The drunk banker allegedly accused of hitting an MTA employee at a Brooklyn subway station has been suspended by his Manhattan investment firm, the firm announced Sunday.
Jean-Francois Coste, 53, was benched by Tocqueville Asset Management, the Midtown investment firm where he has worked for nearly 15 years, after Friday morning’s assault on MTA employee Tanya McCray in a Coney Island subway station, the company said.
“Mr. Coste has been suspended from the business with immediate effect,” the company said in a statement. “Tocqueville Asset Management is completely intolerant of violent behavior and, pending further investigation, will take all necessary measures.”
A spokesperson for Tocqueville would not say whether Coste was suspended with or without pay.
Police say Coste was intoxicated at the Stillwell Avenue station around 12:15 p.m. when he punched McCray as she arrived for work.
Cops said McCray confronted Coste when the allegedly drunk banker tried to enter an employee-only area of the train station, with the finance worker punching her twice in the face when she refused to leave him to enter.
A spokesperson for Transit Workers’ Union Local 100 said McCray had just left the “crew room” at the station when she spotted Coste trying to enter a restricted area.
“This is not a public space,” the rep said. He was apparently drunk. She pushed the door so that it latched and locked, and he punched her in the face at least twice.
The MTA veteran retaliated against her attacker with her lunch bag, which contained a thermos inside, leaving Coste with scratches and a black eye, police said.
Coste took off after the assault but was cornered by transit workers and arrested by police, authorities said.
He was charged with assault, harassment and threatening and released without bail.
The Legal Aid Society, which represented Coste at his arraignment on Friday, said he has since retained the services of a private attorney.
Coste could not be reached for comment. The private phone number given to him was disconnected and no one answered the door on Sunday at his brownstone in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. He also did not respond to a Post message left on his work phone.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Coste has worked at Tocqueville since February 2008 and currently worked at the firm as a senior equity analyst.
He graduated from Northeastern University in Boston in 1993 and previously earned an MBA in finance from NEOMA Business School in France.
Coste’s profile has been purged from the Tocqueville Company website since the attack, and he has made his Instagram and Facebook accounts private.
He is due back in court in Brooklyn on March 1.
Friday’s attack happened two days before a female MTA worker was punched in the face by a nut in a Times Square subway station and her male colleague was violently kicked in the leg as he shot the guy, cops said.
“We have zero tolerance for attacks on transit workers, and two senseless assaults days apart on employees simply trying to do their jobs for the public are outrageous,” said Craig Cipriano, director of the operation of NYC Transit, in a press release.
“We are grateful the NYPD made immediate arrests in both cases, at Coney Island and Times Square, and hope the injured workers recover quickly.”
Additional reporting by Kyle Schnitzer
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