The lawsuit alleges that former officer Shaun Wiggins sexually abused a woman by convincing her that the abuse was part of a CIA recruitment training
A bombshell lawsuit, originally obtained and reported by The Daily Beast, alleges that a former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency spy sexually assaulted a woman and manipulated her into believing that he was assessing her for a CIA candidacy program.
The lawsuit — brought by an anonymous accuser — claims that Shaun Wiggins, co-founder and CEO of the data analytics firm Soteryx, engaged in “sexual assault, battery, infliction of emotional distress, gender discrimination, and sexual harassment,” against the woman.
According to the filing, Wiggins employed his accuser, referred to as Jane Doe, for a period spanning 2017-2018. At the time, Doe was in her mid-twenties and looking to build a career in U.S. intelligence. On Soteryx’s website, Wiggin’s corporate biography says that he worked with the CIA by “identifying and engaging key foreign national stakeholders critical to U.S. interests” as a Clandestine Service Officer.
Upon beginning her work with Wiggins, the filing states the woman understood that “through her employment, she would be trained on skills that would prepare her to work for the CIA and that Soteryx and Defendant Wiggins would be able to provide connections to advance her career into the CIA.”
Instead, Doe claimed she found herself being “groomed” to perform sexual acts with Wiggins under the guise that using her body “as a weapon” was part of a rigorous program intended to prepare her for clandestine operations.
According to the suit, following months of preparation and “exercises,” the first time Wiggins assaulted Doe, he did so under the guise that his CIA contacts were not “convinced” of her fitness for the agency. “They want me to push you harder,” he allegedly said. After allegedly assaulting Doe, Wiggins reportedly told her that the “training” had gone well, and she’d done a “good job.”
The assaults continued for months, the complaint states, and Wiggins refused to pay Doe despite her being his employee at Soteryx. Wiggins would allegedly demand that Doe be available to him at odd hours, even commanding her to be “ready” for him at his apartment, where he would assault her. According to the suit, “Defendant Wiggins seemed to tie Plaintiff’s compensation to her willingness to be assaulted by him.”
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The cumulative stress and trauma of the relationship resulted in Doe having to attend an inpatient psychiatric program following her break with Wiggins, according to the filing.
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Doe was able to sue Wiggins under New York’s Adult Survior’s Act, which in 2022 granted survivors of sexual assault a one-year window to file civil lawsuits against their assailants, even if the statute of limitations had expired. The law is the same one used by author E. Jean Carroll in her successful civil rape and defamation suit against former President Donald Trump.
Through her lawsuit, Doe is seeking “damages, compensatory, punitive, and liquidated commensurate with that life-altering trauma that she experienced, the effects of which continue to haunt and constrain Plaintiff’s career and personal life even now.”
