A Swiss billionaire who owns wineries across California and has become a power player in Democratic donor circles has been accused of sexual harassment in an explosive new lawsuit, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Thursday.
According to the report, "Madison Busby claims that Hansjorg Wyss, owner of Halter Ranch winery in Paso Robles, repeatedly propositioned her, exposed himself to her, groped her and told her stories about his sexual exploits, then retaliated against her when she did not return his advances." Busby is 30 and Wyss is 89.
An attorney for Busby says she has been "harmed immensely" and "has suffered severe emotional distress from the harassment which took place over the course of many years, and also from lost wages and then future damages."
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This also comes as Busby's husband has filed a separate complaint, alleging that Wyss did not follow through on an agreement that would have granted him equity in Halter Ranch worth $30 million.
Wyss has not personally responded to the allegations. The winery issued a statement saying, “The allegations in the complaint are not true and we intend to vigorously advance the facts that surround their time at the winery and their departure.”
Wyss, who established the Synthes medical device company and previously attempted an ill-fated bid to buy Tribune Publishing, was profiled in The New York Times in 2021 for his philanthropy and his rising role in funding environmental and Democratic Party causes — something he has shied away from talking about in the public spotlight.
"Newly obtained tax filings show that two of Mr. Wyss’s organizations, a foundation and a nonprofit fund, donated $208 million from 2016 through early last year to three other nonprofit funds that doled out money to a wide array of groups that backed progressive causes and helped Democrats in their efforts to win the White House and control of Congress last year," wrote Ken Vogel at the time. "Mr. Wyss’s representatives say his organizations’ money is not being spent on political campaigning. But documents and interviews show that the entities have come to play a prominent role in financing the political infrastructure that supports Democrats and their issues."
