[Daily Gazett] SARATOGA SPRINGS — Shaun Wiggins, a former CIA operative and local business owner who previously ran unsuccessfully for seats on the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors and the Saratoga Springs school board, has been accused of using his influence to "groom" a woman he allegedly raped more than half a dozen times, according to a civil lawsuit filed this week.
Wiggins, the president and CEO of Soteryx Corp., a Saratoga Springs-based analytics firm, is accused of coercing the woman into having sex with him under the guise that he was preparing her for a career with the CIA through "fabricated and extended ’training exercises’" that included teaching the woman how to use her body "as a weapon."
The 58-page civil lawsuit, filed this week in state Supreme Court in New York County and first reported by the Daily Beast, claims that Wiggins sexually assaulted the woman, a Saratoga Springs resident listed only as Jane Doe, more than six times between 2017 and 2018 in New York City and other locations across the state, including the alleged victim’s Saratoga Springs apartment.
"Defendant Wiggins was operating as a ’groomer,’ using his position of actual and apparent authority and power to cause Plaintiff to accede to his repeated sexual assaults," the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit also claims that the woman, who was hired as a customer-relationship manager for Soteryx in August 2017, was never compensated for her work and was only paid in small increments after Wiggins assaulted her.
Jon Bell, an attorney for Wiggins and Soteryx, said the accusations are "baseless and untruthful."
"My client denies the allegations against him. The allegations are baseless and untruthful," Bell said. "We expect that Mr. Wiggins will be fully exonerated."
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