Hansjorg Wyss is a 79-year-old Swiss business mogul who is “a generous donor to major liberal groups like the Center for American Progress and longtime financial patron of Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta.” In December, Wyss made a $5 million commitment to Hillary Clinton’s “No Ceilings” women’s empowerment project at the Clinton Foundation. However, Wyss has been accused of sexually abusing a Colorado woman, according to a report by Richard Pollock of the Daily Caller:

At issue in the federal district court case was a $1.5 million settlement of a suit brought by Jacqueline Long, a Colorado woman who charged that Wyss brutally and sexually abused her for years while serving as his employee.

Long, a former development officer at the HJW Foundation, said she had to have sex with him in return for his grants to non-profits that focused on at-risk youth and sex trafficking, causes to which she was passionately devoted.

“He was not interested in these programs,” Long told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an exclusive interview. “He was only doing it in reward for my having sex with him. It was a tool for leverage.”

Pollock published that article last month. Now, lawyers for Wyss are trying to intimidate the woman (and the Daily Caller) into silence:

Hansjorg Wyss — a foreign billionaire with intimate ties to the United States’ top Democrats — wants authorities to imprison an American woman for speaking publicly about allegations of sexual abuse at his hands. . . .

Jacqueline Long of Aspen, Colorado alleges that Wyss would demand sex, and then later shower her with expensive gifts and contributions to causes she, as a development officer, advised the foundation to support.

Shortly after The Daily Caller News Foundation published a June 8 article that quoted Long, a lawyer for Wyss (pronounced “Vees”) filed an “emergency motion” asking Philadelphia County’s Court of Common Pleas to impose sanctions, including imprisonment, to prevent further violations of the non-disclosure provision of a May 2013 settlement agreement.

The court has yet to decide on the Wyss motion, which was filed June 17.

Lawyers for Wyss, a Swiss businessman who in December 2014 contributed $5 million to The Clinton Foundation’s feminist “No Ceilings” project — a favorite of Hillary Clinton — also threatened TheDCNF.

In a June 9 letter to The Daily Caller News Foundation, Wyss attorney Carolyn P. Short demanded an “immediate retraction” of the earlier report because, she charged, the article contained many “blatant falsehoods.” Failure to retract would result in litigation, Short warned.

In response, TheDCNF asked Short to cite specific errors in the story. In a June 10 email to Short, TheDCNF’s counsel replied, “you refer to ‘many blatant falsehoods’ in the reporting. If you can identify what specifically is false, we will review it immediately. If any thing is incorrect, we want to fix it.”

Short declined to identify any errors. Instead, she made a sweeping assertion, claiming the article contained “reckless, damaging and false allegations from a former disgruntled employee who is solely seeking to leverage those false statements for financial gain.” . . .

The original June 8 story highlighted Long’s case. She was a former employee at a Wyss foundation and at a California vineyard he owns. She described a lengthy intimate relationship with Wyss that allegedly turned violent and abusive.

The 2013 settlement agreement provided a $1.5 million payment to Long and a provision in which both parties agreed to keep details of the agreement secret.

Long’s supporters vigorously defend her and denounce Wyss, arguing that threatening her with jail for going public about his conduct toward her amounts to another round of abuse.

“I think he’s taking a bullying tactic,” Long friend Katie Beckley told TheDCNF. It’s another form of abuse.” Beckley specializes in grief therapy and operates a counseling practice in Aspen.

“He decided to be so vengeful toward her. It was pure vengeance. I was encouraged to see her speaking out. I think it showed a lot of courage,” Beckley said.

Here’s the thing: Non-disclosure agreements are there for a reason. When rich men pay hush money to their former mistresses, they expect to get what they pay for, namely, silence. It would seem that Jacqueline Long got her money, but she didn’t shut up.

For $1.5 million, you can buy a whole lot of silence, but that’s chump change to a guy like Wyss, and once the details of the lawsuit leaked to the media, he had a whole new problem. You see, it’s not the Daily Caller’s fault Jacqueline Long can’t keep her mouth shut, and it’s certainly not my fault. By trying to make Jacqueline Long shut up — and by trying to intimidate the Daily Caller — Wyss’s lawyers are calling attention to a story that we might otherwise have ignored.

This is called “The Streisand Effect.”

They chose poorly.

Pro Tip for Swiss Billionaires: The "Let's-Threaten-the-Press-into-Silence" trick usually doesn't work. http://t.co/NFYT13TQE3 #tcot — Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) July 31, 2015

Share this: Share

Twitter

Facebook



Reddit



Comments