Yuen Lee

Introduction

Yuen Lee is an assurance manager at the accounting firm KPMG who was placed on administrative leave after she was filmed calling a Jewish man a “Zionist pig” during a confrontation at a Manhattan gym. She was identified as the woman in the video by the campaign group StopAntisemitism, which posted the footage on social media on the day it was recorded. The clip spread rapidly across X, drew more than 2.5 million views within two days, and prompted a public demand for action from billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who tagged KPMG directly.

Background Information

Lee was named by StopAntisemitism as an assurance manager at KPMG, one of the so-called Big Four accounting and professional-services firms. Public listings for a Yuen Lee variously describe her as an assurance or advisory manager at KPMG US in New York. According to a LinkedIn profile in her name, she had been an advisory manager at KPMG US for nearly two years and had been with the company for just under six years in total. The same profile says she earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting from Baruch College.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Allegations. The characterizations of the confrontation come from a viral video and from the campaign group StopAntisemitism’s identification of Lee. The footage itself captures her words on camera, but the exchange before recording began is disputed and has not been released. No legal claim arising from the incident is reported, and KPMG’s process was still ongoing at the time of the reports.

Lee was recorded on Wednesday, 16 September 2026, at Chelsea Piers Fitness in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, and StopAntisemitism posted the video the same day. The group’s post named her — “Meet Yuen Lee, an assurance manager at KPMG” — and said she “was filmed calling a Jewish man a “Zionist pig” at Chelsea Piers Flatiron. Imagine being one of her Jewish colleagues at @KPMG.”

The footage picks up partway through the confrontation, and the portion before recording began has not been released. In the video, the man behind the camera says the abuse was unprovoked. “You’re just recording me. You’re not doing anything with that. I didn’t say anything about you, you called me a Zionist,” he tells her. He adds: “You called me a Zionist pig, you don’t even know anything about me.”

Lee does not back away. “I actually do, I read books, I’m actually highly educated!” she replies. Asked plainly what she had called him, she repeats the phrase on camera: “A Zionist pig,” before adding, “Okay yeah there you go. Basically.” The man calls her a racist, asking “Just because I’m white, I’m racist?” — she says “No!” and walks away.

Lee has given a different account of how the dispute started. “This man came up to me to comment on my outfit today,” she says in the video, appearing to have a black-and-white keffiyeh tied around her waist — a checkered scarf considered a symbol of solidarity among Palestinians and their supporters, and viewed by some Jewish people as a symbol of hate. Because the recording began mid-exchange, what passed between the two before the camera was switched on has not been made public.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The clip reached a far wider audience after Bill Ackman, founder of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, reposted it late Wednesday to his millions of followers, tagging @KPMG and @KPMG_US and adding the caption “.@KPMG and @KPMG_US?” His post drew thousands of likes and replies within hours. By Thursday the video had racked up more than 2.5 million views on X.

Many users questioned how Lee’s Jewish colleagues and clients would feel working with her, urged Chelsea Piers to cancel her membership, and called on KPMG to fire her. One commenter asked whether clients “paying over $500/hour” would feel comfortable knowing what Lee had said, while another wrote, “Fire her or Jewish clients will take their business somewhere else.” Others called the episode “incredibly poor judgment, especially ironic for someone who works as an assurance manager at KPMG.”

The response was not uniform. A number of accounts accused Ackman of trying to get a stranger sacked without knowing what had happened before the camera was switched on, an objection he has faced before when amplifying similar videos. Some users also questioned whether social media users were mischaracterizing the video, with one writing: “What did he do? Without more context this is only one side of the story.”

The most direct consequence came from her employer. StopAntisemitism said Lee had been placed on administrative leave, and KPMG US confirmed the step. Chelsea Piers Fitness has not commented on the incident or on Lee’s membership.

Current Status

As of the most recent reports, Lee remained on administrative leave from KPMG US while the firm followed what a spokesperson described as its “process and procedures.” A KPMG spokesperson said the firm was “committed to fostering an inclusive culture that is free from discrimination,” and that “there is no place for discriminatory rhetoric in our firm.” The firm condemned discriminatory conduct in general terms but did not say what its inquiry might conclude. Lee has not responded publicly to the criticism, and she and KPMG did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The episode placed a manager of nearly six years at one of the world’s largest accounting firms at the center of a viral controversy within hours. Administrative leave is normally a temporary measure while an employer investigates, and does not in itself point to a final decision, so her long-term standing at KPMG remained unresolved at the time of the reports.

The case fit a broader pattern noted in the coverage: a run of filmed public disputes tied to the war in Gaza in which workers across several industries have been suspended or dismissed after being recorded making inflammatory remarks in public. For Lee, the immediate effects were the loss of her duties pending the firm’s process, a membership at Chelsea Piers Fitness that became the target of public cancellation calls, and her name and professional history — including her assurance role and her Baruch College accounting degree — circulated widely alongside the footage. With the pre-recording portion of the exchange still unreleased and no legal claim reported, the lasting consequences for her career depend on the outcome of KPMG’s ongoing review.