Investment banker busted for punching MTA conductor in Brooklyn, NYPD says

Stand clear of the raging investment banker.

An equity analyst for a boutique Midtown investment firm found himself behind bars after he was accused of punching an MTA conductor in a drunken rage, police said Saturday.

Jean Francois Coste, 53, was inside the Stillwell Ave. station in Coney Island about 12:30 a.m. Friday when he got into an argument with the 56-year-old conductor, cops said.

Clearly intoxicated, Coste, a senior equity analyst at Tocqueville Asset Management, tried to get into an employee’s-only section of the station, possibly to use the bathroom, police sources said.

When the conductor told him he couldn’t enter, he allegedly punched her in the face, sparking a fight, cops said. The MTA employee suffered a bruise and was taken to Coney Island Hospital.

Cops quickly took Coste into custody without incident. At the time of the attack, the Stillwell Ave. station, which is the last stop for the D, F, N, and Q lines, was teeming with police officers, homeless advocates and mental health professionals conducting wellness checks on homeless riders, a source with knowledge of the case.

Coste was charged with assault on a transit employee, harassment and menacing and was ordered released without bail during a brief arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court. He’s expected to face the charges in March. The judge also ordered Coste to stay clear of the MTA employee.

This was his first arrest, a police source said.

Before joining Tocqueville Asset Management in 2008, Coste was a senior vice president of global investments at U.S. Trust, according to his company biography.

Sporting a black eye and scratches to his face, Coste declined to comment and brushed past a Daily News reporter when asked about the dust-up. Workers were busy outside the home installing Christmas lights and decorations to the front of the Boerum Hill brownstone where he lives. His wife also refused to talk to the Daily News, slamming the door in the reporter’s face.

“Train operators work at all hours of the day and night to keep this city moving,” NYC Transit Chief Operating Officer Craig Cipriano said Saturday. “We have zero tolerance when they are senselessly attacked and are grateful to the NYPD for swiftly apprehending the suspect.”