A millionaire banker who was captured on video punching an anti-Israel protester in the face and shoving another to the ground pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor charges — but will have his record expunged.
Jonathan Kaye, a former senior banker at Moelis & Co., had initially claimed self-defense after the protesters shouted slurs and threw red and white liquid on him last year.
But he copped a plea Friday in New York state court in Brooklyn to reduce the charges to a violation — which would wipe his record clean — as long as he attends three anger management classes and performs 25 days of community service, according to Bloomberg News.
Kaye, who recently got hired by Rothschild, was also ordered to pay restitution of up to $50,000 to his two victims.
The incident, which took place on June 8 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, was widely shared on social media, and showed Kaye punching a woman in the face.
The unidentified 38-year-old woman reported to authorities that the attack left her with a broken nose, lacerations and a black eye.
The second incident of involving another anti-Israel protester has not been publicly disclosed.
Shortly after the video went viral, Kaye was placed on leave by Moelis.
When contacted for comment, Kaye declined to speak publicly about the case.
According to sources, the altercation stemmed from a heated argument over the Israel-Hamas war.
Kaye, who is Jewish, allegedly encountered a “Queers for Palestine” demonstration while out buying ice cream for his children.
A source close to Kaye claimed he was surrounded by six individuals who shouted slurs at him before dousing him with a red and white liquid.
“He was in fear for his physical safety when he was surrounded by an angry mob of agitators who encircled him, physically assaulted him, and threw unknown liquids on him,” a spokesperson for Kaye said in a statement.
“He could not identify any of these individuals and was left bloodied from the attack.”
The spokesperson further asserted that any Jewish person in such a situation would naturally feel threatened and act in self-defense given the rise in antisemitic incidents in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.
Since the video surfaced, Kaye was reportedly the target of death threats and what his representatives have described as a “campaign of personal destruction” that has been both “traumatic and devastating.”
Kaye had previously claimed that the woman he struck had thrown a liquid at him before the physical confrontation.
In the widely circulated footage, he is seen walking away from her with his jacket stained, audibly exclaiming, “She f–king threw s–t all over me,” while bystanders hurled insults at him.
Kaye, who has built a successful career on Wall Street, had previously spoken about professionalism and resilience in a podcast interview.
“You should learn the hard skills as fast as you can, but in the end, it’s really the skills of grit and resilience, learning how to listen, understanding what is motivating other people, and empathy — those are the indispensable skills that separate you from a calculator,” he told the “LSE Focal Point Podcast.”
Prior to his role at Moelis & Co., Kaye worked at Citibank as a managing director of global mergers and acquisitions.
His extensive Wall Street experience includes stints at Citigroup, Jefferies, and JPMorgan, according to his FINRA profile.
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