Australian crypto firm Immutable denies one of its senior employees was sexually harassed in the US
US court filings show a former executive at Australian crypto start-up Immutable has been accused of sexual harassment, but the firm denies all the allegations.
An Australian crypto firm with operations in the US has denied one of its top executives sexually harassed an employee, before her employment was terminated after she fell pregnant.
Immutable wants the claims struck from a New York court case because it says the allegations are “a graphic (false) narrative of sexually nefarious misconduct”.
New York-based Natalia Mazzuchelli lodged her case against the start-up in September, alleging her then boss, Shirley Anderson, started sexually harassing her days after she joined the company in September 2022 by inundating her with “questions and stories about group sex, bisexuality, anal sex (and) extramarital affairs”, court documents show.
Ms Mazzuchelli accused the company of discrimination which terminated her employment about seven months later in April when she told Ms Anderson – the former global head of partner success – she was pregnant. And she further claimed she was being “groomed” for a sexual encounter on a work trip in San Francisco.
According to her claim, before joining Immutable Ms Mazzuchelli had a successful career at Meta for nine years where she rose to head of global vertical solutions, e-Commerce and later worked at cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase.
There is limited information about Ms Anderson in the court filings, and Immutable declined to respond to a request for comment about her or the matter while the case was before court.
A letter lodged by Immutable’s lawyers on November 13 show the tech start-up denies Ms Mazzuchelli’s allegations and has asked a judge hearing the matter to strike out certain paragraphs in her original claim relating to allegations about sexual harassment.
“Immutable intends to file a motion to strike paragraphs 1‐2, 19, 21‐45, and 57 from the complaint pursuant to Rule 12(f), which allows the court to ‘strike from a pleading … any redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter’,” the letter stated.
“The bulk of the complaint illustrates a graphic (false) narrative of sexually nefarious misconduct that is completely detached from the legal claims alleged.”
The letter goes on to say Immutable believes there are two narrow legal issues at play. One is related to gender-based discrimination concerning Ms Mazzuchelli’s pregnancy and the other is a retaliation for making an internal complaint about pregnancy-based discrimination.
“The complaint does not allege a sexual harassment cause of action,” it stated.
“Rather, the complaint’s material allegations (which Immutable categorically denies) are that, after plaintiff disclosed her pregnancy, she received a negative performance review, and then was terminated from her employment after she complained internally about perceived pregnancy‐based discrimination.”
Immutable was co-founded by brothers James and Robbie Ferguson, and Alex Connolly in 2018 and is headquartered in Sydney.
It scored a $280m funding off a $3.5bn valuation last year, but in February cut 11 per cent of its staff due to “market volatility”.
Earlier this year Immutable reportedly slashed the price of its shares for employees from $900 to $345.
The company, which is backed by disgraced billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research, is Australia’s biggest studio dedicated to NFTs and Web3 games.
Ms Mazzuchelli alleged that after accepted the role of director of partner success at Immutable and started work on September 26 last year, Ms Anderson “launched into a graphic conversation about sex” while on a work trip in San Francisco on September 29.
“In an obvious effort to lure Mazzuchelli into a sexual encounter, Anderson expressed her desire to sleep with more women and ‘keep exploring sexually’,” the claim read.
The next day, Ms Mazzuchelli claimed Ms Anderson took off some “going-out clothes” she borrowed in her hotel room and asked if she should get a “boob job”.
Ms Mazzuchelli alleged she excused herself and went to the bathroom at that point to call a friend who came to the room shortly thereafter. It is then claimed Ms Anderson got dressed and left.
Her claim stated Ms Anderson told Ms Mazzuchelli she would be leaving Immutable in April this year, but not before she told her about her pregnancy, which prompted the executive to ask if she could “do this job pregnant”.
Ms Mazzuchelli said she then received her first negative performance review and after she complained to human resources, she alleged she was fired.
The court granted Immutable’s request to file a motion to strike, and all parties must submit further legal argument in January.
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