[NEWS] An explosive breach of contract lawsuit against former Sequoia Capital partner Michael Goguen has been dropped – Loganspace

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[NEWS] An explosive breach of contract lawsuit against former Sequoia Capital partner Michael Goguen has been dropped – Loganspace


Three-and-a-half of years within the past, alawsuithit the San Mateo, Ca. county courthouse that briefly attracted the attention of the worldwide mission capital community given its salacious nature. The defendant: longtime VC Michael Goguen, who’d spent two decades with Sequoia Capital in Menlo Park, Ca. The plaintiff: a inclined lady friend who described him through the submitting as a “worse predator than the human traffickers.”She acknowledged within the submitting that she would know, having turn out to be a “sufferer of human trafficking” at age 15 when she changed into once “delivered to The United States in 2001,” then “offered as a dancer to a strip club” in Texas, which is where she she says first encountered Goguen.

What she wished from the lawsuit changed into once money that she acknowledged changed into once owed to her by Goguen: $40 million over four installments that the lawsuit stated dangle been for “compensation for the sexual abuse and [a sexual] infection she shriveled from him.” In step with her plod smartly with, Goguen agreed to these terms, paying Baptiste a first installment of $10 million, nevertheless then refused to dangle additional funds.

At the time, Goguen called the allegations “horrific” and suggested Baptiste changed into once a spurned lover, announcing they’d had a “10 365 days romantic relationship that ended badly.” He also filed aatrocious criticism alleging extortion.

This day, that atrocious criticism lives on, whereas Baptiste’s case some other time Goguen changed into once intellectual quietly dismissed by arbitrator Read Ambler, a retired receive who served two decades with the Santa Clara County Superior Court docket and whowrote in a ruling the day old to thisfiled in San Mateo court that Baptiste’s failures to endure clinical examinations doomed her case, as did her failure to execute paperwork critical within the invention project.

“The account introduced additional establishes that Baptiste’s’ failures dangle been willful,” Ambler writes. “Baptiste appears to deem that the guidelines responsive to the invention at wretchedness is both no longer connected, or with recognize to the clinical examinations, no longer celebrated by regulations. While Baptiste is free to deem what she needs to deem, the orders are binding on Baptiste, and her failure to conform with the orders is unacceptable.”

Baptiste doesn’t currently dangle appropriate representation, though four units of legal professionals dangle represented her over time.

Patricia Glaser, a high-powered licensed expert who took on Baptiste’s case at the origin (andlater agreed to signifyHollywood producer Harvey Weinstein), requested to be relieved from the case 5 months later, citing “irreconcilable variations.” More no longer too long within the past, an L.A.-basically based couple that operates the Sherman Regulations Community in L.A. filed a motion to be relieved as Baptiste’s counsel, citing “irreconcilable variations and a breakdown in verbal substitute.”

Goguen’s attorneys snarl he will continue to pursue his counterclaims towards Baptiste and appears to be like forward to “total vindication.”

Though Ambler never remarked on the deserves or Baptiste’s claims, Goguen’s licensed expert Diane Doolittle additional acknowledged this day in a observation that: “Amber Laurel Baptiste’s sensationalized lawsuit towards Silicon Valley mission capitalistMichael Goguencollapsed under the burden of its dangle falsehood the day old to this, when a receive dismissed the case attributable to Baptiste’s repeated, egregious and willful misconduct. Over the direction of this case, Baptiste perjured herself, hid, destroyed and falsified key proof, and demonstrated her contempt for the finest system by systematically violating a quantity of court orders.”

Baptiste might maybe well moreover no longer be reached for notify.

Baptiste’s lawsuit towards Goguen precipitated Sequoia to portion methods with him nearly straight. Later the very day that TechCrunchbroke news of the plod smartly with in 2016, a Sequoia spokesman told us that whereas the firm understood “these allegations of mighty improprieties” to be “unproven and unrelated to Sequoia” its administration committee had on the other hand “made up our minds that Mike’s departure changed into once the loyal direction of motion.”

Goguen, who offered an $11 million house in Atherton, Ca., in 2017, has spent great of his time in most modern years at one other house in Whitefish, Montana, where he has reputedly been wooing locals. An August account about Goguen in The Missoulian a pair of separate case describes him “identified within the neighborhood for philanthropic ventures.”

Continues the account: “Such donations dangle funded Montana’s Internet Crimes Against Teenagers Process Pressure and a Flathead crew educating women to code. Two Undergo Air, his northwestern Montana search and rescue outfit free to anybody who has wanted it, has performed smartly over 500 missions and 400 rescues, fixed with govt director and chief pilot Jim Pierce. Goguen has in my view finished 30 rescues, the Day-to-day Inter Lake reported in February. The Flathead Beacon experiences he changed into once honored with the Big Whitefish Award earlier this 365 days.”

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