Bohemian Grove Lawsuit: Wage Claims, Redacted Names, and Settlement

The Bohemian Grove lawsuit was a 2023 wage-theft case brought by three former valets who worked at the Bohemian Club’s summer encampment in Monte Rio, California. They alleged 16-hour days without breaks, off-the-clock work, and falsified timecards, and sought up to $1.5 million in damages on behalf of roughly 300 valets. The Bohemian Club itself was dismissed from the case in January 2024, and the remaining claims against Monastery Camp and three individual defendants ended in a confidential settlement on July 10, 2025, with the case formally dismissed five days later.¹²

Who Sued and What They Alleged

Anthony Gregg, Shawn Granger, and Wallid Saad filed Gregg et al. v. Bohemian Club et al. on June 6, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. They named the Bohemian Club, Monastery Camp, and payroll company Pomella LLC as defendants.³ All three had worked as camp valets during the summer encampments in 2019, 2021, and 2022.

The complaint invoked the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and California labor law. The claims included failure to pay minimum wage and overtime, failure to provide meal and rest breaks, failure to pay final wages at termination, failure to provide accurate wage statements, unfair competition, and a claim under California’s Private Attorneys General Act, which lets workers sue on behalf of the state.⁴

Valets, according to the complaint, routinely worked 16 or more hours per day during the two-week encampment but were paid for only eight. Some were told to falsify payroll records and work off the clock. Others were paid under the table at rates that did not reflect actual hours. Valets themselves cooked, tended bar, hauled beer kegs, scrubbed floors, and did general assistant work across the more than 100 individual camps that make up the Grove, each run by one or more “captains.”⁵⁶

The plaintiffs sought up to $1.5 million in damages and class-action status on behalf of roughly 300 current and former valets who worked outside of camps that used a staffing firm.⁶

Why the Bohemian Club Was Dismissed

The central legal fight was over who counted as the valets’ employer. Plaintiffs’ attorney Anthony Nunes argued the individual camps were not independent entities but parts of a “joint venture” controlled by the Bohemian Club. He pointed to the club’s power to hire and fire valets, impose strict dress codes, ban phone use during most of the day, prohibit workers from accepting tips, and forbid employees from attending performances or rehearsals. Workers were also barred from visiting any camp where a blood relative was a member.⁶⁵

The Bohemian Club, through spokesperson Sam Singer, called the allegations “meritless” and said it complied with all wage and hour laws. The club maintained that the valets were never its direct employees and that each camp operated autonomously.⁶

On January 19, 2024, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted motions to dismiss filed by both the Bohemian Club and Pomella LLC. She ruled that the plaintiffs had not provided enough facts to establish either entity as a “joint employer” under state or federal tests, which examine whether a company controls wages, hours, and working conditions. Both defendants were dismissed with prejudice, meaning the claims against them could not be refiled.⁷ Pomella argued it had no control over the valets’ employment conditions and that the plaintiffs had “intentionally deceived” the company about the hours they actually worked.⁸

Nunes said his clients were caught in a legal no-man’s-land: “No one is willing to claim they are the employer… They were never issued a 1099 form from any employer. No one has claimed they’re independent contractors. Everyone agrees they’re employees, but no one has stated they are their employees.”⁸

The Amended Complaint and Individual Defendants

With the club and payroll company out, Monastery Camp was the sole remaining defendant, and it was not incorporated as a business. Nunes warned it could simply “disappear” with no entity left to hold liable.⁸ In May 2024, the court granted leave to amend, and three individuals were added: Rich Dewey, William Dawson, and Michael LaHorgue.⁹

Dewey was identified as a co-captain of Monastery Camp, a director of the Bohemian Club per 2015 tax filings, and chairman and founder of Dewey Land Company. Dawson and LaHorgue were described as holding managerial roles at the camp.² The defendants answered the amended complaint and filed a counterclaim in June 2024.⁹

Names That Leaked Through the Redactions

The case drew national attention when a Press Democrat reporter discovered that names redacted in court declarations could be recovered by copying the text out of the PDF into another document. Nunes attributed the exposure to an error during the conversion of documents from Word to PDF.²

The unredacted text named billionaire industrialist William Koch, brother of Charles and the late David Koch. Plaintiff Anthony Gregg said in his declaration that Koch had asked him to hand-wash his underwear, and that Gregg was subsequently mocked by other club members for complying. A publicist for Koch, Brad Goldstein, denied the allegation and said the camp where Koch stayed had a washing machine.¹⁰

Plaintiff Wallid Saad alleged anti-Muslim harassment. According to his declaration, camp captain Rich Dewey introduced him to roughly 80 club members as “Wallid Bin Laden Saad.” Saad said members frequently asked him “Are you American?” and that one guest told him, “Thank God! I thought you were ISIS and that I’d wake up without my head.” Three then-members of Congress — Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Representative Greg Walden of Oregon, and Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan — were accused in the declarations of speaking disparagingly about Islam. None of the politicians or Koch were named as defendants.²

How the Case Settled

The parties first reached a settlement that would have totaled $88,500: $20,000 each for the three named plaintiffs, $500 each for two other unnamed valets, plus civil penalties and attorney fees. Judge Martínez-Olguín set that agreement aside in June 2025, citing concerns about how funds were allocated to non-plaintiffs and requesting more documentation.²

A new settlement was reached on July 10, 2025, and the case was formally dismissed on July 15, 2025. The terms of the final agreement are confidential.¹²

A Prior $7 Million Wage Settlement in 2016

The 2023 case was not the club’s first wage-theft fight. In 2016, the Bohemian Club agreed to a $7 million settlement in a class action brought on behalf of more than 600 valets in Sonoma County Superior Court. Judge Gary Nadler granted preliminary approval in June 2016. The settlement covered workers employed between May 2011 and the end of 2014.¹¹

The allegations closely tracked what would surface again in 2023. Valets said they had been misclassified as independent contractors and forced to work 16- to 18-hour days without overtime, sometimes on call for more than seven consecutive days. They received checks without proper wage statements, and some reported being handed cash in envelopes at the end of the summer to “quickly fix” pay issues.¹² Eligible valets received an average payout of about $8,100, proportional to days worked. The club admitted no wrongdoing.¹¹

After the 2016 settlement, the club moved to a professional payroll service rather than having camp members hire and pay valets directly.¹² When Nunes filed the 2023 case, he said, “Some combination of arrogance and trying to save a buck has led them to the same labor violations” all over again.¹³

1
La Voce di New York. Bohemian Grove Workers Recount Mistreatment by Billionaire Members
2
Press Democrat. Bohemian Grove Club Lawsuit
3
Justia. Gregg et al v. Bohemian Club et al, Case No. 3:2023cv02760
4
vlex. Gregg v. Bohemian Club, Case No. 23-cv-02760-AMO
5
SFGate. San Francisco Bohemian Grove Sued by Valets
6
The Guardian. Bohemian Grove Elite Club Wage Theft
7
Justia. Gregg et al v. Bohemian Club et al, Order on Motion to Dismiss
8
Press Democrat. Bohemian Club Dismissed as Defendant in Wage Theft Lawsuit
9
CourtListener. Gregg v. Bohemian Club, Docket
10
SFGate. Bohemian Grove Billionaire Underwear Allegation
11
SF Chronicle. SF’s Bohemian Club to Pay Workers $7 Million
12
Press Democrat. Bohemian Grove to Settle With Seasonal Workers for $7 Million
13
Press Democrat. Former Valets Suing Over Wages at Bohemian Grove