Tech tycoon and RadiumOne CEO Gurbaskh Chahal has been fired by his company's all-male board of directors after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors for battery and domestic violence. Security footage from Chahal's San Francisco penthouse allegedly showed him hitting and kicking his girlfriend 117 times in the span of 30 minutes.
In 2013, Chahal was charged with 45 felony counts related to the incident at his apartment in the Infinity Towers. Chahal's attorney argued at the time that the charges were overblown and that the victim had "provided photographic proof of an unblemished complexion to SFPD."
Although video evidence supposedly created a bulletproof case against Chahal, the video was thrown out after a judge ruled it had been unlawfully seized by police. The victim also refused to testify, prompting allegations that Chahal (who was released on $1 million bail during the trial) bought his way out.
Earlier this month, Chahal avoided prison time by admitting to the two misdemeanors while all the felony counts were dropped. Chahal was sentenced to three years of probation, 25 hours of community service, and will have to enroll in a 52-week domestic violence training program.
Meanwhile, the court of public opinion—and Chahal's investors on the RadiumOne board—have deemed him unfit to run the high-flying online advertising company that was expected to raise $100 million during its IPO sometime in the next year.
According to Re/Code's Kara Swisher, RadiumOne's executive board fired Chahal over the weekend after mulling the decision and giving the beleaguered CEO a chance to step down on his own. Chahal, who once had an appearance on Oprah playing the Hunky Entrepreneur type, spent his weekend bizarrely calling out everyone involved in the case from the police to the bloggers in the media. In a post on his personal blog titled "Can You Handle the Truth?" Chahal blames the victim and his ex-girlfriend for the argument, basically accusing her of being a prostitute. From the post (emphasis, his):
"The situation that resulted in my legal case began when I discovered that my girlfriend was having unprotected sex for money with other people. (She testified to this in her interviews with the cops.) I make no excuse for losing my temper."
Although Chahal was convicted on April 17th of one misdemeanor count of domestic violence battery and one other count of battery, the RadiumOne board reportedly needed to review the legally complex situation because his large stake in the company.
