A legal tiff between former Sony Corp. of America CEO Michael Schulhof and Internet startup World Online International has taken a racy turn.
The Dutch-based company has filed a lawsuit alleging that Schulhof tried to engage in sexual high jinks with a company employee while on a business trip in December, according to a report in Variety.
World Online, which fired Schulhof as its chairman 21 January, had earlier filed a complaint in Amsterdam accusing the former Sony executive of immoral conduct and of breaching his non-compete agreement with the company.
World Online provided no details at the time, but in a complaint filed Friday with the Supreme Court of New York, the company said Schulhof engaged in acts "which are totally inappropriate and certainly unbecoming of the chairman of a company."
Specifically, the compaint alleges Schulhof talked at a business dinner in Europe on 17 December about his "frequent visits to (i) sex clubs and (ii) from prostitutes in his hotel room while on World Online business trips." Schulhof allegedly told an unidentified company employee at the dinner that "it would be acceptable for the employee to engage in such conduct."
Apparently that same evening, Schulhof "pressured the employee into going with Schulhof to a sex club and attempted to persuade the employee to participate in sexual activities with prostitutes by offering to pay for the employee's activities (the employee refused but Schulhof participated and used his World Online American Express card to pay for it)."
Schulhof is then alleged to have "falsely accused the employee of inducing Schulhof to go to the sex club and wrongly demanded that the employee be fired."
Schulhof did not return a call seeking comment but his attorney, Stanley Schlesinger, said he had not seen the papers. He added that any allegations of sexual misconduct were "nonsense" and would be dismissed.
Schlesinger added that World Online's first court action in Amsterdam had been dismissed and that Schulhof had been awarded attorney fees.
Attorneys for World Online were unavailable for further comment.
Copyright© 1999 Reuters Limited.
