Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Accused of Abuse, Surveillance

Michelle Ritter, 31, a former partner of ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, has accused the 70-year-old billionaire of stalking, abuse and subjecting her to an “absolute digital surveillance system,” according to court filings. Ritter alleges Schmidt used technical expertise and financial control to monitor her communications, lock her out of AI startup Steel Perlot (which she says received about $100 million from him), restrict access to data and finances, pressured her to accept a gag order and sign a false declaration, and that private investigators followed her parents. She says she filed a temporary restraining order late last year, the parties struck a written settlement in early December requiring Schmidt to make “substantial payments,” she then filed a domestic violence TRO on Dec. 11 that was withdrawn on Jan. 6 after a further agreement. Schmidt’s lawyers filed an 82-page response calling the allegations “demonstrably false” and have sought to seal or redact much of the court record, with hearings or parts of the dispute reported as sealed or pending. Reports note Schmidt’s Bloomberg-estimated net worth (roughly $44.8 billion) and long-reported open marriage, and the dispute centers on money, control of an AI venture and competing claims of surveillance and coercion with many details still under seal or dispute.