The Post broke the story of the bitter legal spat<\/a>, which stems from a relationship that began in 2020 and soured with allegations of abuse and corporate betrayal, highlighting the perils of personal entanglements and high-stakes business in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\nRitter, 31, met Eric Schmidt in 2020 and began dating shortly after. But in court documents published in Los Angeles last week, she makes the shocking claim that she was raped by the former Google CEO. Instagram<\/p>\n
In last week\u2019s bombshell filing, Ritter claims that the billionaire tech titan raped her on a yacht in November 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe followed me into a shower, slammed me against the wall, and forcibly raped me,\u201d Ritter alleged. \u201cI begged him to stop and cried out that he was hurting me, but he ignored my pleas. The next morning, Schmidt attempted to convince me that I enjoyed the assault.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, in August 2023, at the Burning Man festival in Nevada, she alleges Schmidt initiated sex while she slept.<\/p>\n
\u201cI clearly told him \u2018no\u2019 and tried to get him to stop, but I had learned that attempting to resist physically would be futile and make things worse,\u201d her declaration reads.<\/p>\n
Ritter further accuses Schmidt of unwanted voyeurism and pressuring her with sexual fetishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn multiple occasions, Schmidt surreptitiously photographed me without my consent while I was nude, including entering the bathroom to take photographs while I was showering,\u201d she states.<\/p>\n
Forbes estimates that Schmidt, now 70, is worth just over $36 billion. Ritter alleges he made numerous lewd comments about her weight during their relationship. Getty Images for SmartContract<\/p>\n
Physical abuse claims include shoving her multiple times, leaving bruises and scratches, and intimidating her by screaming inches from her face. In one New York incident, he allegedly pushed her into a desk.<\/p>\n
Ritter describes Schmidt as \u201cerratic,\u201d alleging he undressed and exposed himself to his private jet\u2019s flight crew and transported marijuana on the plane.<\/p>\n
She also accuses Schmidt of pressuring her to appear \u201creally hot and sexy\u201d at business meetings, urged her to use prescription stimulants for weight loss \u2014 only to later mock her for looking \u201cemaciated.\u201d<\/p>\n
In front of colleagues, he allegedly made demeaning comments, including: \u201cYou should see her naked,\u201d soliciting remarks on how \u201csexy\u201d she looked, and saying after she misspoke: \u201cAt least she\u2019s good looking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ritter claims Schmidt installed spyware on her computer in November 2021, allowing access to her texts, emails and documents.<\/p>\n
Schmidt and his wife, Wendy, are reportedly in an open marriage and are said to lead very separate lives Marc Patrick\/BFA.com\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
\u201cOn various occasions, Ritter would be using her email account or Google Workspace and saw emails and documents being deleted or altered as if someone else were controlling her keystrokes,\u201d the filing states.<\/p>\n
Ritter alleges Schmidt confessed to creating a \u201cbackdoor\u201d to Google servers for accessing anyone\u2019s private information, extending beyond her to targeted employees.<\/p>\n
The relationship ended after photos surfaced in early 2024 of Schmidt with a 22-year-old woman, according to court documents. Post-breakup, Ritter alleges the surveillance escalated.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 7, 2024, while Ritter dined at Nobu in Malibu, she alleges Schmidt broke into her Tesla and stole her laptop \u2014 and claimed he was caught by the swanky sushi restaurant\u2019s CCTV footage.<\/p>\n
Schmidt is reported to have had a string of extra-marital relationships with younger women since he left Google in 2011. Christopher Peterson \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n
