Based on private messages obtained by The Daily Beast, two dozen interviews, and thousands of pages of legal documents, one charitable interpretation of Goguen is that of a serial womanizer with terrible judgment who got dragged into an epic cona man whose escapades left him vulnerable to grifters, but who never broke the law. I relocated my cousin, his wife, and his two kids., You owe people. Soon afterward, Baptiste received an email from the young woman in Whitefish whom Goguen had allegedly paid $1,200 for sex when she was 17 years old. ), The woman, Amber Baptiste, told Goguen that he had given her HPV during an affair that stretched back more than a decade. Goguens old accusers also pop up in the new suit. Theres no story, he said, other than its a really sad story.. Three years later, the California state court found all of Baptistes allegations to be false and defamatory and issued an order restraining her from repeating them. When Mike Goguen, president of Two Bear Capitalthe largest venture capital firm in Montanawas contemplating creating his company's new headquarters in Whitefish, he knew that nuWest Builders was the right fit for the job. He lives with his fourth wife. Marshall in turn recruited Maguire, and in 2015 Maguire packed up his home in Virginia and moved out to Whitefish. In July 2020, federal authorities indicted Marshall on ten counts of wire fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion. None had heard of Marshall. [4] He was fired from Sequoia immediately after being sued by his longtime mistress Amber Baptiste for sexual abuse and breach of contract. Since his retirement in 2005, hed provided me with solid information on topics ranging from money laundering to gunrunning he was a clearinghouse for information about criminal activity and geopolitical hot spots worldwide. In fact, none of the secret missions took place at all. Marshall initially stayed at the three-bedroom suite located in the main. Women who tried to complain to police about Goguens alleged sexual assaults were met with unsympathetic law enforcementat the Flathead County Sheriffs Department,someof whom were on Goguens payroll, according to court papers which also allege that Goguen had set up a mechanism to listen in on police communications. Whitefish, Montana: A former railroad town that became the playground of wealthy Californians. Goguen resides on 3,200 acres outside of Whitefish . Some were purely salacious: She was so fuckin tiny I think I crippled the poor girl for a week, Goguen wrote that September, referring to a 21-year-old woman. A CIA spokesperson would neither confirm nor deny Marshalls account. He lives in a 75,000-square-foot compound above Whitefish Lake outfitted with an indoor gun range . Even in Whitefish, where the mountains are dotted with palatial retreats, Goguen is hard to miss. Montana Arts Council Whitefish Mountain Resort. Also, former Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial sued Goguen in December 2019, alleging Goguen attempted to derail a criminal investigation and also tried to get Dial fired from his job. A normal guy would have gone to bed, but I decided to go out. Following blowback in the media, Goguen almost immediately lost his job at Sequoia. For an operation to assassinate ISIS leaders, for example, Marshall had told Goguen that he would need to hire 15 private contractors and that the CIA would supply helicopters and armed drones in support. | March 9, 2022 1:00 AM. Hed run a covert mission in Syria during the early days of the Iraq War under the command of Cofer Black, a CIA veteran who was then the State Departments coordinator for counterterrorism. His lawyers were to blame for mishandling his case, he said. First, he walked me through how he had built his fortune. Between 1996 and 2016 Mike sponsored 54 investments with a combined market value of over $64B. It didnt take him long to conclude that Marshall was defrauding him. Marshall, Goguen said, was forever promising that fat government deals were just around the corner, but the contracts never materialized. Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission. Long defended her work at Amyntor in comments to The Daily Beast. It is evident that he has orchestrated a complete reputation-destruction campaign to distract from his crimes., According to Goguen, Marshalls lawsuit had nothing to do with stopping sex trafficking or Goguens alleged inability to get a security clearance. Although Goguen didnt know it, that story had been debunked by the Indiana state police more than two decades ago, when he was an officer on the force. Whatever loose strands I might be able to pull regarding his behavior, Goguen told me, Marshall was the one I should be focused on: It is very clear to me and anyone who follows the evidence that everything leads back to Marshall. On one particularly debauched night, Marshall claimed, hed given a local 17-year-old girl alcohol and cocaine and then paid her $1,200 for sex. Two gas fireplaces, quartz countertops, tiled bathrooms, engineered hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, gas cooktop, on . They chose that figure, Maguire told me, because it was roughly equivalent to the amount Amyntor had lost in contracts with the CIA and other agencies because Goguen couldnt get a top-secret security clearance. Two Bear Capital (TBC) was founded and is led by venture capitalist and Montana philanthropist Michael Goguen. BuzzFeed News . Michael Goguen has departed Sequoia Capital after facing sex abuse allegations. Dial is also suing Goguen, claiming the venture capitalist had previously pressured city officials to fire him; Goguen has denied wrongdoing. If I see damsels in distress, he said, I want to be that guy riding on the horse to save them. Kamala Harris May Be a Huge Republican Target in 2024. 