RADIUMONE CEO: My Board Betrayed Me, Even Though I Made Them A Fortune
Gurbaksh Chahal, the former tech CEO who pled guilty to two misdemeanors after being charged with assaulting his girlfriend, has written another blog post, this time blasting his board and the media.
He says his board was originally ecstatic that he was able to put the charges behind him with only a misdemeanor agreement and a $500 fine. But that after the internet turned on him, which he blames on Twitter and the reporter Kara Swisher, his board turned on him. He says they asked him to resign, which he refused to do. So they fired him. His shock at this was compounded by the fact that he had made some of the board members a fortune in the past.
On August 9th, 2013 I was charged for 47 felonies in a frivolous lawsuit. On April 2nd, 2014 the judge threw out a majority of the case due to lack of any substance. 90%+ of all cases get resolved through settlements when there isn't much substance behind them. Therefore, on August 16th, the DA presented a misdemeanor offer with a $500 fine attached. While, I had full intentions of getting fully exonerated of these charges, that would require me to go through trial and waste another 1 year of my life.
I immediately informed my board of directors, which include: Steve Westly, Robin Murray, David Silverman, Bill Lonergan, and Ajay Chopra. They were all ecstatic with this offer since this was the last pre-cursor for RadiumOne to enter the next stage of it growth. Deep down inside, I still did not want to take this deal since I have two loving sisters, a niece, and mother I love to death. But, I ended up taking one for the team and accepted the DA's proposal and settling this case.
This week, social media became the court of public opinion and decided to grow a life of its own. Similar to the Mozilla CEO debacle, each day-by-day it got worse. People can't look at the facts in 140 characters so they start to believe all of the falsified exaggerated allegations. They can only choose to hate. Prominent social media bloggers such as Kara Swisher turned this into a social issue. That ended up making things go viral.
On Wednesday, I received an email from Robin Murray, one of my board members, with the following message. "Been thinking some more. Absolutely don't do anything. Let the haters hate ad move on. This will blow over very quickly and we focus on the IPO. Don't let them get to you. Don't respond. I know it sucks but i think this is the right way fwd. Stay strong amigo. I feel for you."
Surprisingly enough, 48 hours later, the Internet continued to show its hateful nature and they called a special board meeting. In that special board meeting, they asked for my resignation as Chairman & CEO, when I declined to do, they fired me. Even though, I only accepted this misdemeanor plea under their guidance. Is this what real entrepreneurism is about? Is this what venture capitalism is about? Not to forget, in my last startup I made these same individuals over 800% on their investment? Whatever happened to real ethics? What happened to integrity? Whatever happened supporting your CEO during the tough times knowing the truth? Or is just a fabrication of today's society of greed at all costs.
This weekend he wrote a post saying that he did not beat his girlfriend as was originally alleged, but that she was having sex with other people for money and he lost his temper.