• New York Post, Friday, November 2, 2007 12 PM

The former creative director for the U.S. unit of Dentsu is suing the firm, charging that he was pressured to have sex with prostitutes and placed in other sexually charged situations on business trips to keep his job. And Steve Biegel claims that his boss--Toyo Shigeta, CEO at Dentsu Holdings USA--became enraged when his employees refused to go along.

Among the allegations in the suit is that on a 2004 trip to the Czech Republic, Biegel and a colleague were tricked into going to a brothel with Shigeta. And when they declined to indulge in the fare that was offered, "Shigeta became incredibly angry [and] accused them of being 'no fun,' and stormed off." Furthermore, he maintained that "having sex with prostitutes was a Japanese style of conducting business," the suit says, as it seeks damages for hostile work environment, wrongful firing and other claims.

Also in the suit is the charge that Shigeta said on a previous trip, he and another Japanese businessman "sealed a deal not with a handshake, but by hiring a prostitute in Mexico and having 'double penetration' sex with her." Dentsu fired Biegel in November 2006, and the company says that he never complained while working for them and "has now filed a claim to obtain money to which he is not entitled."

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