It sadly comes as little surprise to those familiar with Gurbaksh "G" Chahal, a bad bad man if there ever was one, that the 32-year-old tech CEO has been charged with another instance of abuse, this time hitting a girlfriend he may have met while on trial for allegedly beating another.
The Business Times reports that Chahal, who is charged with kicking and injuring this second woman last September, was taken into custody in October and released on $100,000 bail. That would be a mere 5 months after he was placed on probation, which the San Francisco District Attorney's office confirmed this week that it is seeking to revoke.
Chahal, who earned his reputation as a "wunderkind" for selling two ad tech companies for a total of $340 million by the time he turned 25, was before last year's criminal trial the CEO of RadiumOne, a San Francisco-based ad tech firm. Just last month, he and his new company, Gravity4, were hit with a lawsuit alleging gender discrimination, Forbes reports. Chahal and Gravity4, that suit claims, harassed a female employee and discriminated against her on the basis of her age and gender while secretly spying on her. Adding insult to injury, that employee says she was told be Gravity4 executives, including Chahal, that she was hired in part because a female employee could bolster Chahal's deeply tarnished image.
First laid low after his early appearances on Opera, Chahal was charged with over 40 counts of assault and domestic violence in 2013. Video from his San Francisco penthouse which was later deemed unlawfully seized and inadmissible as evidence allegedly showed him hitting and kicking his girlfriend 117 times over half an hour.
When the alleged victim refused to testify, many speculated that her silence had been bought, and Chahal dodged prison time by pleading guilty to two misdemeanors that resulted in a sentence of three years probation, 25 hours community service, and a 52-week domestic violence program. Seemingly unrepentant, in a personal blog post Chahal accused his former girlfriend of being a literal prostitute, writing "I make no excuse for losing my temper."
There was one somewhat serious repercussion, as Chahal was fired from his post as CEO at RadiumOne, though he maintains a large stake in that company and moved quickly to found Gravity4, which released this promotional video to general derision.
According to a police report on the more recent incident, Chahal met his latest alleged victim during his criminal trial while at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. There, the woman whom he would go on to date was employed as a VIP services supervisor. She maintains that Chahal did not disclose the facts of the charges against him, and in May of 2014 she moved to San Francisco.
Staying frequently with Chahal in his penthouse, the woman said that her alleged attacker could be "very short tempered and at times was verbally abusive," adding that he "would be under the influence of alcohol and narcotics and would go in and out of consciousness and would have memory loss." He "would grab her by the hair until she answered" accusatory questions, according to her account to police.
In another instance of alleged abuse, per the police report, the two "were arguing where she was pushed against the wall and she bruised her wrist," per the police report shows. This and other alleged incidents were not reported to police.
Then, on September 17th at 4 in the morning, Chahal's girlfriend claims that he kicked her repeatedly in bed during an argument, prompting her to try to call 911 and to then flee the apartment. She was treated at and released from St. Mary's Hospital, complaining of a leg injury which she photographed on her phone.
At her own San Francisco apartment, the woman said she was approached by a security guard in Chahal's employ. According to the report, he said she should "not to go to the police and that it would ruin his and others lives."
"Your reputation is everything." Chahal wrote in a personal blog post just last month, "Hold on to what you built to get the job and evolve that into something that allows you to stand out as a true leader in your profession."
Previously: Ousted Tech CEO And Convicted Domestic Batterer Rails Against Media, RadiumOne Responds