Jacob Miller Sues Shield AI Alleging Sexual Harassment, Retaliation and Mishandled Fraud Concerns

Jacob Miller filed a lawsuit against Shield AI alleging sexual harassment by Senior Director of Customer Operations Trey Lindsey, retaliation after he raised safety and fraud concerns, and failure by the company to correct the misconduct. Miller states that Lindsey showed him a photo of his genitalia and made offensive comments about a gay employee and his husband.

He alleges Lindsey's conduct included physical touching, genital display, sexual comments, and sexual imagery.

Miller served on the company's Mishap Review Board, which investigates product failures, crashes and injuries tied to autonomous drone testing. After he raised concerns over aircraft safety, he says he was removed from the board. During a financial audit of his team, Miller says he found evidence that another employee was committing fraud.

That employee quit after Miller removed the person from the position, but Lindsey and another senior employee attempted to rehire the individual, according to the suit. Miller met with a senior director in June and disclosed the issues. The company took no action to rectify the situation, he states.

He sought to resign in November but was urged to stay with a promise that the issues would be investigated. In December the company hired attorneys to investigate. The scheduled investigation meetings were made public on Microsoft Teams so everyone at the company could see who was a witness and who was under investigation, Bloomberg reported.

Miller says the meetings did nothing to solve the issue or correct the misconduct. Miller was put on what he describes as retaliatory administrative leave in December and left the company a month ago. Shield AI was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.