A high-ranking executive at Yahoo is being sued by an ex-employee on charges of sexual harassment.
The executive being accused, Maria Zhang, was helping to lead Yahoo’s mobile content efforts, reports the San Jose Mercury News Friday afternoon.
The complainant, Nan Shi, was working as a software designer at Yahoo, and says she was repeatedly coerced by Zhang into having “oral and digital sex.” Shi says she was terminated after she later refused Zhang’s advances.
Above: Yahoo’s Maria Zhang
Shi filed her sexual harassment lawsuit Friday, naming Yahoo as a defendant and charging Zhang with sexual-harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and wrongful termination.
Shi’s attorney told the Mercury News that Zhang and Shi both came to Yahoo after the software giant bought the Seattle mobile software company where both women worked.
Shi moved into the Yahoo temporary housing (under orders from Zhang, she says), and Zhang soon moved in with her. It was then that the alleged harassment took place.
“While staying with Plaintiff, Zhang coerced Plaintiff to have oral and digital sex with her on multiple occasions against her will, even after Plaintiff told her she did not want to have sex,” the complaint alleges.
“Zhang told Plaintiff she would have a bright future at Yahoo if she had sex with her. She also stated she could take away everything from her including her job, stocks, and future if she did not do what she wanted.”
The complaint alleges that Zhang (then Shi’s manager at Yahoo), forced her “to work grueling hours and compose work emails over the weekend at the apartment, sometimes right after sex.”
A Yahoo spokesperson said “There is absolutely no basis or truth to the allegations against Maria Zhang. Maria is an exemplary Yahoo executive and we intend to fight vigorously to clear her name.”
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Female Yahoo exec sued by ex-employee for sexual harassment
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