“Now unshackled by the S.E.C.—” “One of the most anticipated comebacks in Wall Street history.” “As the ball dropped at midnight, so too did a regulatory ban on Cohen from managing—” Just as Steven A. Cohen is ready to jump back into the game with his new fund called Point72 Asset Management, the billionaire investor, who had been banned from trading other people’s money until this year, now faces a lawsuit. A top female executive at Steven Cohen’s investment firm sued the company on Monday night. At the heart of the lawsuit is this allegation that women, no matter what their abilities, are paid significantly less than their male peers. We spoke to four people. All four of them described a really hostile work environment and echoed many of the same accusations in this lawsuit. Steve Cohen, even for people who don’t know anything about Wall Street, is one of those figures who has captured the public imagination. “We spotted a suspect trading pattern—” The government’s pursuit of him and his firm inspired the television show “Billions.” In 2013, investigators indicted the financial firm that bore his initials, S.A.C. Capital, and six of his employees eventually pled guilty to using private tips to trade public stocks. It was one of the biggest criminal cases in Wall Street history. “S.A.C. trafficked in inside information on a scale without any known precedent. It is more broadly an account of a firm with zero tolerance for low returns but seemingly tremendous tolerance for questionable conduct.” Cohen himself wasn’t charged by the authorities. But his firm, S.A.C. Capital, paid $1.8 billion in civil and criminal fines and was shut down. One of the richest people in the world, he has continued to manage $11 billion of his own fortune through Point72, but the world has changed over the past few years. Investors seem to have less of an appetite for the kind of hedge fund investing that Cohen was so famous for. And now, in addition to any doubts about his financial practices, he must reckon with the employment discrimination suit. His firm has denied all allegations.