Schmidt\u2019s lawyer and ex-Harvey Weinstein attorney, Patricia Glaser, said: \u201cThis is the latest desperate and destructive effort to publish false and defamatory statements \u2013 which are directly contradicted by her own words \u2013 to distract attention and escape accountability from a longstanding business dispute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skip Miller, a lawyer representing Ritter, told The Post: \u201cA billionaire tech titan, the powerful former head of Google, took advantage of and abused a brilliant young woman, for his personal satisfaction, to deprive her of all the hard and highly valuable work she did while they were together, because she dumped him. This lawsuit is to get her justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schmidt, then 65 and retired from Google with a net worth of $48.3 billion, was married but reportedly in an open relationship with his wife of 45 years, Wendy Schmidt.<\/p>\n
Ritter, a Columbia graduate, said that Schmidt plowed $100 million into her Steel Perlot start-up. Sources close to the former Google CEO do not dispute that figure. Instagram<\/p>\n
Ritter, who holds a bachelor\u2019s degree from Johns Hopkins University and a law degree and MBA from Columbia University, met Schmidt, a major Democrat donor, in September 2020 through a business contact.<\/p>\n
At the time, she was 26 and pitching StarX Networks, a company that allowed fans to invest in athletes\u2019 performance. <\/p>\n
Together, they launched Steel Perlot, a startup incubator that helped launch companies such as Keeta, a payment network now valued at $161 million. <\/p>\n
Ritter even claims she helped edit Schmidt\u2019s book with Henry Kissinger, advised on a Biden administration appointment, drafted Senate testimony, and influenced his bid for the Washington Commanders NFL team.<\/p>\n
Schmidt has built a vast property empire with his wealth from his business career, including this sprawling mansion in Los Angeles. Google Map<\/p>\n
In business dealings, she claims Schmidt invested $100 million in Steel Perlot but used accounting maneuvers to burden it with debt. She was ousted as CEO of Knox, another firm, and stripped of control over shared companies.<\/p>\n
Further allegations include forging her signature on documents, inserting fake texts into her phone, and locking her out of their shared residence in April 2024, leaving her belongings inside.<\/p>\n
That summer, Ritter claims Schmidt installed hidden cameras and listening devices in her Los Angeles home. <\/p>\n
Private investigators allegedly tailed her parents, admitting to police they worked for a \u201cbillionaire\u2019s private security detail, as The Post previously reported.<\/p>\n
Ritter filed for a temporary restraining order last December but retracted some claims a week later, which she now says was under pressure from Schmidt\u2019s lawyers.<\/p>\n
Ritter and Schmidt were last seen publicly together in April 2023, some 18 months after she alleges that he first assaulted her. Diggzy\/Jesal \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n
The case began in September with sealed or redacted filings.<\/p>\n
Last week\u2019s proposed amended complaint, which was first downloaded by the Daily Mail<\/a>, seeks to make allegations public, citing a 2021 law against arbitrating sex abuse claims. Schmidt argues the law doesn\u2019t apply retroactively.<\/p>\nIn his response, Schmidt claims the dispute arose from Ritter\u2019s \u201cmismanagement\u201d of their company and accuses her of \u201ccompulsive lying\u201d to gain leverage and \u201cextort\u201d him. <\/p>\n
He alleges she broke their agreement by refusing to vacate a Beverly Hills mansion, stealing $1.1 million in property and leaking information to the media.<\/p>\n
Judge Michael Small ordered private arbitration in September and stayed the public case. Ritter has cycled through as many as ten lawyers, Schmidt\u2019s filings claim.<\/p>\n
Schmidt has been described as Silicon Valley\u2019s \u201cCasanova\u201d after years of flaunting much younger girlfriends and has spoken openly about how AI could ruin dating for men.<\/p>\n
Schmidt, Google\u2019s CEO from 2001 to 2011, has been linked to other younger women, including fashion designer Shoshanna Gruss, former Olympic skater Alexandra Duisberg. socialite Ulla Parker, and former CNBC correspondent Kate Bohner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ex-mistress of Eric Schmidt has accused the former Google CEO of rape and spying on her with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[288,29544,4685,3100,9,11,10,3018,13881,13369],"class_list":["post-53613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-business","tag-eric-schmidt","tag-google","tag-lawsuit","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-rape","tag-silicon-valley","tag-surveillance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}