower-retaliation claim brought by former Strive executive Joyce Rosely.
The allegations recited by the court are explosive.
Rosely alleges that “almost immediately” after she began working for Strive in August 2022, Ramaswamy and Strive co-founder Anson Frericks demanded that she “violate applicable securities laws.”
She says she and another employee repeatedly objected — both to the demands being made of them and to securities-law violations they believed Ramaswamy and Frericks were committing themselves.
The court says Rosely alleges Ramaswamy exercised supervisory authority over her, personally received those objections and “participated in the decision to terminate” her employment after she refused his demands.
Ramaswamy asked the court to throw the claim against him out, arguing that the complaint did not show he was directly involved in Rosely’s firing.
Neals rejected that argument.
“The Court disagrees,” the judge wrote before laying out the allegations against Ramaswamy: that he supervised Rosely, demanded that she...
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