Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, one of the largest Democratic donors in the country, persistently sexually harassed a female employee nearly 60 years younger than him, a lawsuit filed in California alleges.
Madison Busby, a former employee at Wyss’s Halter Ranch winery, accuses the 89-year-old businessman of sexual battery, sexual harassment, and retaliation, according to a lawsuit filed April 21 in San Luis Obispo County. Busby, 30, alleges Wyss groped her during their first meeting in 2019, when her husband, Bryce Mullins, managed the Wyss winery. Wyss “placed his hand on Ms. Busby’s butt and groped her” during the encounter and made other lewd remarks, the lawsuit alleges.
Busby says Wyss’s propositions escalated after she started working at Halter Ranch in January 2021. “After Ms. Busby was hired, Mr. Wyss began to proposition Ms. Busby and Mr. Mullins to have sex with him, either as a group or with Ms. Busby alone, and Mr. Wyss began trying to insert himself into their sex lives,” the lawsuit says.
Busby says after years of unwanted propositions, Wyss retaliated against her and Mullins, increasing rent on their home at Halter Ranch and forcing Busby to take a pay cut. She resigned from the winery in July 2024, citing “Mr. Wyss’s ongoing conduct and her own anxiety and distress as the result of that conduct,” according to the lawsuit.
The Swiss billionaire admitted he was legally exposing himself, telling Busby in May or June of 2022: “If you ever went after me for sexual harassment, you would win,” according to the lawsuit. “Despite this admission, Mr. Wyss continued with his inappropriate and harassing behavior,” Busby’s lawsuit adds.
Several prominent Democratic dark money groups could be caught in the crossfire of the sexual harassment allegations against Wyss, who has quietly emerged as the largest foreign donor to U.S. politics in recent years by funnelling a staggering $652 million to liberal advocacy groups across the country through his two nonprofit organizations. Wyss, who made his fortune as head of the medical devices manufacturer Synthes, is one of the top contributors to the Sixteen Thirty Fund and the New Venture Fund, the two largest spokes of the left-wing dark money behemoth Arabella Advisors, according to a report by the Americans for Public Trust watchdog group.
“This is just the latest example of Hansjörg Wyss’ alleged ethical lapses and raises new concerns over his massive funding of the Arabella Advisors network and progressive causes,” Americans for Public Trust executive director Caitlin Sutherland told the Washington Free Beacon. “For decades, Wyss, an accused sexual predator who has refused to become an American citizen, has tried to influence politics to change the country into one that fits his far left vision.”
It’s not clear if the Sixteen Thirty Fund or New Venture Fund will return Wyss’s contributions in light of Busby’s allegations. Neither group returned requests for comment.
Wyss settled a sexual harassment lawsuit in 2013 with Jacqueline Long, a former officer at Wyss’s HJW Foundation, for a reported $1.5 million.
A spokesman for Wyss’s charities distanced the organizations from the lawsuit.
“The Wyss Foundation and Berger Action Fund have no involvement with this matter. The organizations’ charitable activities are totally separate from those of the Halter Ranch,” the spokesman told the Free Beacon.
Wyss, through his two nonprofit groups the Wyss Foundation and Berger Action Fund, is also a major financier of left-wing groups that aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty to advance the progressive agenda.
That includes the Indivisible Project, the group behind the organized demonstrations earlier this year against Elon Musk’s DOGE at Tesla facilities and red-district town halls. Indivisible, which has received close to $6.5 million from Wyss’s groups, offered to pay for “chicken suits” for local activists to wear to disrupt town hall meetings in red districts as part of a “Musk or Us” reimbursement program, the Free Beacon reported.
Indivisible did not return a request for comment.
Wyss, through his groups, has also contributed $5 million to the National Redistricting Action Fund, a Democratic gerrymandering group launched in 2017 and backed by former president Barack Obama.
The law prohibits Wyss, a Swiss national who lives in Wyoming, from contributing directly to political candidates. Republicans allege Wyss is using a loophole to get around that restriction by funneling his contributions through his nonprofit groups, which have spent heavily propping up state ballot initiatives and get-out-the-vote efforts, the Washington Examiner reported.
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