Human sex trafficking over a period of over a decade? Holy shit, yes, that is a very explosive lawsuit. I thought the headline was overstating things but if anything it's the opposite. No wonder he was fired within the day.
She's not accusing him of sex trafficking, she didn't meet him until she was already in the USA:
she is described as a “victim of human trafficking since she was 15.” It says that she was “brought to America in 2001,” “sold as a dancer to a strip club,” and that shortly after her arrival, she met Goguen at a Texas strip club and was soon submitting to his “constant sexual abuse” and “relying on his promise that he would help her break free of the human traffickers who held her in perpetual debt.”
He was aware of and took advantage of human sex trafficking. I never said that he brought her into the country himself. But he acted to perpetuate the system, which isn't much better.
I don't know how it could be false when I said "usually" (and thus I don't particularly appreciate the downvote). I'd like to see a list of known cases where someone paid $40 million to hide an affair and had nothing illegal to hide. I suspect it is quite short.
If she was under the age of consent, then he either didn't sleep with her and thus had no reason to pay any money or he did and he broke the law. Right? At that point, he wouldn't have only been paying to hide it from his wife and Sequoia but also the government and hence wouldn't be innocent.
I don't know how to respond to such a comment, why say anything if you can just weasel out of it?
You're saying he did something illegal. OK.
As someone who frequents HN, you are no doubt aware that people "settle" without going to trial many times. Perhaps he did the math and figured it wasn't worth his time.
See this for what it is: a divorce, without a legal marriage. She's pissed, he's just trying to move on.
"You go Mike! I hate extortionist. You gave her $10M and she wanted more, LOL ... wtf ?!? and she can leave any time. Karma will bite her."
I don't know what it's like to be rich and powerful but I can't imagine an innocent person paying $10 mil in hush money. Though asking for 30 more might look bad in front of a jury.
Curiously, as of a few minutes ago, this thread has been no longer visible on main HN page -- despite its high ranking, and obvious relevance to the HN community.
It's your place to do so, and I'd probably get more work done if you did, but even reading the complaint there are inconsistencies:
1. She says she was a virgin when she met the guy in the US
2. She was inducted into sex trafficking before she moved to the US
3. They maintained an amicable relationship over text
This is just according to her. And I don't need to tell a smart dude like you that these are allegations, and not facts.
"haha" is insensitive, for sure, but she was traveling with him to foreign countries as a personal escort and got $10 million as a result. I'm inclined to believe the extortion angle.
Allegations, sure, and I haven't read them, but "haha" and "funny" are beyond-the-pale responses to something this serious, whether you've guessed right or not (and especially if you haven't).
Over 30% of women have "high risk HPV", it's pretty hard to avoid if you're sexually active and have unprotected sex - and even condom use is no guarantee of protection. It can take years for symptoms to develop, making it difficult to determine where the infection came from.
There is a recently developed vaccine for HPV which has turned out to be more successful than was expected. Currently it is recommended only for high risk groups, but is available for others who may be at risk for exposure.
The problem with that vaccine is that they only give it to young people. If you're over 30, you're outta luck. Basically they assume that if you're over 30 and are sexually active, you already have HPV.
You can get it with doctor's consent. It's true that it's not effective if you already have HPV, but it's also relatively side-effect free, so many doctors have started becoming willing to prescribe (if you ask) on the theory that if you don't have HPV, it could be lifesaving for you or your future partners, while if you do have HPV, it has no effect.
Smells fishy - 13 year ongoing abuse? In the States where one can just walk to the police freely? After paying $10M out of $40M extortion to her? Stripper with only one sexual partner? Red lights everywhere...
How is it possible to terminate a guy in the US with unproven allegations? Guilty by default? I am not saying he isn't, but was there a due process already?
Do you really not understand how human trafficking and slavery works? Getting out of that situation is not nearly as easy as "just going to the police". There's lots of books on the subject you can read to learn more.
> How is it possible to terminate a guy in the US with unproven allegations?
At-will employment. Anyone can be fired at any time for any reason. Innocent until proven guilty applies to the legal system, not to employment.
For the most part, sex trafficking doesn't seem to work - it's one of those things that exists more in the media than reality. There's a huge activism industry and massive amounts of police work around it, but when you dig into the details there's just nothing behind it all. Statistics fall apart - supposed US government stats are just them reporting that the press said something, which was a quote from some politician's speech with no apparent basis, and so on. High-profile stories with films and activist organisations around them like Somali Mam are verifiable lies. Busts actually just arrest the women who are having sex for money. Time and time again, there's just nothing actually there.
Honestly, it's probably just not viable. Too high on the police priority list and involves the victims interacting with too many people not in on the operation. Normal labour trafficking is so much safer
>How is it possible to terminate a guy in the US with unproven allegations?
The allegations of that specific lawsuit may be unproven but the previous "settlement" of $40m "hush money" that's attached as an exhibit to the end of the lawsuit (see the scribd link) appears to be factual and not a forgery of MG's signature.
Since many reasonable employers wouldn't hire someone with such a settlement made public, it logically follows that they would also fire someone for such a document damaging the company image. Any judgement of innocence or guilt on the allegations down the road is irrelevant to the damage done now.
Can we please stop submitting and upvoting things like this. There is literally zero value in articles like this. These are no better than national inquirer articles and should just be banned wholesale.
I've already flagged. If a few more people flag it it will drop off the front page.
I strongly disagree. There is always value in policing the powerful.
If we're going to celebrate the wins (and we should), we have to soberly examine both the losses and the externalities. If these accusations are true, it is our industry that gave him the wealth to cause this kind of harm.
Are you going to police the entire industry from your keyboard? Everything laid out in the article is already being handled by the judicial system. Sideline gawking is not adding anything.
I agree the VC system and the start-up ecosystem in general should be more decentralized and sustainable but that is beside the point. Sensationalized articles like this that only work because of people's morbid curiosity are hardly the way to galvanize such change.
> Everything laid out in the article is already being handled by the judicial system.
This is both false and absurd. If the allegations are correct, this woman spent more than a dozen years as a sex slave. None of those crimes were "handled" by the judicial system. This is just a civil settlement. And she is only one person. The complaint also alleges that he was involved with many other women. We know nothing about their status, but abusers rarely confine their crimes to one victim.
> Sideline gawking is not adding anything.
If gawking is all that happens, sure. So maybe you could pipe down and let some actual discussion happen?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/304104968/Goguen-Baptiste-San-Mate...