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I am one of the many women Mike Bloomberg’s company tried to silence through nondisclosure agreements. My story for @theintercept https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
Soon after Bloomberg published the article on Xi Jinping’s family wealth in June 2012, my husband received death threats conveyed by a woman who told him she represented a relative of Xi. #AskBloomberg https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
“He [Forsythe] and his family can’t stay in China. It’s no longer safe,” she said. “Something will happen. It will look like an accident. Nobody will know what happened. He’ll just be found dead.” https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
The experience was especially terrifying because it came just months after the murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood, who was poisoned by the wife of a senior Chinese leader, Bo Xilai, according to Chinese state media. https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
I had recurring nightmares about my young children getting beaten up or killed. I wanted to speak publicly about the death threats, feeling it would give us stronger protection, but Bloomberg News told us not to say anything. #AskBloomberg https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
I stayed silent until October 26, 2012, when another (unrelated) story was published in defiance of the Chinese government. I decided to tweet that we had received death threats after the Bloomberg story on Xi Jinping. https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
Within hours of my tweets — the original and my replies to questions — a Bloomberg manager called my husband and said, “Get your wife to delete her tweets.” I did not delete them, but I also did not tweet or speak publicly about the death threats again. https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
I didn’t want to anger the company because we needed it to relocate us to Hong Kong, where our children would be safe. As we finished the remainder of our time in Beijing, applying for schools in Hong Kong, I lived in constant fear. https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
In August 2013, I finally relaxed as we flew out of Beijing and moved to a temporary apartment in Hong Kong. I thought that our yearlong nightmare had ended. But things would soon get even worse. https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
Bloomberg killed a story critical of Beijing and fired my husband after comments by Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matt Winkler were leaked. “If we run the story, we’ll be kicked out of China,” Winkler said on a company call. #AskBloomberg https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
Bloomberg lawyers threatened to devastate my family financially by forcing us to repay the company for our relocation fees to Hong Kong from Beijing...and take me to court if I did not sign an NDA — even though I had never been a Bloomberg employee. https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
We sat around a fancy conference table with Bloomberg editors and lawyers in Hong Kong and spoke via videoconference with a lawyer from Willkie, Farr & Gallagher, representing Bloomberg in New York. https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
My husband’s lawyer said that I did not possess any recordings or emails that might be damaging evidence about the company’s practices. “But what about all the evidence that is in her head?” said the outsized man on the video screen. https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
When Bloomberg’s lawyer in New York uttered those words, I suddenly pictured him holding a giant vacuum cleaner, trying to suck all the memories out of my brain. I told everyone that I needed to leave the room and I walked out of the building, determined to go down fighting.
The thought of Bloomberg ruining our family financially if I didn’t give in made me sick, but they had kept us in harm’s way after we received death threats, forbidden me from speaking about the threats in Beijing, and now were trying to take away my freedom of speech forever.
It was only when I hired Edward Snowden’s lawyers in Hong Kong that Bloomberg finally backed off. In the meantime, they had sent me several more threatening letters. #AskBloomberg https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
Bloomberg lawyers treated me as though I were a piece of company property, using intimidation and threats to try to bully me into submission. I agonized over whether to sign the NDA and I remember feeling physically suffocated, as though my mouth were stuffed with cotton balls.
I imagine that other women at Bloomberg have experienced the same terror of being threatened by a multibillion-dollar corporation, which could ruin their lives if they did not comply. Even now, I am nervous about speaking out. But the more of us speak out, the stronger we are.
Please #AskBloomberg at the #DemDebate why he’s so afraid of offending Chinese Communist Party leaders and why he has silenced so many women over the years. What is he hiding? https://theintercept.com/2020/02/18/mike-bloomberg-lp-nda-china/
