The extraordinary lawsuit from Benchmark Capital against Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber, its most valuable portfolio company, boils down to a series of ugly claims that Benchmark said shows Kalanick’s “gross mismanagement.”
The five key claims in Benchmark’s lawsuit against Uber founder Travis Kalanick are definitely gnarly
It’s a blockbuster. It may be an Uber-buster too.
Meanwhile, Kalanick called the lawsuit “completely without merit and riddled with lies and false allegations.”
In any case, here’s the crux of Benchmark’s lawsuit, which is pretty devastating to Kalanick and to Uber:
- Board seats: “Kalanick fraudulently obtained control of three newly created seats on Uber’s Board by his material misstatements and fraudulent concealment from Benchmark of material information that would have led Benchmark to reject the creation of the seats.”
- Waymo lawsuit: “The Waymo lawsuit presents significant legal, financial, and reputational risks to Uber — risks that could have been reduced or avoided if Kalanick had disclosed crucial facts about his own apparent knowledge at the time of the Otto acquisition.”
- India rape case: “The alleged mishandling of the India rape victim’s medical records — which has since understandably received significant press coverage and criticism — was known to Kalanick at the time of the amendments to the Certificate of Incorporation and the Prior Voting Agreement, but not disclosed to Uber’s Board or Benchmark at the time.”
- Sexual harassment: “The pervasive cultural issues explored in Covington’s investigation were known to and facilitated by Kalanick at the time of the amendments to the Certificate of Incorporation and the Prior Voting Agreement, but Kalanick did not disclose these matters to Uber’s Board or Benchmark at the time.”
- Program to track regulators called “Greyball”: “Upon information and belief, Kalanick was aware of the Greyball program at the time of the amendments to the Certificate of Incorporation and the Prior Voting Agreement, but Kalanick did not disclose these matters to Uber’s Board or Benchmark at the time.”
You can read the entire lawsuit here to judge for yourself.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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