The Guam Visitors Bureau issued a statement saying it has taken prompt corrective action in response to allegations that former President and CEO Carl Gutierrez sexually assaulted and sexually harassed a bureau employee.
The allegations were detailed in a 28-page civil lawsuit filed in federal court this week against Guam Visitors Bureau and Board Chairman George Chiu.
Gutierrez was not named as a defendant in the $61.5 million lawsuit.
The plaintiff, listed as Jane Doe, stated that Gutierrez sexually assaulted her at the GVB offices and on work trips to Japan and Saipan while he was leading the agency, according to court documents.
She also said there was a broader culture of sexualized misconduct at the agency, and that Chiu and the agency’s board of directors knew or should have known about the situation.
Between October 2022 and August 2024, “Gutierrez repeatedly subjected Plaintiff to escalating acts of unwanted sexual harassment, coercion, and sexual assault during official travel and in GVB offices, under color of his authority,” the lawsuit stated.
“GVB maintained a widespread, longstanding, and well-settled custom and practice of tolerating, concealing, and facilitating sexualized misconduct by senior leadership during official agency travel and within GVB offices,” according to the lawsuit. “That custom included: routine use of official, government-funded travel as a pretext for visits to brothels and other sexually themed establishments at the direction of senior leadership; assignment of younger female subordinates to accompany senior male officials on official travel without any legitimate business necessity; tolerance of repeated verbal and physical sexual conduct toward female subordinates; arbitrary enforcement of any nominal anti-harassment policy; informal pressure on employees to acquiesce or remain silent; and the absence of any meaningful Board-level oversight of the President’s conduct on official agency business.”
Gutierrez, who served as governor of Guam from 1995 to 2003, resigned as president of GVB in November 2024. He has not returned a call seeking comment on the allegations.
In a statement acknowledging the lawsuit, GVB said it “does not tolerate such conduct and takes these allegations seriously.”
The agency stated it has a zero-tolerance policy toward harassment at any level, and said it engaged an independent, off-island investigator to conduct a thorough review of the allegations as well as agency policies.
“The extensive effort to address the allegations gives GVB confidence that it is in compliance with relevant and applicable laws and regulations,” the statement said. “GVB cannot comment further on any ongoing litigation at this time.”
