In a scandal that strikes at the heart of corporate ethics, Christian Lanng, co-founder of San Francisco tech firm Tradeshift, faces alarming accusations of subjecting a former assistant to years of “unwanted sexual horror” through a so-called “slave contract.”
This lawsuit, as reported by the the New York Post, puts Lanng in the center of a disturbing narrative of abuse and control.
The accuser, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, alleges that shortly after being hired as Lanng’s executive assistant, she was coerced into signing this appalling contract.
The lawsuit vividly details the harrowing experiences she endured, including “inflicting physical pain on her by various means, urinating on her and routinely penetrating her person with foreign objects,” a grotesque misuse of power and trust.
The situation reached a tipping point when Lanng was fired earlier this year for “gross misconduct on multiple grounds,” following the emergence of “serious allegations of sexual assault and harassment” against him. This dismissal brought the underlying issues to the forefront, unveiling the severity of the allegations.
The “slave contract” at the heart of this case was a nine-page document which Doe claims was signed under duress. This contract reportedly dictated her continuous sexual availability and submission to any punishment Lanng chose to inflict, a clear violation of basic human rights and dignity.
The contract stipulated, “The slave agrees to submit completely to the master in all ways. There are no boundaries of place, time, or situation in which the slave may willfully refuse to obey the directive of the master without risking punishment,” revealing the extent of control exerted over her.
Further, the contract required her to maintain her weight within a specific range and adhere to a dress code, highlighting the extent of Lanng’s control over her personal life.
The alleged requirement for Doe to keep a diary of her “subjugation and enslavement” and the threat of being beaten “with a cane if she did not write submissive entries” paints a picture of sustained psychological and physical abuse.
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The lawsuit outlines his former assistant agreed to the contract because she “loved her job, was accomplishing important work in her new role and did not want to lose the opportunity to work a Tradeshift.”
In response to these allegations, Tradeshift, also named in the lawsuit, has distanced itself, stating it “denies the allegations in the claim insofar as they are made against the company.”
Lanng, on his part, has vehemently denied the claims.
“The claims in this lawsuit are defamatory and not reflective of my past relationship with the plaintiff,” Lanng told the Post.
“The shocking and vile claims in the lawsuit are categorically false, and I reject allegations that I subjected someone to any form of abuse during my tenure as CEO or at any other time of my life,” he continued.
Lanng further elaborates on the nature of their relationship: “The only details of the salacious complaint against me that are truthful are that the plaintiff and I were in a sexual relationship and that she was once employed at Tradeshift. This relationship, which predated her employment at Tradeshift, ended eight months after she joined the company.”
This grotesque nature of this case raises broader questions about the culture within corporate environments. It is appalling that this type of relationship can even happen in a corporate environment in the United States.
It also begs the question, who was the lawyer that even drafted such an agreement?
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