Sex, Spies, Retribution: Ex-business partners sue security firm for $1 billion saying sex ring destroyed their company

Sex rings, spies, Playboy “Playmates,” teenage victims, strippers, coverups, solicitation of murder, breaks-ins and retribution are all included in a massive lawsuit against a powerful venture capitalist by his former business partners.

The bombshell lawsuit paints a picture of a years-long sex ring, and when the partners realized it was impacting their business operation, they faced blowback. Now, they are calling out the alleged ring, its mastermind and former business partner and say they are owed $1 billion.

The case remains active in a Montana federal court.

Matthew Marshall, John Macguire, Keegan Bonnet and Anthony Aguilar filed suit against Michael Goguen, several of his business entities and others.

According to court records, the lawsuit was initially filed in February, but then there were several motions to dismiss. The plaintiffs filed a new complaint about the lawsuit on Sept. 1 and voluntarily dismissed a handful of defendants. The case remains active as of Oct. 6.

Goguen is a venture capitalist who lives in Montana, and his successes include helping to take a company now worth $6 billion public, according to Forbes.

Goguen’s lead attorney did not respond to a request for comment in time for this report.

Marshall was a former U.S Marine trained in anti-terrorism security operations. He met Goguen in 2013 and started to work for him to create a security firm.

Goguen agreed to a $200,000 signing bonus and bought Marshall a home for $2.15 million as part of hiring, according to the lawsuit.

Together they created a cyber security company that would seek contracts from various groups, including the U.S. government, according to the suit. Goguen invested $10 million in the company.

The company grew and hired some of the other plaintiffs, including a CIA veteran who served as the Deputy Chief of the Clandestine Service Training Base for the CIA.

The security company secured various contracts, including with the Mexican government. The group also set up an office in Virginia in hopes of finding contracts with the U.S. Government, according to the filing.

The firm tried to get clearance so it could seek U.S. contracts but were told it was not likely given Goguen’s alleged background, sexual exploits and information that was publicly available, the suit contended. Information that included sex allegations.

Those alleged exploits included a sex trafficking ring, according to the lawsuit. The filing details how the year-long sex ring operated and how it influenced Goguen’s actions.

In 2013, Goguen started to see if Marshall would accept his extramarital sex life that included numerous women, which Goguen referred to as “The harem,” according to the filing.

The next year, Goguen provided more information about his exploits and even kept a spreadsheet with 5,000 women he had sex with, the filing noted.

The lawsuit alleges that Goguen kept numerous safe houses and had sex with numerous women, including strippers, escorts, prostitutes and others.

Goguen told Marshall he had numerous “burner” phones, emails accounts and alias to support his affairs. One account was “batman 234” on Wickr, according to the lawsuit. Goguen provided numerous gifts of cars, vacations, homes and other items to get women to strip or have sex with him, the suit alleged.

Goguen asked Marshall to help deal with “issues” when they came up with the women.

The suit referenced an early example of the help. Playboy “Playmates” were on safari in Africa and claimed their passports were lost. Goguen offered to send Marshall to Africa to help rescue them, but Marshall refused, the suit alleged. He did request his contacts in Africa help the women for free.

The suit detailed various sexual escapades, payments and coverups that Goguen allegedly orchestrated for years.

One involved a woman who first had sex with Goguen when she was 16 years old, according to the suit. In another case, Goguen bought a woman an 8,000 square foot home.

Goguen also had sex with Amber Baptiste, who was working at a strip club in Texas. Baptiste told Goguen she was trafficked to the U.S. from Canada as a teenager to be a stripper, according to the suit. Goguen promised to help her get out of the control of the trafficker and bought her various gifts. He also promised to pay for her college education.

Baptise later sued Goguen in a highly-publicized lawsuit. Goguen claimed he was being extorted. That lawsuit was later dismissed by a California judge, according to media reports.

The most recent lawsuit claims that Goguen paid the woman money to “go away,” according to the filing.

At one point, Goguen told Marshal that he wanted “this” “finished,” which Marshall took as a reference to killing Baptise, the suit claims. The filing added that the inference was based on a previous interaction where Goguen tried to kill another man.

In that case, the Goguen tried to have an associate, Bryan Nash, killed when the person tried to expose Goguen’s alleged activities, according to the filing.

Neither Nash nor Baptise were killed, and Goguen reported Nash to the FBI, the lawsuit noted. The filing claims Goguen alleged extortion and Nash was federally indicted. Nash would later plead guilty to those charges, though the filing said Nash felt he had no choice but to admit to the crime to end the intimidation and harassment Goguen levied.

The suit also detailed how Goguen allegedly harassed other business acquaintances and how Goguen allegedly influenced a police officer who was investigating a case where Goguen was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage victim.

Marshall claimed he saw the officer at various events Goguen threw, including a $20,000 hunting trip. The victim later recanted her claims, but the lawsuit said that she was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement and paid indirectly by Goguen.

Goguen also owned “Casey’s Bar” and offered a former construction company owner an “office in the basement. The room was passcode protected, had a stripper pole and was referred to as the “boom boom” room, according to the lawsuit. Together the two got women to engage in sex acts with them for money, drugs or other items, the filing contended.

The suit stated the bar became the target of a drug investigation and the friend’s son became implicated. Goguen used that as leverage and forced the construction owner to sell his interest in the construction company and move out of state, the lawsuit alleged.

But, a few years later, Goguen called the construction worker and got the man to back his story about the alleged assault of the teenage sexual assault victim, according to the lawsuit.

Marshall also learned in 2015 that funds from the security corporation were being used to fund lavish lifestyles. One of the people was an employee that Goguen refused to fire from the company because he had “too much disparaging information,” according to the suit.

The company funds were also used so Marshall could fly to Miami in 2015 to meet with a stripper that Goguen initially met in 2010. The stripper worked in Las Vegas and the filing claimed that Goguen spent tens of millions of dollars on the woman.

The woman was listed No. 1 on the 5,000 women spreadsheet, which identified her as the most volatile member of “the harem,” according to the lawsuit.

Marshall flew to Miami with $250,00 in a duffle bag, to pay off” the woman, according to the filing. But the alleged stripper also wanted she wanted expensive watches for the two men that accompanied her to the meeting and Tiffany earnings for herself. Goguen approved the purchases.

Marshall spent $48,00 on the jewelry and Goguen bought the woman a multi-million-dollar home in California, according to the lawsuit.

The suit alleged Goguen paid “tens to hundreds of millions of dollars” to women over the years to cover up the sex scheme.

That is when Goguen sent out a notice of dissolution and pulled out of the company, the suit stated. The plaintiffs lost business wages and were forced to get judgments against the security company from the department of labor, according to the suit.

But the partners say in the lawsuit that Goguen continued to use the security groups' resources and even forced his way in company property as storage facilities.

Marshall said his home was also broken into at Goguen’s direction and confidential documents were stolen, the suit states.

The plaintiffs also claimed Goguen and others gave false information to destroy their reputations. That included giving false testimony alleging management and fraud to the FBI.

The suit says there are numerous violations of federal law. The plaintiffs alleged they are owed at least $1.1 billion in damages, lost wages and loss of future profits from the now-shuttered security company.