Maria Zhang, who is currently Yahoo Mobile's senior director of engineering, has been accused of making inappropriate sexual advances. The lawsuit was filed by a female employee named Nan Shi, who started working in the company last September. The case was filed in Santa Clara Superior Court in San Jose, California.
In her complaint, Shi, who was employed as a principal software engineer in the company, said that Zhang attempted to have oral sex with her a number of times. She also said that Zhang promised her a bright future at the company if she agreed to have sex. Shi said that her boss forced her into having sex by threatening to take away her job and her stocks.
Aside from the sexual harassment complaint, Shi is also suing for wrongful termination. She said that Zhang gave her bad performance reviews during the second and third quarters of 2013 because she stopped having sex with her. Shi said that she complained to the company's human resources department about Zhang's behavior. However, instead of acting on her complaint, she said that the company put her on paid leave and then fired her. In her lawsuit, she also included Yahoo as one of the defendants.
For their part, Yahoo is sticking with Zhang, and came out in her defense. "There is absolutely no basis or truth to the allegations against Maria Zhang. Maria is an exemplary Yahoo executive and we intend to fight vigorously to clear her name," a Yahoo spokesperson said.
Like Shi, Zhang also started working at Yahoo last year. She joined the company after it acquired her start-up Alike, which had an app that gave users restaurant recommendations after they enter restaurants or places they like. According to the complaint, when Shi first joined Yahoo, Zhang ordered her to move into housing provided by the company. Soon after, Zhang moved in with her.
The case is the latest in a string of alleged misdeeds from Silicon Valley higher-ups. One of the most recent complaints was directed at Tinder head Sean Rad, who is being accused of sexual harassment by a former executive in his company.
