Former Silicon valley tech investment wizard Mike Goguen has been accused in a lawsuit of everything from keeping a chain of private love-nests to asking the CEO of one of his companies to murder a fellow employee — but both men have already been convicted of stealing from and blackmailing their boss.
The latest lawsuit against a US tech billionaire claims he ran the quiet Montana town where his investment form is based as a personal "harem".
It also claims that the billionaire maintains a series of "safe houses" in the small Rocky Mountain town of Whitefish and set up a "boom-boom room" in the basement of a local bar and restaurant he owns — complete with a lap-dancers' pole — "to maintain women for the purpose of committing illicit sexual activity."
The lawsuit brought by four former employees of Goguen's now-defunct security firm Amyntor Group claims more than $800 million in damages.
The lead plaintiff, former Amyntor CEO Matthew Marshall, and Bryan Nash, who is extensively mentioned in the papers, both have convictions for conning or blackmailing their ex-boss out of huge sums of money.
Nash pled guilty in May 2020 to extortion charges for trying to blackmail Goguen, but was sentenced to five years probation only.
On November 10 this year, Marshall accepted a plea-bargain on charges of wire fraud, tax evasion and obtaining money from Goguen through false pretences. He agreed to pay $3.5 million in restitution, and will be sentenced next year.
Marshall originally launched civil action in February of this year after being charged. Goguen's attorney stated at the time that the suit "adds to his history of forging statements falsely attributed to Mr Goguen, which has been verified and documented in previous legal filings." The attorney also accused the former employee of making false claims of being a Marine Recon Force veteran and former high-level CIA operative.
Company Town
Marshall claims the tech tycoon treated Whitefish as his personal fiefdom as part of what the lawsuit repeatedly refers to as the "Goguen Sexual Enterprise".
And he claims his former boss used him as a fixer, buying gifts for and funding the lifestyles of his lovers and snooping on his enemies.
"Marshall was being asked to purchase, out of his personal accounts, vehicles, jewelry [sic], earnest money deposits on properties," the papers read, "and to provide cash or other items for Goguen’s mistresses, or as hush-money payoffs to Goguen’s acquaintances and employees who had ‘learned too much’ about Goguen’s sexual misconduct and crimes, and the Goguen Sexual Scheme."
Marshall used his persona bank account on Goguen's account to pay women's medical bills, education fees and for holidays, in return for which they would "strip and have sex with him, to perform other deviant sexual acts with him, or to maintain their silence as participants in Goguen’s sexual misconduct," court papers say.
Marshall also claims Goguen had the local police department in his pocket, and that officers refused to investigate allegations against him.
The lawsuit alleges an incident where a woman named only as "Pam Doe" reported Goguen to the police for sexual assault after plying her with booze and cocaine. "He had sex with her and then paid her $1,200," it says, but police Detective Shane Erickson did not investigate further.
"Det. Erickson openly shared with Marshall the fact that he was spending time with Goguen, including having dinner at his house, spending time on Whitefish Lake, going on a coyote hunt," the papers claim. "Erickson also informed Marshall that Goguen had offered to take him on his yearly week-long $20,000 elk hunt in Colorado with private guides."
It claims Goguen had an affair with a local businessman's wife, named as "Kim Doe". After the husband filed for divorce, Goguen allegedly bought "Kim" a house in a neighbouring town and gave her a credit card to pay her way — but asked Marshall to pay the bill, which came to around £30,000 per month.
“After witnessing their relationship over several years, Marshall came to understand that Goguen had placed Kim Doe and her children in a position of utter dependence based on false promises and emotional manipulation to satisfy his sexual appetite,” the papers allege.
Disgruntled Employees
The convicted blackmailer Nash comes into the picture in the documents with an incident where he claims Goguen once brought is children and their female babysitter to his home — so he could have sex with the girl in a cottage on the property.
Nash allegedly called Goguen a "paedophile" to his face — although the babysitter's age is not specified — and reported him to the police "to no avail".
Nash also claims his ex-employer slept with his wife when they were getting divorced, hired a detective to follow him on her behalf and also paid her legal fees — "causing the divorce to be drawn out and having Nash incur more expenses."
Not content with ruining Nash's plans for a cheap divorce, Marshall glams Goguen asked him to kill the man, via a mobile messaging app called Wickr.
"He needs to be killed. I know that’s a VERY big ask but we are in defcon 5," the papers claim Goguen wrote. "We can discuss details in person but we do NOT have conversations about this on our cell phones. Wickr only…"
Marshall claims he tried to "dissuade Goguen from going to extreme measures against his enemies."
Back-Door Dealings
Goguen parted ways with Silicon Valley investors Sequoia Capital in 2016 after his dispute with former lover Amber Baptiste over a £40 million separation payment went public.
Baptiste alleged the executive had only paid her $10 million of the agreed sum, which Goguen denied. He eventually won the case after a three-year legal battle.
Baptiste made several shocking claims in her civil lawsuit at the time, including that she had to have surgery on her rectum in 2012 after Goguen allegedly "forcibly sodomized her and left her bleeding and alone on the floor of a hotel room in a foreign country."
Marshall claims that Goguen asked him to find ways to have his ex deported to her native Canada so "his case with Baptiste would go away," focussing on "cyber operations" and "immigration fraud."