73. If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the November 21, 2022, issue of The Department of Justice would later reveal that Marshall had actually served in the Marine reserves between 1994 and 1999 and had received an Other Than Honorable discharge after accumulating 82 absences from inactive duty training. He worked as a state trooper in Indiana at the same time. Marshall texted in October 2013 that a planned operation in Mexico was approaching $500,000 in costs after accounting for additional personnel, equipment, and bribe $$$.. I was just kind of rolling my eyes, he said. Absolutely. On or about March 15, 2013, Marshall returned to Whitefish, Montana to perform Goguen's threat assessment and to begin the process of. All the Texts Fox News Didnt Want You to Read, AI Singers Are Unnervingly Good and Already Ubiquitous. Goguens girlfriends were given Marshalls number and were urged to call him directly if they had any problems. But Goguen didnt know that, and he bought the pitch. He wasnt just a Force Recon Marine, hed said he had won the Silver Star for battlefield valor during the Gulf War. He was charged with multiple counts of stalking and communication with intent to extort, but pleaded guilty only to misdemeanor blackmail, resulting in five years of probation. Whitefish, MT. But after Silicon Valley billionaire Michael Goguen took up residence in the Rocky Mountain town several years ago, he transformed it into his private fiefdom: a dark banana republic where he allegedly controls local law enforcement and a harem of young women. In Marshall, Goguen saw someone who could take his rescue operation global. Liars included. This is not amusing. I had a lot of girlfriends but theyre all long relationships. Jane Doe was the exception, but Marshalls version was a lie. In the past 30 years, its natural beauty has attracted a steady stream of wealthy Californians who have remade its sleepy main street into a string of fancy shops and restaurants. This article was featured in One Great Story, New Yorks reading recommendation newsletter. He started working as a contractor in Iraq with the infamous private military outfit Blackwater in 2004, and from the outset he allegedly claimed to have extensive recon experience with the Marinesa credential that made him especially attractive. He was the perfect man to trust with a secret. Whitefish venture capitalist and tech billionaire Michael Goguen donated a total of $350,000 to 35 families still struggling to find a place to live after being told they have to vacate this . He came to Goguen with a plan: Give me money to support top-secret CIA operations including a hit on a Mexican drug-cartel leader and a mission to assassinate Islamic State leaders in Syria and Ill send you postgame updates and body counts from the operations. Did it learn from that mistake? Its official, hed written Goguen in a text message at 2:44 a.m. Your seed money for entertainment is now gone. In Montana, the two men were inseparable. ), In 2012, Marshall connected with Goguen through a mutual acquaintance, which resulted in another dispute over his integrity. by Whitefish Pilot. She wrote that shed had consensual sex with Goguen and had consumed alcohol that night but it didnt impair her judgment. This is our big break, Marshall wrote to Gallagher. Long Live the White House Correspondents Dinner. I mean, gosh, it even sounds yucky, Goguen said. PROOF Research Inc. was first established in 2011 in Zinke's hometown of Whitefish, Montana, . Scores of questions remain, and Goguens roster of enemies has only metastasized. The FBI discovered that Marshall had faked his CIA history, too, and in our conversations, Marshall couldnt provide the name of a single person he served overseas with during his time at the Agency other than Johnny Spann. Marshall, in his role assisting Goguen with security, was aware of Nashs campaign and kept it on his radar; he and Goguen texted about it. Theres a lot of people in this community who know what hes about and theyre afraid of him., Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images. michael goguen whitefish house 1. The bombshell allegations, which also include claims of Goguen ordering his security chief to kill detractors, are contained in a lengthy civil complaint recently filed in United States District Court for the District of Montana. The buzz over the all-too-familiar new platform is as much about getting out as in. All the ways the Murdochs (and other real dysfunctional dynasties) mirror the Roys, from Fox News scandals to fake therapy to family score-settling. If you want to crucify me for that, go for it, he said. The complaint, which seeks more than $800 million in damages, was filed by four former employees who set up Goguens Amyntor Group LLC, a Whitefish-based security contractor that had clients around the world. But their revelry may be premature. No basis was found to support the civil lawsuits allegations about Goguens involvement in sex trafficking. He accepted a plea agreement in federal court in Montana for wire fraud, tax evasion and conning Goguen out of millions of dollars. (Goguen admitted to The Daily Beast that he also asked Marshall to report Baptiste, who is Canadian, to federal authorities over accusations that she had committed immigration fraud; Baptiste could not be reached for comment.). (The New York Post and the Daily Mail did publish stories about Goguens alleged crimes in the months that followed.). Marshall wrote back, bitterly, Ive now been marked as an enemy to Mike Goguen. Although Goguen wouldnt formally dissolve Amyntor until September, he made his final payment to the company on July 5, 2018. He was sure he had met Marshall in post-invasion Iraq, but he had about 700 people under his command, and it was difficult to tell CIA and private contractors apart. Doe was not a college graduate when she and Goguen met; she was 19 and had recently graduated from high school. (Erickson said he could not comment on matters related to his work at the police department, in part because he may be a witness against Dial, but stated that he discharged his