Silicon Valley investor denies keeping sex slave for 13 years - but admits signing US$40m contract with woman

In a case that’s almost too strange to be true, even for far-out Silicon Valley, venture capitalist has Michael Goguen admitted in court papers that, yes, he paid the first US$10 million of a US$40 million contract to the woman with whom he had a sexual relationship with for 13 years and who was not his wife; but, no, she was never his “sexual slave” and he only agreed to sign the unusual contract because he worried about a “shakedown” featuring “false and libelous claims” of abuse.

But then Goguen failed to pay up. Some US$30 million remains on the contract today. Both sides agree on that, at least.

And so now his former paramour, Amber Laurel Baptiste, has gone to court - unleashing both a hard-to-read dispute and a wealth of tawdry details that has shocked the hard-to-shock tech community and had Goguen’s former employer, Sequoia Capital, taking to Twitter this weekend to gamely send their managing partner packing: “We understand the allegations about Michael Goguen are unproven and unrelated to Sequoia. Still, we decided his departure was appropriate.”

Baptiste’s breach of contract lawsuit, filed last week in San Mateo County District Court in California, accused Goguen of “sexually, physically and emotionally” abusing her. She alleged that she endured the treatment because Goguen promised to free her from the human traffickers holding her in perpetual debt. The contract, according to Baptiste’s lawsuit, was intended to compensate her for the years of abuse.

Goguen, in his counter-suit, denied any wrongdoing and, in turn, accused Baptiste of extortion - describing her as “a woman scorned.”

Reading the two filings side-by-side, Baptiste and Goguen agree on the outlines of many incidents. It’s in the details and interpretations that they clash.

Goguen admitted that they had an unusual sex life, but he claims it was entirely consensual. His lawsuit features many snippets of texts purporting to show Baptiste’s adoration for him throughout the relationship. His lawsuit even includes colour photographs of Baptiste posing in her underwear, like something out of a Victoria’s Secret catalog, which Goguen claimed she emailed to him at what was allegedly the heights of her abuse.