According to reports, the New York Jets claim they’ve uncovered a “disturbing” conspiracy inside their own front office. One that involves a fired executive allegedly helping fabricate sexual harassment accusations against President Hymie Elhai himself.

Elaine Chen, a former executive in the team’s finance department, filed a lawsuit last week in New Jersey state court, claiming she was unfairly fired after her husband, Larry Fitzpatrick, accused team president Hymie Elhai of sexually harassing female employees. Fitzpatrick, who also worked for the Jets, was fired on July 25, and just five days later, Chen was shown the door too. In her lawsuit, Chen argues she was let go not because of anything she did, but because she was married to the person who spoke up.

The whole saga began with an anonymous email sent to the Jets’ front office on July 10. The message accused Elhai of sexual harassment. Serious claims that allegedly had very few details. The Jets immediately called the allegations “baseless,” noting that Hymie Elhai had never faced any internal complaints. Still, they launched an investigation. And according to a 67-page filing of counterclaims against Chen, what they found was a “conspiracy.”

The Jets have not only asked Chen to pay back all compensation she was given during her “respective periods of disloyalty” (including benefits and reimbursements), but have also demanded she cover the attorney fees and other reliefs per the court’s orders.

“The lawsuit is nothing more than a desperate extension of the conspiracy and an attempt to shakedown (The Jets), which (are) no longer paying Chen’s or Fitzpatrick’s salaries, and to avoid the inevitable and just consequences of their misconduct,” the countersuit remarked.

Jets’ investigation results

The Jets claim Chen, Fitzpatrick, and at least one other former employee fabricated the harassment allegations themselves, sent them to other Jets executives, and talked about them over email and text.

“Whoops. Sent to your work email by mistake. Delete,” read one text by an unidentified co-conspirator, who accidentally sent an email related to the alleged plot against the Jets to Fitzpatrick’s work email.

“Chen was actively involved in the conspiracy and, based on her own text messages with Fitzpatrick, gleefully so,” the countersuit claimed.

As evidence, the Jets came with receipts. Thousands of them. They claim to have reviewed more than 4,000 text messages that show that Chen, Fitzpatrick, and an unidentified third person coordinated the fake accusations. The team called the evidence “irrefutable.”

But the plot thickens. When investigators did a forensic deep dive on Fitzpatrick’s work phone, they reportedly found a lot more than messages about the alleged scheme. The review uncovered a string of inappropriate behavior. It included texts to colleagues that objectified women, sexually explicit comments, gambling activity (a clear NFL violation), and even alleged exchanges on OnlyFans that included explicit photos of himself.

As of now, the legal teams involved have declined to comment.