I invited Susan Bassi back on the podcast to talk about the patterns she found when Silicon Valley executives wind up in court for divorce or child custody.
Susan has been studying the issue for seven years.
First, we talked about the ongoing divorce of Sergey Brin.
Brin announced his divorce late last year; the divorce may have been triggered by Elon Musk.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin filed for divorce after learning that his wife cheated on him with Elon Musk — whose electric-car company Tesla was propped up by Brin during the 2008 financial crisis, according to a bombshell report Sunday.
The two tech titans were longtime friends — with Musk saying that for years he regularly crashed at Brin’s Silicon Valley home — until the Tesla founder’s brief fling with Nicole Shanahan last year, the Wall Street Journal said.
Brin and Shanahan were separated but still living together at the time of the affair in December, a person close to her told the Journal.
Brin, who’s worth $90 billion, filed for divorce in January, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
Susan tracked the divorce to a private judging firm.
Susan appeared previously with me to talk about the corruption involving private judges.
Private judges are a misnomer, Susan explained, in that, this does not mean that the proceedings are to remain private, but that’s exactly what has happened thus far in Sergey’s divorce.
He has been able to keep most things off the docket and the proceedings have not been open to the public, as they are supposed to be.
Besides his divorce, Susan has found several patterns involving big tech executives.
First, if abuse is alleged, it is quickly covered up and the parent making the allegation usually loses custody.
Wives and girlfriends of executives wind up spending time in jail on specious charges. They are called crazy while they are followed, and their electronics are infiltrated.
This is exactly what happened to Kailin Wang. Kailin had a son with the son of a former Google executive, Allan Thygesen. His family has engaged in a campaign to suggest she is crazy. See below.
As the Thygesen’s have suggested she’s crazy, they have also hired attorneys and private investigators to track her and to follow her and her family.
Finally, Susan has learned that for years top judges, lawyers, and media from the area have met secretly. These secret meetings have led to a near blackout of family court stories in the area, she told me.
This sort of committee, as Susan described it, is not new. In fact, Connecticut has a similar one; it was described in the book “In the Worst Interest of the Child”.
Post-script
Find the previous articles in this series: Article 1, Article 2, Article 3., Article 4, Article 5, and Article 6.
For more articles like this on corruption in California family courts check out the fundraiser.
Michael Volpe Investigates Special Report: Silicon Valley and the courts