Maria Zhang, a senior director of engineering at Yahoo Mobile is alleged to have told Nan Shi, a young woman that worked under her, that she would have a “bright future” at Yahoo if she accepted the sexual advances, and was warned that if she did not, she would lose her job and her future.

Nan Shi, a software engineer at Yahoo, succumbed to the unwanted advances of her boss. However, when the company fired her on the grounds of poor performance, she decided to bring the issue to justice and sue her boss, American-Chinese Maria Zhang, for sexual harassment and wrongful termination. The company, however, was quick to defend the executive saying that there is “absolutely no basis or truth to the allegations against Maria Zhang” and that she is “an exemplary Yahoo executive”.

According to Nan Shi’s testimony, she was eventually fired after she complained of Zhang’s conduct to human resources, which refused to open an investigation into her claims.

In late 2013, Nan Shi decided to go public about the alleged sexual harassment, accusing Maria Zhang of using her position of power in order to force her employee to have oral and digital sex with her on several occasions. However, the case is more complicated than that…

The two ladies spent many nights together. They would leave the Yahoo building and head to an apartment owned by the company. As Shi revealed in an interview, Zhang used to surprise her when she slept on the couch of the apartment, approaching her without clothes on, hugging her and kissing her.

However, the director soon grew tired of the young woman and started unfairly downgrading her performance reviews in order to get her fired, according to Shi.