Bank investigates lewd e-mails

A City firm has launched an internal investigation after a string of sexually explicit e-mails apparently sent by an investment banker bragging about his love life were forwarded to thousands of strangers.

In the e-mails, Robert Imlah, a corporate finance analyst at JP Morgan Cazenove, allegedly boasts to his friends about sleeping with an unnamed woman with "huge nails". In the exchanges that follow, his friends praise Mr Imlah as "Immi, the pimp daddy". These were forwarded as proof that "men are vile" by some recipients in the chain of readers.

One woman wrote: "This is just wrong, although apparently totally normal for men's conversations (disturbed)... they are so going to get fired."

A spokeswoman for JP Morgan Cazenove, Tessa Murray, said: "We take a dim view of this kind of thing and we are investigating."

The e-mail exchange follows in a line of internet correspondence that has gained notoriety for the sender. In December 2000, Claire Swire commented on a sperm bank joke in an intimate message to Bradley Chait, her boyfriend. However, he sent the e-mail on to six friends and it was forwarded on and on until millions of people had read her comments.

In 2004, City worker Sharon Dyson absentmindedly clicked her mouse, and shared intimate details about her love life with boyfriend Alex Hewson by replying to all 30 senders on the e-mail. The e-mail was then forwarded to friends, and beyond.