A former SandboxAQ government filed a wrongful termination swimsuit final month stuffed with such scandalous allegations in opposition to the corporate’s famed CEO, Jack Hidary, that plaintiff himself redacted essentially the most salacious particulars.
On Friday, the corporate’s attorneys filed a blistering response, calling the previous worker a “serial liar” and stating his lawsuit “asserts false claims for improper and extortionate functions.”
Even the seen parts of the lawsuit — which TechCrunch has obtained — include eyebrow-raising allegations, ought to a court docket discover them legitimate. (A copy of the lawsuit is available here.)
The case affords a uncommon inside take a look at how worker lawsuits can develop into a public airing of soiled laundry from in any other case opaque inside happenings, because of the ever-present non-public arbitration clauses in Silicon Valley worker agreements.
The swimsuit was filed by Robert Bender in mid-December. Bender labored as Chief of Employees to Hidary from August 2024 via July 2025, the criticism states. He contends in his swimsuit that he was wrongfully terminated after elevating issues about a lot of alleged incidents, a few of which, he stated, concerned “sexual encounters” and others, he claims, that concerned deceptive monetary info introduced to traders.
For its half, SandboxAQ vehemently denies the allegations. The corporate’s lawyer Orin Snyder, a well known associate at white shoe regulation agency Gibson Dunn, tells TechCrunch: “This case is an entire fabrication. We sit up for debunking these baseless allegations and exposing the lawsuit — as detailed in our reply — for what it’s — an opportunistic and extortionate abuse of the judicial course of.”
What makes the case significantly notable is the variety of Valley heavy hitters concerned in SandboxAQ. The corporate is an AI quantum computing startup that started as a moonshot unit of Google guardian firm Alphabet, led at Google by Hidary. Hidary can be well-known in Silicon Valley as a longtime X Prize board member.
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SandboxAQ was spun out of Alphabet into an unbiased firm in March 2022 with Hidary as CEO and shortly attracted big-name traders, together with billionaire and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who invested and have become the startup’s chairman. Different billionaire traders embrace Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, enterprise capitalist Jim Breyer, and Bridgewater hedge fund founder Ray Dalio.
Bender’s attorneys say in another court document that the redacted sections “describe sexual encounters and the bodily situation of non-party people noticed by Plaintiff throughout enterprise journey.” In different phrases, the alleged incidents contain individuals who Bender is just not suing. That is an uncommon transfer — sometimes, it’s the get together being sued that requests redactions, not the particular person making the allegations.
Varied explanations exist for such a tactic, and TechCrunch couldn’t verify what the motivations are on this case. Typically talking, the chances vary from defending harmless third events who aren’t accused of wrongdoing, to a shakedown technique — signaling that extra damaging particulars may emerge if the defendants don’t supply an appropriate settlement.
The unredacted portion of the swimsuit supplies a number of extra normal particulars of the allegations that have been hidden: Bender is alleging that Hidary used firm sources and investor funds to “solicit, transport, and entertain feminine companions.” In an connected exhibit of a textual content message from Bender, he mentions prostitutes.
Bender additional alleges in his swimsuit that Hidary offered tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} price of his inventory at a premium value based mostly on what Bender says have been deceptive figures introduced to potential traders. He contends within the swimsuit that income figures introduced to the board have been 50% decrease than the figures proven in shows to potential traders.
SandboxAQ’s attorneys vigorously contest the entire above. “The Firm didn’t make fraudulent disclosures to traders concerning its tender supply or in any other case. The CEO didn’t misuse company belongings. Plaintiff invented these inflammatory allegations to fabricate statutory claims and to insulate himself from the implications of his personal misconduct.”
Bender, for his half, alleges that the corporate has been making an attempt to smear him. His criticism asserts that he introduced his lawsuit, “solely as a result of his termination was adopted by a malicious scorched earth marketing campaign to destroy his popularity.”
Whereas the validity of any of those allegations is for a jury to determine, lots of his claims echo an investigative report on SandboxAQ revealed by The Information in July.
Sources instructed The Info that Hidary was utilizing firm sources to fly ladies he was relationship on company jets, and that the corporate’s revenues have been far under its projections. Bender references The Info story in his lawsuit however denies he was a supply for it. SandboxAQ claims he was a supply and is mendacity about his involvement. (A replica of SandboxAQ’s full company response, together with extra allegations in regards to the worker, may be found here.)
Regardless of any controversies, big-name traders have been desirous to put money into the corporate final 12 months. In April, SandboxAQ raised over $450 million in a Sequence E funding spherical from Ray Dalio, Horizon Kinetics, BNP Paribas, Google, and Nvidia.
SandboxAQ additionally announced a $90 million secondary sale. SandboxAQ has raised $1 billion whole, it says, and is valued at $5.75 billion, in accordance with PitchBook estimates.
