Silicon Valley ‘sex assault list’ with ‘over 100 ’ names circulated, warning female tech workers of predators to avoid | Latest Tech News
A non-public spreadsheet naming “over a hundred” alleged inappropriate predators in Silicon Valley consists of “prominent investors and businessmen,” sources inform The Post.
One up-and-coming tech employee, who requested not to be recognized, described how she was shocked when she noticed the names on the listing which she added her own account of inappropriate misconduct to.
“Some of them were very prominent names, you know? People who were famous investors. Businessmen who were in the scene, I had seen them at parties before.”
A gatherinf at at Silicon Valley tech home. launchhouse/Instagram
The intently guarded listing of tech predators serves as a approach of warning others, a number of Silicon Valley insiders who have seen the listing said. They famous it accommodates allegations of drugging, intercourse assaults and rapes and consists of names of people at the most important tech and Artificial Intelligence corporations.
However, verifying the authenticity of the accounts is another query.
The source who had added to the doc, who is in her 20s, says she was approached and invited to add her harrowing ordeal after she had talked about it to others.
“I met some women who ran the ‘whisper network,’ it has hundreds of cases,” she told The Post. “I only found out about it because I started asking around.”
Sources said many girls in Silicon Valley really feel unable to method police when dangerous issues occur to them at the arms of the tech elite and they worry retaliation from the highly effective people they accuse, figuring out talking up may end their budding careers.
“I was worried that if I tried for justice in my case and I lost, I would be blacklisted from every investor in town,” she said.
Yehong Zhu is pictured on Friday, Dec. 4, 2020. Courtesy of Yehong Zhu
Worrying incidents described to The Post by 4 sources occurred in so called “hacker houses,” where people who share a kitchen or occasion invites might also be sharing investments, working together or making introductions to a future employer. Those overlapping relationships can grow to be awkward when the strains are blurred.
A second insider talking on background described to The Post a predatory method from some males in which friendship is used to get close to somebody, be taught their vulnerabilities and then push past boundaries.
The insider claimed some tech predators search people to manipulate — preying on the remoted or weak. Often these are youthful women or those who have lately arrived in the nation or Silicon Valley hoping to make a title for themselves.
The insider also said the alternative is also true — some goal profitable, unbiased people whom an abuser would regard as a “trophy.”
A view of one of the silicone valley tech hacker homes. AGI House / X
“Some predators want the shiniest star, the harder you are to take down, the more powerful they feel. It’s a conquest,” they said.
The insider famous a tradition which celebrates founders, who made their careers refusing to settle for rejection in business, can grow to be harmful when the same is utilized to social conditions.
Neither the people inflicting hurt nor those being harmed are essentially one gender, the insider emphasised.
Yehong Zhu, who has lived in a number of hacker homes, said she was also a sufferer of rape. In her case, the individual she accused was somebody she had thought of a good friend.
Yehong Zhu with mates at a tech occasion. Courtesy of Yehong Zhu
She filed a December 2021 police report accusing the individual, a former member of San Francisco “hacker house” Genesis, of rape and assault.
Zhu, founder of the app Zette, says the person fled, and has not been situated or arrested, despite other people in their friendship circle holding in contact with him.
“I kept saying no [to him],” she told The Post.
After the alleged rape, she says, a female good friend fearful aloud about the injury her accusation would do to his status. A home organizer discouraged her from going to the police, then proposed a committee and a vote when Zhu wished him eliminated.
Jeremy Nixon, who has established tech group properties in and around San Francisco, is pictured at NeoGenesis in Hillsborough. Jeremy Nixon / X
She went to police and retained legal professionals. She contacted people who knew the alleged attacker, hoping somebody may help find him, but many didn’t reply.
“We invested together. We did business together,” she said of those who refused to help her.
Michael Burshteyn, a lawyer for Genesis founder Jeremy Nixon, told The Post that his shopper was unaware of the particular scenario described to him.
@YehongZhu/X
“But he would support and encourage law enforcement and just complying with the law in any situation like that and prioritize safety,” Burshteyn said.
A separate, written account from Muse, another San Francisco “community house,” described a date rape.
Its nameless writer — who was recognized to The Post but declined to remark, saying she is searching for legal counsel — claims she was residing at the home on a trial foundation when a man vouched for by the neighborhood provided her ketamine in January 2025. The alleged sufferer claims she said while sober that she didn’t need intercourse, but the person had intercourse while she was closely impaired after repeated doses of ketamine.
(*100*) she then told one of the people working the home, she writes, he minimized what occurred and inspired a mediated dialog, which might enable the alleged attacker to return.
The sufferer didn’t agree and says she was told to go away the home by the end of March, the alleged attacker was even allowed to attend a home celebration before her departure.
Launch House is one of the locations which incubate promising tech workers in Silicon Valley. launchhouse/Instagram
Some residents later supported the lady, including another female in the home who helped convey her full account to others in the home, the doc says. But the nameless author says the neighborhood declined to issue a public assertion acknowledging failures, which she requested. The Muse home didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Meanwhile, a former resident of Launch House, a Beverly Hills-based founder neighborhood in Southern California, described a markedly different response when she and other girls sought help.
The girl, who requested to stay nameless, said she suspected she had been drugged during a gathering. She couldn’t bear in mind elements of the evening and realized afterward that a good friend had helped her into mattress.
“I had the chills and I was sweating at the same time, almost like I had the flu. And I was outside on the patio in the sun, I could not move,” she told The Post.
Other girls told her the same man had touched them inappropriately or made undesirable advances, she said. Those who had been affected went to the home’s founders together.
“They got rid of him immediately, he was kicked out of the house,” the lady said.
Co-founder Brett Goldstein and another founder spoke with the ladies, modified the locks and provided to help them contact police. However, she determined against doing so because she couldn’t bear in mind what occurred or set up it through witnesses.
“I did stay on and felt safe in the house,” she added.
However, the assailant subsequently focused her and the company online, including through personal messages, she claimed.
“I worry that if I find any type of success that is in public, he’s going to come back and make me feel even worse,” she added.
Goldstein told The Post Launch House is no longer working in the same kind and added: “We developed Launch House’s conduct policies and incident-response procedures with input from a relevant HR executive, a DEI & Safety consulting firm … anyone running an in-person experience has a responsibility to continuously improve the safety of their operation.”
None of these allegations are new, and warnings about entwined group residing environments have circulated for years. In 2022, AI researcher Keerthana Gopalakrishnan wrote about inappropriate strain in Effective Altruism circles.
She challenged reliance on neighborhood mediation for inappropriate-assault complaints, while calling for better readability in distinguishing between coercion and consensual polyamory.
Zhu says she went public with her story in the hopes of serving to other girls come ahead and avoid the same destiny. She says she based Zette to make high quality journalism simpler to access while serving to publishers earn money. She needs to be identified for what she builds, too.
“I don’t want this issue to be the only thing attached to my name,” she said. “I have so many dreams to build.”
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