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A feeble SandboxAQ govt filed a wrongful termination suit closing month stuffed with such imperfect allegations in opposition to the company’s infamous CEO, Jack Hidary, that the plaintiff himself redacted the most salacious shrimp print. 

On Friday, the company’s lawyers filed a blistering response, calling the feeble employee a “serial liar” and declaring his lawsuit “asserts false claims for rank and extortionate applications.”

Even the seen parts of the lawsuit — which TechCrunch has purchased — get eyebrow-raising allegations, must a court fetch them decent. (A reproduction of the lawsuit is available right here.)

The case presents a rare inside perceive at how employee court cases can become a public airing of soiled laundry from in another case opaque interior happenings, attributable to the ever point to non-public arbitration clauses in Silicon Valley employee agreements.

The suit was filed by Robert Bender in mid-December. Bender worked as Chief of Workers to Hidary from August 2024 thru July 2025, the complaint states. He contends in his suit that he was wrongfully terminated after raising concerns a pair of range of alleged incidents, about a of which, he acknowledged, eager “sexual encounters” and others, he claims, that eager deceptive financial files presented to merchants. 

For its segment, SandboxAQ vehemently denies the allegations. The company’s licensed skilled Orin Snyder, a wisely-identified partner at white shoe regulation company Gibson Dunn, tells TechCrunch: “This case is a full fabrication. We perceive forward to debunking these baseless allegations and exposing the lawsuit — as detailed in our answer — for what it’s — an opportunistic and extortionate abuse of the judicial direction of.”

What makes the case particularly principal is the selection of Valley heavy hitters eager on SandboxAQ. The company is an AI quantum computing startup that began as a moonshot unit of Google parent company Alphabet, led at Google by Hidary. Hidary is furthermore wisely-identified in Silicon Valley as a longtime X Prize board member. 

SandboxAQ was spun out of Alphabet into an independent company in March 2022 with Hidary as CEO and rapidly attracted considerable-title merchants, including billionaire and feeble Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who invested and became the startup’s chairman. Varied billionaire merchants encompass Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, mission capitalist Jim Breyer, and Bridgewater hedge fund founder Ray Dalio. 

Bender’s attorneys dispute in one other court doc that the redacted sections “describe sexual encounters and the physical situation of non-earn collectively people noticed by Plaintiff during enterprise hurry.” In assorted words, the alleged incidents get individuals who Bender is no longer suing. Here is an extraordinary pass — most ceaselessly, it’s the earn collectively being sued that requests redactions, no longer the particular person making the allegations.

Varied explanations exist for this type of tactic, and TechCrunch couldn’t verify what the motivations are on this case. In total talking, the chances range from retaining innocent third parties who aren’t accused of wrongdoing, to a shakedown approach — signaling that extra negative shrimp print would possibly per chance maybe maybe emerge if the defendants don’t provide an acceptable settlement.

The unredacted part of the suit provides about a extra fundamental shrimp print of the allegations that had been hidden: Bender is alleging that Hidary used company resources and investor funds to “solicit, transport, and entertain female companions.” In an connected point to of a text message from Bender, he mentions prostitutes. 

Bender additional alleges in his suit that Hidary provided hundreds of thousands of greenbacks price of his inventory at a premium ticket in step with what Bender says had been deceptive figures presented to doable merchants. He contends within the suit that earnings figures presented to the board had been 50% decrease than the figures proven in displays to prospective merchants. 

SandboxAQ’s lawyers vigorously contest all of the above. “The Firm did no longer originate spurious disclosures to merchants concerning its delicate provide or in another case. The CEO did no longer misuse corporate sources. Plaintiff invented these inflammatory allegations to manufacture statutory claims and to insulate himself from the results of his possess misconduct.”

Bender, for his segment, alleges that the company has been looking out for to smear him. His complaint asserts that he brought his lawsuit, “simplest on account of his termination was adopted by a malicious scorched earth campaign to break his popularity.”

While the validity of any of these allegations is for a jury to resolve, a range of his claims echo an investigative file on SandboxAQ printed by The Files in July.  

Sources told The Files that Hidary was the use of company resources to soar ladies people he was relationship on corporate jets, and that the company’s revenues had been a long way beneath its projections. Bender references The Files sage in his lawsuit but denies he was a source for it. SandboxAQ claims he was a source and is lying about his involvement. (A reproduction of SandboxAQ’s stout corporate response, including extra allegations about the employee, would possibly per chance maybe maybe be found right here.)

No topic any controversies, considerable-title merchants had been eager to take a position within the company closing 365 days. In April, SandboxAQ raised over $450 million in a Sequence E funding round from Ray Dalio, Horizon Kinetics, BNP Paribas, Google, and Nvidia. 

SandboxAQ furthermore launched a $90 million secondary sale. SandboxAQ has raised $1 billion full, it says, and is valued at $5.75 billion, in step with PitchBook estimates.