High-flying finance executive and his girlfriend sued by nannies who claim they were called ‘dirty Jamaicans’

A high-flying Wall Street financier and his girlfriend are being sued by two nannies who accuse the couple of racism.

Cordia Foster was hired by millionaire Ian K. Snow and his girlfriend Elyse Dula as a nanny for their four children in August 2017. Cislyn Wright was then hired a year later in September 2018.

The two Jamaican women lived with the couple in their Manhattan home and summer rental in the Hamptons.

Snow – whose company, co-founded with Gilded Age scion Ogden Phipps II, has $2.4 billion in assets – paid $2 million to rent the Bridgehampton home for three months in the summer of 2020.

But the two women claim to have been racially abused in Manhattan and the Hamptons – branded “dirty Jamaicans” and “black bitches”, and accused of theft and trespassing.

Snow and Dula have vehemently denied using racial slurs and in turn accuse Foster and Wright of threatening to “use black magic” on the family.

They say the nannies were fired over a litany of complaints, including excessive mobile phone use and being “hostile” to Dula.

Foster and Wright were fired in August 2020 and the following year sued for discrimination.

Court papers filed shortly before Christmas, in District Court for the Southern District of New York, agreed to the terms of the jury’s verdict sheet, and the trial is said to be imminent.

Foster and Wright, in their complaint, claim that they were stereotyped from the start.

They were recruited through an exclusive and prestigious agency based in New York, British American Household Staffing.

Snow and Dula are thought to live between Manhattan and a Long Island mansion that was previously owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Snow paid $9.1 million in 2011 for the 11-bedroom colonial mansion from the early 20th century, which Murdoch asked presidential decorator Michael Smith to remodel.

The house is listed in court documents as Snow and Dula’s primary residence.

“During much of their employment with defendants, plaintiffs were stereotyped as non-threatening, nurturing, tall black women who exist only to serve,” the two allege.

They claim to have noted differences in the way they were treated compared to other staff.

‘Both defendants often pointedly treated complainants as if they were ‘invisible’ – for example, upon entering a room occupied by Foster or Wright and a non-black servant, defendants often greeted, smiled and talked with the non-black worker while acting like Foster or Wright don’t exist.

Foster and Wright claim in their lawsuit that a personal assistant, Tamela Walsh, told them, “Elyse hates you Jamaicans.”

She further added, Foster and Wright allege: ‘Elyse [Dula] always tells me to spy on you.

They say they ignored the perceived slights and continued to look after the four children.

The situation escalated, they claim, in January 2020 when the family had a kitten named Scotty.

The kitten escaped and Wright, running after it with a broom, managed to drag the animal back into the house.

Wright claimed in the lawsuit that Dula, upon learning the kitten had escaped, blamed the nannies and exclaimed, “Those black b******s!”

In May 2020, as work neared completion on the servants’ quarters of the Hamptons home, Dula allegedly said, according to court documents, “I’m happy to get these filthy Jamaicans out of my house.”

The nannies claim Dula forbade them from entering the pool house and guest quarters, and aggressively challenged them when they did. Dula, in her deposition, said the rules were clear that the space was for their guests.

“Since a dirty diaper was found in a trash can inside the pool house, Ms. Dula had reason to believe that either Ms. Foster or Ms. Wright had entered the pool house in violation of her instructions,” the court documents say. .

‘SP. Foster was undisciplined; Ms. Dula merely acted to reaffirm her clear instructions in this regard.

The nannies further allege that after these tense encounters, their pay was cut in half, from $1,075 a day to $500 a day.

Snow, in his deposition, said he realized he was paying above the market rate.

‘Defendant Snow believed he was paying substantially above market for plaintiffs’ services; their performance had become increasingly poor; and the nature of their responsibilities had changed at least six months prior to June 2020, as they no longer had to care for a newborn baby,’ the court documents say.

“As the children grew older, the plaintiffs were unable to track the children’s physical activities, causing the defendants to hire others for such purposes.”

Dula and Snow fired the couple in August 2020 and insist they were fired for a litany of misconduct.

The couple accuse Foster and Wright of spending too much time on their cell phones, ignoring children and bathing children in excessively hot water.

They add that the nannies bought the children a scary Joker mask from the Batman movie in 2018 and say the final straw was finding a wireless monitoring device in one of the children’s bedrooms.

“When Ms. Dula confronted Ms. Foster with her shocking discovery, Ms. Foster even refused to respond,” the court documents state.

Dula and Snow say the children were disciplined by being placed in a windowless room – but the nannies dispute that the couple told them to do so.

They firmly deny any racist attitude or remarks.

“Defendants strongly object to any assertion that their judgments and decisions were based on negative racial stereotypes of plaintiffs as African Americans and/or Jamaicans,” the court documents state.

The services of the “plaintiffs” were interrupted, not because of the color of their skin, nor because of alleged “retaliation”, but because they had lost the confidence and the faith of the defendants, a necessary element and not negotiable of the defendants’ willingness to allow any person, of any color or racial composition, to care for their young children.

Gerard Riso, representing Snow and Dula, told the New York Post, “The defendants deny all allegations and we will fight them vigorously.”

Scott Lucas, representing Bronx-based Wright and Foster of Mount Vernon, has yet to respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.

Snow is currently in the midst of a divorce battle with his ex-wife, Mary. The couple filed for divorce in 2018.