Investment banker suspended from job after alleged drunken assault on MTA employee

The allegedly drunk banker accused of hitting an MTA employee at a Brooklyn subway station has been suspended from his Manhattan investment firm, the company said Sunday.

Jean-Francois Coste, 53, was banked by Tocqueville Asset Management, the Midtown investment firm he has worked for for nearly 15 years, after Friday’s attack on MTA employee Tanya McCray at a Coney Island subway station set, the company announced.

“Mr. Coste has been suspended from the company effective immediately,” the company said in a statement. “Tocqueville Asset Management has no tolerance for violent behavior and will take all necessary action pending further investigation.”

A Tocqueville spokesman declined to say whether Coste was suspended with or without pay.

A reportedly intoxicated Coste was at the Stillwell Avenue train station around 12:15 a.m. when he allegedly hit McCray as she got into work, police said.

Cops said McCray confronted Coste when the alleged drunk banker tried to get into a clerks-only area at the train station, with the finance clerk slapping her twice in the face when she refused to let him in.

The MTA veteran also fought off her attacker with her lunch bag, which contained a thermos, leaving Coste with scratches and a black eye, police said.

Coste fled after the attack but was cornered by transit workers and arrested by police, authorities said.

He was charged with assault, harassment and threats and was released without bail.

The Legal Aid Society, which represented Coste in his arraignment on Friday, said he has since hired a private attorney.

The suspect was hiding at his brownstone home in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn on Sunday.

A spokesman for the Transit Workers’ Union Local 100 said McCray was just exiting the “crew room” at the train station when she spotted Coste trying to get into a restricted area.

“It’s not a public area,” the spokesman said. “He was obviously drunk. She pushed the door so it clicked and clicked and he punched her in the face at least twice.”

According to his LinkedIn profile, Coste has been with Tocqueville since February 2008 and currently works 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 deleted from the Tocqueville company website since the attack, and he has made his Instagram and Facebook accounts private.

He is expected in court in Brooklyn on March 1.

Additional reporting by Kyle Schnitzer