Former Tradeshift CEO Christian Lanng accused of forcing assistant to sign ‘slave contract’

The co-founder of a San Francisco tech company is accused of forcing his former assistant to sign a depraved “slave contract” — subjecting her to years of “unwanted sexual horror.”

Tradeshift co-founder Christian Lanng allegedly forced his ex-employee to sign the contract just months after hiring her as his executive assistant, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

The woman, identified in the court documents only as Jane Doe, claims Lanng then raped and abused her for years. The software company is also named in the suit.

Lanng’s torture involved “inflicting physical pain on her by various means, urinating on her and routinely penetrating her person with foreign objects,” according to the lawsuit, which was first reported by the Mercury News.

The shocking allegations came to light after the disgraced executive was fired as CEO earlier this year for “gross misconduct on multiple grounds” after management learned about “serious allegations of sexual assault and harassment” against him.

The accuser also claimed she was fired in 2020 when she complained to human resources about the nine-page “slave contract,” which she insisted she was forced into signing.

Doe had agreed to “always be sexually available for her master when he needs sex and to never refuse him sex even when not wearing the [day] collar,” according to a supposed copy of the contract filed with the lawsuit.

“Whenever she sees her master in private for the first time, she is to kneel and ask if there is anything she can do for him,” the purported contract added.

The document also allegedly allowed Lanng to deliver “any punishment the master decides to inflict, whether earned or not” — although it did note that it was the “master’s responsibility” to avoid killing the woman or causing permanent injury.

The contract also allegedly stated that the “slave” must always take her punishments “without being angry, sullen or frustrated with her master” and she must “thank him after.”

The former assistant was also supposed to keep a “diary” of his “subjugation and enslavement of her,” and had agreed to be beaten “with a cane if she did not write submissive entries,” according to the lawsuit.

Lanng allegedly “beat her to the point of bleeding” and violated her with “inanimate objects,” the woman claimed.

The accuser was also contractually required to dress in “a proper, feminine way” and keep her weight between 130 and 155 pounds while agreeing to send Lanng weekly spreadsheets of her progress, the suit alleges.

“The slave agrees to submit completely to the master in all ways. There are no boundaries of place, time, or situation in which the slave may willfully refuse to obey the directive of the master without risking punishment,” the contract read, according to the lawsuit.

“The slave also agrees that, once entered into the Slavery Contract, their body belongs to their master to be used as seen fit within the guidelines defined herein. All of the slave’s possessions likewise belong to the master, including all assets, finances, online accounts and material goods, to do with as they see fit.”

The lawsuit said the former assistant had agreed to the disturbing stipulations because she “loved her job, was accomplishing important work in her new role and did not want to lose the opportunity to work a Tradeshift.”

A representative from the Tradeshift, which was also named in the lawsuit, told The Post that it “denies the allegations in the claim insofar as they are made against the company,” but declined to comment further while referring back to the statement it released in October announcing Lanng’s dismissal.

Lanng vehemently denied the allegations in a statement to The Post, saying that the pair had a “consensual” sexual relationship.

“The claims in this lawsuit are defamatory and not reflective of my past relationship with the plaintiff. The shocking and vile claims in the lawsuit are categorically false, and I reject allegations that I subjected someone to any form of abuse during my tenure as CEO or at any other time of my life,” he said.

“The only details of the salacious complaint against me that are truthful are that the plaintiff and I were in a sexual relationship and that she was once employed at Tradeshift. This relationship, which predated her employment at Tradeshift, ended eight months after she joined the company.

“In 2014, I made the grave error of judgment to hire someone I was dating and with whom I was engaged in a consensual sexual relationship. While this did not constitute a violation of Tradeshift’s human resources policies, it was irresponsible to employ someone with whom I was romantically involved. I regret the decision. It was a foolish mistake that I will not repeat.”

Lang added that his former assistant went on to work with Tradeshift for five more years after their relationship ended and rose the ranks “outside of my purview.”

Her position was then ultimately terminated “during one of several rounds of layoffs Tradeshift has unfortunately had to undergo,” the former CEO said.

A complaint, formal or otherwise, was never lodged by this person, not to the Tradeshift board nor the company’s HR department, Lanng said.

In October the fired CEO also told TechCruch there had “never been an HR case, complaint or formal allegation filed” against him at the company.