A lawsuit filed by a former girlfriend and business partner of tech billionaire Eric Schmidt accusing him of sexual assault was sent to arbitration this week by a Los Angeles judge.
Michelle Ritter, 32, of Los Angeles, alleged that a 2022 federal law inspired by the #MeToo movement intended to end forced arbitration of sexual assault and harassment claims allowed her to have her case heard in open court.
Superior Court Judge Michael Small disagreed, ruling that the law did not apply because a financial settlement and arbitration agreement Ritter and Schmidt signed in December 2024 was entered into after the alleged sexual wrongdoing — not before as legally required.
Ritter filed a lawsuit in November that alleged Schmidt, a former chief executive and chairman of Google, “forcibly raped” her while on a yacht off the coast of Mexico in 2021. She also claimed they had sex without her consent during the 2023 Burning Man festival in Nevada.
She further alleged that Schmidt had built a “backdoor” to Google servers with a team of company engineers that allowed him to spy on her and anyone with a Google account.
Schmidt has denied the claims.
Ritter argued that the alleged digital surveillance of her electronic devices, as well as surveillance by private investigators, after she signed the 2024 agreement also amounted to sexual harassment.
However, the judge said the alleged surveillance did not “rise to the level of actionable sexual assault or harassment so as to trigger” the 2022 law.
In an interview, Ritter called the ruling “problematic,” saying the surveillance was an extension of her earlier alleged sexual assault and harassment. “This wouldn’t have been happening otherwise,” she said.
Schmidt’s legal team lauded the judge’s decision Monday, calling it a “cogent analysis of the nuanced issues necessary to reach the correct outcome and compel arbitration.”
Ritter had a romantic relationship with the 70-year-old billionaire tech titan after they met in 2020 while she was pursuing graduate degrees in law and business at Columbia University. He invested about $100 million in a joint venture with her that later fell apart.
The pair’s dispute stretches back to 2024 after their personal relationship ended and as they were negotiating a settlement of their Steel Perlot venture, a business accelerator that invested in artificial intelligence, crypto and other startups.
Ritter filed a highly redacted Superior Court lawsuit in September seeking to set aside the 2024 settlement, claiming it reflected an “extreme inequality of bargaining power” while the arbitration clause was “unconscionable.”
In November, she filed the amended complaint that detailed the sexual assault and surveillance allegations, as well as accusations that Schmidt stole the joint venture from her. The complaint sought $100 million in damages.
At the time of the November filing, Patricia Glaser, one of the attorneys representing Schmidt, called the lawsuit “fabricated pathetic allegations” made to “escape accountability from an existing arbitration over a business dispute.”
Ritter said she wants only what is due her. She said Steel Perlot spun out valuable companies, including financial services company Knova.
“I have been paid nothing, and now I am being pressured to effectively pay a billionaire for taking my share of my own companies,” she said.
Google is named as a defendant in the November lawsuit and is accused of “knowingly acquiescing in, failing to remedy, and materially assisting the unauthorized access” into Ritter’s accounts despite being provided notice.
The company and Schmidt were accused of violating the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act and other state laws.
Google was not served with the lawsuit and has not had to defend itself in the case. The company has not responded to requests for comment.
Ritter said the allegations against Google are on hold due to the arbitration proceedings with Schmidt.
Schmidt served as Google chief executive from 2001 to 2011 and later as the chairman of the Silicon Valley company and its parent, Alphabet Inc., until 2017.
Schmidt is worth about $52 billion, largely through his stock holding in Google’s parent company, Alphabet, according to Bloomberg.
Last year, Schmidt took a controlling interest in Relativity Space, a Long Beach rocket startup founded in 2015.
He is reported to also have spent $110 million last year to buy a 56,000-square-foot Holmby Hills mansion built by the late producer Aaron Spelling.
Schmidt, who has been married more than 40 years, has been linked romantically in the media with various younger women.
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