A fired San Francisco tech CEO is accused in a shocking new lawsuit of enslaving his assistant with a “sexual slave contract” and subjecting her to “unwanted sexual horror.”
Christian Lanng, 45, the former head of multi-billion dollar company Tradeshift, allegedly forced an unnamed employee, identified only as Jane Doe, into a “dark abyss” of sexual abuse and sadistic torture.
The lawsuit, reported by Mercury newsalleged that Lanng “inflicted physical pain on her in various ways, including urinating on her and routinely penetrating her with foreign objects.”
Lanng was fired from the Bay Area startup in October for “gross misconduct on multiple grounds,” with Tradeshift saying it made the decision following “serious allegations of sexual assault and harassment” against the CEO.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, Lanng claimed he and his accuser had a consensual relationship, and said the lawsuit was fueled by “malicious motives” that “underscore an ugly paradox in our society.”
'Words cannot adequately express how disheartening it is that a highly distorted version of the extremely intimate details of a private consensual sexual relationship is now not only in the public domain, but is also being used to defame me for personal financial gain ', he said.
Former Tradeshift CEO Christian Lanng, 45, is accused of forcing an employee into a 'sex contract' and subjecting her to years of sexual abuse and sadistic torture
Lanng was fired from Tradeshift in October for 'gross misconduct on multiple grounds' after 'serious allegations of sexual assault and harassment' against the CEO
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in San Francisco County Superior Court against Lanng and Tradeshift, alleging the abuse began within months of her hiring at the tech company.
Tradeshift is a cloud network serving more than 1.5 million businesses.
A copy of the alleged slave contract reported by the Mercury News was reportedly nine pages long and contained provisions directing Doe to serve as a sex slave for the CEO and perform demeaning tasks while on the job.
This reportedly involved her being instructed to 'always be sexually available to her master when he needs sex and never to deny him sex even when he is not wearing the collar'.
Another stipulated that when she “saw Lanng in private for the first time, she should kneel and ask if she could do anything for him.”
In a chilling statement in an “at work” portion of the lawsuit, Doe was told she was free to “act independently as long as she remembers that she is her master's property and that she is there to give him a to have fun and for no other reason.'
It is also alleged that she was required to perform mandatory sex acts, keep her weight between 130 and 155 pounds and was ordered to dress “in a decent, feminine manner, preferably skirts, dresses and stockings.”
She was reportedly given a “day collar” to wear when out with Lanng, and the alleged contract stated that he would “work to shape the slave towards his goal of the perfect woman.”
Lanng allegedly made his assistant perform mandatory sex acts, kept her weight between 130 and 155 pounds, and ordered her to dress “in a decent, feminine manner, preferably skirts, dresses and stockings.”
Lanng's former assistant said she put up with his alleged abuse at Tradeshift for years because she loved her job, was doing important work in her new role and didn't want to lose the opportunity to work.
The so-called contract allowed for “any punishment the master decides to inflict, whether deserved or not,” which reportedly included beatings, beatings and electric shocks.
The alleged contract cited Lanng's “responsibility” not to kill or cause permanent bodily harm to Doe while administering the punishments.
“The slave agrees to always suffer her punishments without being angry, sullen or frustrated with her master and to thank him afterwards,” the document is said to have ordered.
Doe also claims she was “beaten to a bloody pulp” and assaulted with “inanimate objects.”
The lawsuit alleges that Lanng forced Doe to write a “diary” about “his subjugation and enslavement of her,” and that he would “beat Jane Doe with a stick if she did not write submissive entries in the “diary.”
Lanng has previously denied allegations of sexual misconduct following his dismissal, telling TechCrunch in October: “No HR case, complaint or formal allegation has ever been filed against me at Tradeshift.”
However, Doe claims she informed the company's human resources department and warned officials of her “suffering at the hands of the CEO under the slave contract,” according to the lawsuit.
The filing alleged that Doe signed the “slave contract” because she “loved her job, was doing important work in her new role, and did not want to lose the opportunity to work at Tradeshift.”
Lanng (pictured in a recent podcast appearance) has denied the allegations against him, saying there has 'never been an HR case, complaint or formal allegation against me at Tradeshift'
However, she claims the company retaliated against filing a complaint by firing her in 2020. It is unclear how long she worked at the company.
Doe claims she tried to cancel the contract several times over the years, “but whenever she did, Lanng would become irate and even violent.” This reportedly included one incident where Lanng assaulted her in Davos, Switzerland.
The lawsuit also reportedly included Tradeshift's termination letter to Lanng, which cited “a pattern” of sexual misconduct allegations against him.
It claimed the company was in possession of “detailed evidence” from another woman, but Lanng had not paid a settlement agreement by May 2022.
Doe also claims in her lawsuit that she has contact with “other victims… associated with Lanng, under the auspices of Tradeshift.”
Lanng's alleged year-long ordeal left Doe bedridden and in a precarious psychological state for nearly two years, and she still suffers from PTSD.
The lawsuit claims she has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on medical and therapeutic care and now “bears countless scars and physical damage, remnants of the actual, physical sexual torture she suffered at Lanng's hands while still employed at Tradeshift.”
In a statement to DailyMail.com, Langg pushed back on the claims against him, saying they were levied to extort “financial gain” from him.
“As co-founder and CEO of Tradeshift for over a decade, I want to be very clear: Tradeshift has never condoned or concealed sexual harassment claims.
“The claims in this lawsuit are defamatory and do not reflect my prior relationship with the plaintiff.
“The shocking and vile allegations in the lawsuit are categorically false, and I reject allegations that I subjected anyone to any form of abuse during my tenure as CEO or at any other time in my life.
“The only details of the lascivious complaint against me that are true are that the plaintiff and I had a sexual relationship and that she once worked at Tradeshift. This relationship, which predated her employment at Tradeshift, ended eight months after she joined the company.
The statement continued: “In 2014, I made the grave error of judgment by hiring someone I was dating and with whom I had a consensual sexual relationship.
'While this did not violate Tradeshift HR policies, it was irresponsible to hire someone I was in a relationship with. I regret the decision. It was a foolish mistake that I will not repeat.
“The plaintiff continued to work for Tradeshift for approximately five years after our relationship ended, rising through the ranks, out of my sight, through a series of promotions as Tradeshift grew from a dozen employees to more than 1,000 in multiple cities around the world .
'Her position was eliminated in one of the many layoffs that Tradeshift has unfortunately had to undergo.
'Words cannot adequately express how disheartening it is that a highly distorted version of the extremely intimate details of a private consensual sexual relationship is now not only in the public domain, but is also being used to defame me for personal financial gain .
“This is a cynical and insensitive insult to the victims of sexual violence and human trafficking.”