Paso Robles winery owner responds to sexual harassment lawsuit

May 19, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

After media around the globe reported on a lawsuit that accuses the owner of Halter Ranch in Paso Robles of sexually harassing and attempting to persuade a female employee to engage in a threesome, an attorney firm for Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss is telling its client’s side of the story.

On April 21, 30-year-old Madison Busby filed a lawsuit against the 89-year-old Wyss that accuses her former employer of various instances of inappropriate behavior and misconduct. Also in April, Busby’s husband Bryce Mullins filed a lawsuit against Wyss.

Mullins’ lawsuit accuses Wyss of failing to pay him up to $30 million in equity interest in Halter Ranch, which he managed for six years.

In her lawsuit, Busby says Wyss made sexual comments and groped her during their first meeting in 2019. Despite ongoing sexual harassment, in 2020, Busby moved in with Mullins at a home on Halter Ranch where they lived rent free.

In Jan. 2021, Wyss hired Busby, an architect, to work for Halter Ranch. Wyss would frequently visit and would stay in the home with Busby and Mullins.

During these stays, he allegedly began pursuing threesomes with the couple, according to Busby’s lawsuit.

In May 2024, Mullins informed Wyss he was going to resign on Sept. 30, 2024.

Busby sent an email to Wyss in July 2024 that allegedly recounted various instances of inappropriate behavior and misconduct. She resigned and left employment on July 31, 2024. Wyss fired Mullins in Aug. 2024, according to Mullins’ lawsuit.

Both Busby and Mullins are claiming wrongful termination in their lawsuits.

Wyss is working with the legal firm of Holland & Knight in Washington D.C. A media contact for the firm, Audrey Young, said the firm plans to vigorously advance the facts of Mullins and Busby’s time at the winery and their departures.

Young said the allegations in the lawsuit are not true and that Busby and Mullins took advantage of Wyss’ generosity for almost five years.

“This included deciding to become employees of the winery, choosing to live at the winery rent free for years, frequently traveling with the owner to Europe, the Caribbean and elsewhere at the owner’s expense, asking the owner and his wife to host their wedding party and inviting the owner to serve as best man,” Young said. “Through all these years, they never complained about the owner’s conduct, or simply declined to spend so much time with him, until after they voluntarily left their employment at the winery in 2024.”

The 89-year-old Swiss billionaire, who reportedly has a net worth of more than $4.8 billion, made his fortune in the medical manufacturing industry. Since leaving the medical industry, he has become one of the most important donors to left-leaning media and advocacy groups, and he is an increasingly influential force among Democrats.

In 2021, Wyss mounted a failed bid to purchase Tribune Publishing Company, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News and other American newspapers. Two years later, he funded a nonprofit’s purchase of five daily newspapers in Maine.

At the same time, Wyss’ States Newsroom, a nonprofit, launched the Maine Morning Star, an online news source.

Over the past 20 years, Wyss has donated more than $800 million to left-leaning causes, according to the Daily Caller.

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