Williamsburg Nightclub 'Verboten' Is Run by Racist, Hedonistic Sex Hounds, Former Employees Say

Photo by Matthias Mueller

UPDATE, Thursday, March 31: Verboten has reportedly been shut down and seized by state officials for nonpayment of taxes.

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Sixteen former employees of the relatively new Williamsburg night (and day) club Verboten, housed in an old metal shop on North 11th Street at Kent, are suing the club's owners, husband and wife John Perez and Jen Schiffer, for creating a "sexually hostile work environment" and otherwise "committing a staggering number of unlawful acts against their employees."

The 85-page class-action lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court. Verboten's owners did not immediately return calls and emails from Patch seeking their side of the story.

In the suit, former employees go into disturbing detail about Schiffer's alleged management style.

Schiffer — pictured above, left — is accused of constantly gabbing to subordinates about her sex life; pressuring them to have sex with her and her boyfriend, Verboten employee Dylan Schwartz; turning a blind eye and even "retaliating" when Schwartz sexually harassed them; withholding their pay; stealing their tips; and heaps of other sick stuff.

Former cashier and ticket girl Catherine Papamanousakis, for example, said Schwartz touched her boobs and lower back, and said stuff like: “if you want a good sexual experience, I am a master at eating pussy”; “Why haven’t you called me for sex yet?”; and “who’s f*cking you so good that you don’t need to call me?”

Perhaps more disturbing still is the lawsuit's claim that "the way in which Ms. Schiffer treats her employees is not inconsistent with the way she treats the patrons of Verboten."

Schiffer and her boyfriend, Schwartz, are accused of making sexually degrading comments behind customers' backs, including calling "dibs" on certain females and bragging about exploits from the night before.

The former employees also claim Verboten management has been "filling premium liquor bottles with well liquor in order to trick customers."

Finally, one of the most damning allegations against Schiffer, verbatim from the lawsuit:

Defendants' penchant for unlawful conduct and discrimination towards protected groups is also demonstrated in that they systematically discriminate against their Black customers. Indeed, when Plaintiff Darrin Morda booked a private event that was attended by a number of Black patrons, Ms. Schiffer became furious and screamed at Mr. Morda:

"What are all these Black people doing here?"

"You cannot book a... Black people party!"

Mr. Morda repeatedly objected, but Ms. Schiffer insisted that Black customers would not be permitted to hold and attend private events at Verboten, in part because she purportedly told Brooklyn's Community Board No. 1:

"We are not having Black people parties!"

Schiffer and Perez founded the Verboten brand more than a decade ago as a pop-up techno festival held in event spaces throughout NYC. Their opening of a permanent outpost near Williamsburg's booming Wythe Avenue in 2014 symbolized a party-kid renaissance/apocalypse for the neighborhood, depending which side of the YIMBY/NIMBY debate you were on.

The New York Times called it a "dance club with a Teutonic theme and a strong European lean" — and, on a larger scale, a jewel in the crown of the "newly anointed night life concourse" in northwest Williamsburg, aka Little Berlin. The indie blog Free Williamsburg, meanwhile, called it a "douchey velvet-rope sh*tf*ck Jersey Shore cologne tourist trap electro dance club."

In a video interview for Red Bull's YouTube channel (embedded below), Schiffer said: "We're trying to bring new culture to this city that means so much to us. And so I feel totally lucky. I hope when I look back on it, I'm part of a really great music movement at a really amazing time."

In addition to this new class-action suit, Schiffer and Perez are reportedly fighting public allegations levied in January by 14 of Verboten's investors.

One of these investors, Brian Edward McGuinness, accused Verboten's owner(s) of "significant mismanagement and outright fraud" in a letter sent to other Verboten investors and employees, according to Vice. The situation would best be mitigated, he wrote, by removing Schiffer and Perez and fostering "a more positive work culture" under new management.