Peter Thiel’s Husband Sues Flight Attendant Allegedly Assaulted On Private Flight

A private plane Peter Thiel and his family was using had two bathrooms, but somehow, on July 13, 2024, it was not easily available. One behind the jet was full property. Another, according to court documents, was storing coolers and food and kitchen utensils. What happened next has become the subject of a federal lawsuit alleging assault and disputes over workers’ compensation and whether a secret agreement could prevent a former airline pilot from suing the husband of one of the world’s richest men.

Stefanie Bojar, the flight attendant at the center of the dispute, was employed by Solairus Aviation — which did not immediately respond to a request for comment — but has handled more than 200 flights for Thiel and her husband, Matthew Danzeisen. During the July flight, Mr. Bojar says, Danzeisen — also a chief financial officer at Thiel Capital — pushed him aside and threw heavy bags at him, knocking him against the wall of the plane and leaving him on the ground. Danzeisen’s actions are said to have seriously injured his ankle and knee.

Danzeisen says she takes the bags out of the bathroom for one of her children to use. More often than not, he says, one of the bags may have accidentally brushed Bojar’s leg.

(Like other claims in this article by Bojar and Danzeisen, these were made in court.)

In May, Danzeisen sued Bojar in the Central District of California’s Southern Division — after, he says, he sent a “demand letter” months earlier. While one of Bojar’s lawyers, Elliott Jung, told WIRED that the letter was an attempt to settle the dispute out of court, Danzeisen’s complaint alleges that Bojar is waging a “campaign to extort” her and her husband. Known as Bojar as a former foreign pilot and airline operator, the complaint accuses him of launching a “defamation campaign” and breaching a confidentiality agreement, and is asking the court to impose a gag order and pay actual damages and punitive damages.

Bojar filed a counterclaim on Tuesday, adding Thiel Capital as a defendant and alleging battery, assault, harassment, and negligent supervision. Refusing to refer to his work as “checkered,” he says Thiel Capital employees helped connect the airline account they worked on, knew or should have known about Danzeisen’s actions with the pilots, and failed to intervene on or after July 2024.

In an interview, Bojar’s attorney called Danzeisen the preemptive lawsuit an “oppressive tactic” designed to intimidate the former pilot who was injured on the plane.

“Just because you have wealth,” said Jung, “doesn’t mean you have the right to harm people.”

“This is the shaking of a bag that hit someone’s leg, and we don’t pay to be shaken,” Alex Spiro, Danzeisen’s attorney, said in a statement. “So we’ll see everyone in court.”

According to both documents, the plane was supposed to travel from Sun Valley, Idaho, to Washington, DC, on July 13, 2024, coincidentally the same day Donald Trump. he survived when they tried to kill him at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. But the plane had a serious storage problem.

Bojar says Thiel’s assistant told the crew that the couple’s luggage had doubled, disrupting the usual pre-flight baggage handling routine. Without ground support, Bojar, the pilot, and the first officer had to carry and organize the bags.

By the time the Thiel family boarded, Bojar says, the house was packed. According to her notes, a large amount of luggage blocked the back bathroom, while the front bathroom was used as a storage area for cooler bags and kitchen equipment from the private chef.