The student went to her campus law center that June to apply for a restraining order, demanding that Huha remove the social media posts and cease all contact with her. “I used to go to Iran every once in a while to visit my family, but now I can’t even look at them.” “It was really hard, especially because of my background,” she said. To this day, Kiani said, her father rarely speaks to her. Her family members-many of whom are from Iran and are socially conservative-were shocked by the posts. The posts effectively outed Kiani as a sugar baby to her relatives, and she says Huha started following several of them on Instagram to get their attention. “You can call a truce anytime you like, because I’m only just beginning.” “You notice that my Instagram is now public, right? Also it identifies you in the caption.” he texted her, according to screenshots obtained by The Daily Beast. When she texted him to complain about the photos, he posted the screenshots of their conversations to Instagram too. He tagged Kiani in each of the photos, including snaps of them kissing and holding hands. A district court found Kiani’s claims of sexual assault not credible, citing her demeanor on the witness stand and the fact that she had not reported the alleged assault to authorities.Īfter the relationship ended, Huha began posting romantic photos of the pair to Instagram, on a page dedicated entirely to pictures of their relationship. Huha’s attorney told The Daily Beast he denies the allegations. “You took advantage of me… making me have sex with you and getting mad when I didn’t,” she texted him at one point, according to screenshots obtained by The Daily Beast. She decided to end the relationship for good. At the same time, she was learning more about the definition of rape as a college orientation leader, and realized that the drunken sex she claims they had their first night in Pittsburgh could constitute an assault. Kiani said Huha reacted poorly to the suggestion that they formalize their agreement. “I said we can meet two weekends a month and then you would like help me out financially,” she said in a message included in court filings.
She made her first attempt at ending the relationship, but eventually agreed to continue seeing him, under the condition that it be a “real sugar baby/sugar daddy relationship.” It became clear during a spring break getaway to Miami that Huha wanted something more from the relationship, while Kiani did not. Photos on social media show them sipping daiquiris in Miami Beach and posing in front of Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis. At one point, Huha estimated that he spent at least $30,000 on their relationship. The two engaged in a four-month, long-distance relationship consisting largely of vacations-paid for by Huha-during which they would have sex, according to court documents.
Shawdy Kiani, the plaintiff in the Minnesota case, met 30-something John Huha on the website in early 2017, when she was a 20-year-old college student at the University of Minnesota. Now, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, it’s facing renewed questions over how safe it really is for women. Seeking Arrangement-the leading site for this type of “no strings attached” matchmaking-has long dodged claims that it is simply glorified prostitution. The case, which a Minnesota appeals court ruled on this week, illustrates the potential pitfalls of “sugar dating,” or the pairing of rich, older men with younger, more attractive women in exchange for financial gain. A Seeking Arrangement relationship gone wrong has spiraled into a legal battle between a sugar daddy and a sugar baby, who claims the older man harassed her on social media when she declined to behave like a traditional girlfriend.