duties with honor and integrity. He also cited the publicly available documents that referenced a conspiracy with Matthew Marshall that affected me.). After Goguen wired her a first installment of $10 million, however, Baptiste demanded he accelerate the payment schedule, and he canceled the deal. Maguire testified to Marshalls bona fides, Goguen said, which temporarily shielded him from scrutiny. A state-police investigation eventually revealed that Marshall had never been deployed overseas. I want to put the same surveillance guys on her starting Thursday that we used for [Nash], he messaged Goguen. The only thing he was guilty of was having extramarital affairs. Seeing these allegations against him makes me happy that karma is coming back around because he took away an important part of my identity search as a teenager.. Executives also mulled offering services to foreign governments, like the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Libya, multiple former staffers acknowledged. Marshall, meanwhile, kept Goguen in the loop via text about other crackpot ideas, including a personnel recovery request and an offer to take out the number 2 guy in a group across the border.. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. a bar owned by Goguen in Whitefish, Montana . Its been a decade since theyve made it this far in the playoffs. Det. In June 2021, I went to Whitefish for the first time. to support our journalism and get unlimited access to our coverage. It was August 2013, and Goguenthen a 49-year-old partner at Sequoia Capitalhad sent the text to Matthew Marshall, one of his newly hired employees, who allegedly claimed to be a former CIA operative with experience conducting reconnaissance for the Marine Corps. Marshall was out for revenge. Originally from Bedford, Mass., Goguen joined the venture investment firm Sequoia Capital, based in Menlo Park, Calif., in 1996. I was like, (a) I dont want to just keep building this thing when I dont know whats going on, he said, and (b) I just want to get off the train.. He ran a background check, and it showed that Marshall had struggled with money for years and had declared bankruptcy in 2003. Some of the shenanigans made their way into the press. The two men exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet again later that day at Spearmint Rhino, a club that claims to have Las Vegass hottest strippers. She wasnt sure if Marshall was acting on Goguens behalf, but she believed the properties housed corporate employees. A local news station dubbed him the states real-life Batman. His handle for Wickr, an encrypted text-messaging app, was Batman234. When Marshall and Goguen first met, over coffee at the Wynn Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas during the 2013 Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show, they had much to offer each other. Matt Marshall knew how to spin a yarn. Plus it has a tiny police department. In this setting, when people meet a billionaire, many see only an opportunity to cash in. (Goguen said the payments included gifts to former girlfriends and venture capital investments in start-ups the women had conceptualized, like a cupcake business. Paul was born October 8, 1929 in Arlington, MA to Blanche and Arthur Goguen. His unit was discovered by the Syrian army, triggering a chaotic battle during which Marshall was captured. The scandal has engulfed the entire town of Whitefish, a bucolic hideaway for the super-rich on the fringe of Glacier National Park. If I cant stop him, I dont think anybody will be able to.. I dont really have one-night stands, he said. But he was also no Bruce Wayne. The Chamber of Commerce twice named him Man of the Year, and he won praise for his charitable giving. Theyve conquered the world, she said, but theyre still missing the masculinity thing. To compensate, they play at statecraft and espionage. Whitefish, Montana, is known for fly fishing and hiking trails studded with yellow Aspen trees. 03/02/2021. Interviews with witnesses and alleged victims undermined Marshalls claims and Marshall attempted to use the media against Goguen.[21]. You have to understand, I was super lonely and sad. Everybody knows John, a former long-time CIA contractor said, referring to the agencys training center. [1][2], Goguen graduated with a Bachelor of Arts / Science from Cornell University, then proceeded to gain his Masters of Science from Stanford University. The court also found that Baptiste was liable for extortion and fraud, and Baptiste was ordered to pay Goguen roughly $14 million in damages. Marshall panicked. Marshall would later send Goguen photos from his past CIA deployments. (Unbeknownst to Goguen, Marshall allegedly later loaned more than $100,000 of Goguens money to Maguire, which eventually led to a money laundering charge against Marshall. Court: Montana Supreme Court Date Filed: Dec. 19, 2022 Background: In November 2021, the New York Post published a story on allegations made in complaints and other court documents filed in lawsuits against tech billionaire Michael Goguen, including allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct. Talking to McKinley convinced Goguen to look again at his former employee. Spokespeople for the FBI and Department of Justice declined to comment when asked if that was true. He said the fund has raised $15 million and backed seven startups. All of Ron DeSantiss Crimes Against Good Etiquette. Mike was enamored with true alpha males, said Frank Gallagher, a Blackwater alum who joined Amyntor as executive vice president in 2014 and has a positive view of the venture capitalist. a Montana newspaper, in 2012, after Goguen donated more than $10 million to a state land trust and spent about the same amount to create a high-end helicopter . l can tell you he worked for the CIA, she said in a call with Goguen in November 2018, citing her conversations with Maguire and other unnamed sources, according to a person who heard the comments.