AngelList Employee Goes On Leave After Sexual Misconduct Allegations

AngelList employee, Lee Jacobs, is going on an indefinite paid leave of absence after an incident regarding his sexual misconduct was brought to light. The company’s COO, Graham Jenkin, told TechCrunch, “We’re investigating a report about an alleged incident that occurred before an employee joined the company. The report is from a third-party. The employee is on leave and we can’t comment further while we’re investigating.”

Lee Jacobs has said that these allegations are not true, and he hopes to get them resolved quickly.

TechCrunch says it has the details of the incident, but is not revealing them, because the survivor doesn’t want the details out there. However, the survivor had a lodged a complaint with AngelList saying that Jacobs sexually assaulted another woman during an event on March 17, 2013.

The victim’s lawyer says that the woman even left the San Francisco Bay Area. The company was offered a chance to speak with the victim on the phone, but it declined. It said that would prefer for her to work with law enforcement and press criminal charges before AngelList gets involved.

Jacobs had listed himself as a partner at AngelList on his LinkedIn profile, but the company insists he was not involved in any investment decisions, and was involved in sales and marketing. The company allows its employees to use 'Partner' in their LinkedIn profiles.

More and more allegations of sexual misconduct are coming to light in the Silicon Valley. After Susan Fowler revealed her experiences at Uber, many more scandals came to the forefront and even caused CEO Travis Kalanick to resign. Others in the Silicon Valley who have stepped down on allegations of sexual misconduct are Binary Capital founding partner Justin Caldbeck, 500 Startups’ founder and GP Dave McClure and Ignition Partners’ Frank Artale.

Also Read: Sexual Harassment: More About Power Than Sex?