Justin Caldbeck, a well-connected venture capitalist who runs the investment firm Binary Capital, is taking an indefinite leave of absence after six women in the technology industry accused him of sexual harassment as reported in The Information, an online technology industry publication.
Silicon Valley investor Justin Caldbeck is taking a leave of absence in the wake of sexual harassment allegations
Six women went on the record with their stories.
Jason Del Rey has been a business journalist for 15 years and has covered Amazon, Walmart, and the e-commerce industry for the last decade. He was a senior correspondent at Vox.
In a statement, Caldbeck said, “It is outrageous and unethical for any person to leverage a position of power in exchange for sexual gain, it is clear to me now that that is exactly what I’ve done.”
That sentence, and the rest of the statement (in its entirety below), are a remarkable about-face from his first statement to The Information: “I strongly deny The Information’s attacks on my character. The fact is, I have always enjoyed respectful relationships with female founders, business partners, and investors,” he said at the time.
In The Information’s report, three female founders — Niniane Wang, Susan Ho and Leiti Hsu — went on the record with anecdotes about Caldbeck’s actions. They included, in one instance, groping under a table, and in another, unwanted late-night text messages.
Three other women told The Information of similar unwanted advances, but asked to remain anonymous.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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