Michael Goguen, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who has helped fund Paypal and Google projects, has been accused of abusing ex-stripper Amber Laurel Baptiste for over 13 years.
Baptiste claims she was brought to the US from Canada at age 15 by human traffickers. She accused Goguen of violent sexual abuse that occurred over more than a decade after they allegedly first met at a Texas strip club.
Goguen, of Sequoia Capital, has recently resigned over the allegations, an action the firm called the “appropriate course of action” in a recent statement. In a post made by Goguen on LinkedIn, he claims to have an “enormous amount of evidence” that Baptiste’s suit is motivated by the poor nature of their relationship’s ending.
In the LinkedIn post, Goguen argues that his evidence will be conclusive enough to clear his name:
Those messages show that she pursued me romantically, repeatedly professed her love, respect and affection for me, include consistent and multi-year statements about my kind and compassionate interactions and treatment of her, as well as her ultimate demands for money after things turned sour.
Despite Goguen’s claims, Baptiste isn’t planning to pull back on her allegations, with her filing suit in San Mateo County, CA, on March 8. The suit accuses Goguen of forcing her to endure horrifying sexual acts, some of which occurred over the course of six hours. During these acts, Baptiste claims that Goguen forced her to call him “king” and “emperor.”
Baptiste is demanding $40 million in compensation from Gougen in addition to the $10 million they had already agreed upon.
Tom Ciccotta writes about Free Speech and Intellectual Diversity for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta.
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