Amazon Sued: Employee Alleges Executive Raped Her on Work Trip, Says Firm Told Her to Stay Silent

A marketing and operations manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS) has sued Amazon, alleging that a senior executive raped her during a company-funded business trip to New York in October 2023 and that the company afterwards placed her under pressure to remain silent about it.

The civil suit, filed in a state court in Seattle, identifies the plaintiff as Laura Danbom and names Michelangelo Simonte, an advertising executive based in Madrid, as the colleague she accuses. The allegations were first reported by The New York Post and The Seattle Times.

None of the allegations has been established in court. No criminal charge against Mr Simonte has been publicly reported, and the reports cited did not include a response from him or from Amazon.

According to the complaint, Ms Danbom travelled to New York on October 27, 2023, with several colleagues, including Mr Simonte. The group attended an Amazon-hosted event with an open bar and later went to karaoke bars, with the company paying for the evening's activities.

The lawsuit alleges that Amazon subjected her to a hostile work environment and violated Washington state's Silenced No More Act. That law, enacted in 2022, bars employers from using non-disclosure or non-disparagement clauses to prevent workers from speaking about illegal acts at work, including harassment and sexual assault. Lawmakers who backed the measure said it was needed to close gaps left by earlier legislation that covered only certain forms of discrimination.

Ms Danbom's lawyers at Bloom Law PLLC say Amazon tried to silence her after she reported the alleged assault. According to the complaint, the company placed her in an "impossible choice" — requiring her to avoid discussing the allegations at work while continuing to deal professionally with the executive she had accused.

"When an employer tells an employee that they must remain quiet about a rape in the workplace, that sends a signal to the employee that if they don't do so, they'll be fired," Jay Free, an attorney representing Ms Danbom, told The Seattle Times.

Mr Free also alleged that Amazon did not weigh crucial evidence while handling her complaint.

The complaint states that police interviewed Ms Danbom a few days after the alleged incident and that she handed over a condom containing DNA evidence. According to the lawsuit, investigators did not obtain a DNA sample from Mr Simonte for comparison.

Ms Danbom further alleges that Amazon did not carry out a thorough investigation and did not adequately address her concerns about safety at the workplace.

Under Washington state law, a civil claim must be proved on a balance of probabilities, a lower threshold than the standard applied in criminal trials. Mr Simonte has not been convicted of any offence, and the presumption of innocence applies to him. The lawsuit represents one side of a dispute that Amazon will have the opportunity to contest in court.

The case adds to a wider debate about how large technology companies handle internal complaints of sexual misconduct, and about the use of confidentiality clauses in employment contracts. Several jurisdictions, including Washington, have moved in recent years to restrict such clauses where they could conceal unlawful behaviour.

It is not yet known when the court will hear the matter or whether Amazon will seek to have the claims dismissed. Employees who take such claims to court typically seek remedies that may include damages, changes to workplace policies and protection from retaliation.