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A morbidly obese Samsung executive claims his manager relentlessly fat-shamed him in front of colleagues, belittling him with cruel remarks about his “big ass,” as well as, among other things, repeated suggestions that he “use ‘chemo’ as a weight-loss technique.”
Joseph DeRosa, a former senior director of sales at the South Korean tech behemoth’s U.S. Networks Division, says the experience was “humiliating and hurtful,” particularly because his boss was well aware that DeRosa “lost his mother to cancer and the side effects of chemotherapy treatment,” according to a newly filed federal lawsuit reviewed by The Independent.
A Body Mass Index (BMI) over 30 is considered obese; anything above 40 “suggests morbid obesity,” DeRosa’s complaint states. It says DeRosa at the time had a BMI of 43, which qualifies as “extreme obesity,” per NIH guidelines.
Beyond disparaging the 58-year-old DeRosa about his weight, the complaint says Samsung SVP Magnus Ojert referred to DeRosa at teamwide meetings as a “failed male prostitute,” insisting more than once that DeRosa – a top performer who landed a $6.7 billion contract one higher-up called the “deal of the century” – achieved success by performing “sexual favors” for clients.
But when DeRosa complained to higher-ups, the complaint contends Ojert iced him out of meetings, unilaterally altered his remote-work arrangements, and gave him “an unjustified negative performance review,” after which DeRosa was fired as part of a “purported restructuring.”
“There was no legitimate reason to fire someone with DeRosa’s stellar track record,” according to the complaint, which says DeRosa has since been replaced by someone without any prior sales experience.
In an email on Thursday, a Samsung spokesperson told The Independent, “It is our policy not to comment on personnel matters.”
Ojert, who the complaint says remains employed at Samsung, did not respond to emails, voicemails, and texts seeking comment. Samsung is listed as the sole defendant in DeRosa’s suit; Ojert is identified throughout as DeRosa’s alleged workplace tormentor but is not being sued personally.
DeRosa’s is “an accomplished sales leader with decades of experience in telecommunications,” nine years of which he spent at Samsung, according to his complaint. It says his first stint at Samsung began in February 2016, working under Ojert. But, even though DeRosa generated more than $150 million in revenue over the next 22 months, his complaint alleges Ojert treated him poorly, and DeRosa left Samsung in November 2017 for a new job elsewhere.
In January 2019, DeRosa’s then-employer underwent a restructuring and eliminated his role, according to the complaint.
“Despite the discrimination [DeRosa] faced during his first stint at Samsung, [he] was out of work and needed income,” the complaint states. “Samsung re-hired DeRosa as a Senior Director of Sales, once again reporting to Ojert, a Senior Vice President.”
As before, DeRosa “consistently brought in lucrative deals that drew accolades from the highest ranks of the company,” and his performance reviews were “overwhelmingly positive,” the complaint goes on. It says he received juicy bonuses for his efforts, including “performance-based retention bonuses that Samsung only gave to its key employees.”
Yet, Ojert allegedly ignored DeRosa’s contributions and refused to promote him, according to the complaint, which maintains Ojert’s “motivations… were no mystery.”
“Throughout DeRosa’s employment, Ojert consistently made demeaning comments about DeRosa’s body and weight and treated him ‘markedly differently’ than DeRosa’s non-disabled teammates,” the complaint states.
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Ojert is said to have repeatedly told DeRosa that he should try losing weight by undergoing chemotherapy, since a client of theirs who was also a breast cancer survivor had lost significant pounds during treatment.
Ojert’s comments “suggested that [the client], like DeRosa, was obese and [Ojert] denigrated both of them for their body sizes,” the complaint states.
DeRosa, who is Hispanic, also accuses Ojert of racial discrimination, saying he treated him less well than white and Asian employees.
“Ojert repeatedly yelled at and used abusive language towards [DeRosa] and his Hispanic colleagues,” according to the complaint, which says Ojert “did not subject [non-Hispanic staffers] to similar abuse.”
DeRosa reported the situation to upper management, after which things got even worse, the complaint alleges. It says Ojert’s “hostility towards [DeRosa] only escalated” in the aftermath, prompting DeRosa to take his grievances to HR. In late 2023, DeRosa was assured the company would investigate, the complaint continues. But when DeRosa still hadn’t heard anything by early 2024, he emailed Samsung North America President and CEO KS Choi.
“At this point… Samsung finally assigned its internal investigator to investigate [DeRosa’s] discrimination and retaliation claims,” the complaint states.
In the meantime, Ojert’s animus only intensified and in February 2024, DeRosa “requested and received a leave of absence so that he could avoid Ojert’s retaliatory conduct, which had become intolerable,” according to the complaint.
It says DeRosa subsequently met several times with Samsung’s internal investigator, providing detailed evidence of ongoing bias. But, the complaint alleges, Samsung “never intended to investigate DeRosa’s complaints in good faith.”
For starters, the investigator told DeRosa from the very beginning that he “would not be happy” with the outcome of the probe, the complaint asserts. In May 2024, it says Samsung notified DeRosa’s attorney that it had concluded its investigation and would not be taking “serious corrective action” against Ojert. Two months later, while DeRosa was still on leave, Samsung told him he was being laid off “as part of a purported restructuring,” according to the complaint.
This, DeRosa argues, was simply an excuse to get rid of him. While some others in the division were also let go, the complaint says a majority were engineering employees, not “revenue-generating sales employees.” To that end, DeRosa was his unit’s leading salesperson in 2023, his last full year of work at Samsung, securing “close to $1 billion in revenue, by far exceeding any other Sales director on the account or division.”
“Samsung, on information and belief, shoehorned [DeRosa] into the restructuring because of its continued discrimination and retaliation against him,” the complaint alleges.
DeRosa is asking the court to force Samsung to rehire him, and to bar the company from engaging in similar practices going forward.
He is seeking back pay and benefits, attorneys’ fees, compensatory damages for emotional distress, humiliation, and pain and suffering, and punitive damages to be determined by a jury.
