Amazon Faces Lawsuit Alleging Sexual Assault and Corporate Misconduct

An Amazon employee has filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that a senior executive sexually assaulted her during a business trip to New York City and that the e-commerce giant failed to properly probe the case, according to a report by the New York Post. Laura Danbom, a marketing and operations manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Seattle, alleged that senior executive Michelangelo Simonte sexually assaulted her during a work-related trip in 2023. According to the New York Post, the alleged incident took place on October 27, 2023, when Danbom undertook a trip to New York with several colleagues, including Simonte. The team attended an Amazon-hosted event before visiting karaoke bars later that evening. The activities were sponsored by the company itself, according to the lawsuit filed in a Seattle state court. In her lawsuit, Danbom accused Amazon of providing her with a hostile work environment, violating the Washington state’s Silenced No More Act, which restricts employers from preventing workers from discussing instances of workplace discrimination and harassment. According to The Seattle Times, Danbom alleged that Amazon attempted to silence her after she reported the alleged sexual assault to the company. As per her lawsuit, the company left her with an “impossible choice", requiring her to refrain from speaking about the alleged assault and maintaining professional interactions with the accused executive. “When an employer tells an employee that they must remain quiet about a rape in the workplace, that sends a signal to the employee that if they don’t do so, they’ll be fired," Jay Free, an attorney representing Ms Danbom, told The Seattle Times. Free alleged that Amazon had not taken into account crucial evidence while handling the complaint. According to the lawsuit, police interviewed Danbom a few days after the incident. She also provided the investigators with a condom containing DNA evidence. However, they did not take her DNA sample for comparison, she alleged. Danbom claimed that Amazon failed to properly address the allegations.