This CEO fired 900 on Zoom call, now being sued for 'misleading investors'

Vishal Garg, the Indian-American entrepreneur, had fired 900 employees over a Zoom call and later apologised facing severe backlash. In a recent mail to his employees, he said he is personally liable for SoftBank loan and after five years, he will have nothing.

Published on: Jun 8, 2022, 11:22:40 IST

By HT News Desk | Written by Poulomi Ghosh

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Vishal Garg, the CEO of Better.com, who drew flak for firing 900 of his staff on a single Zoom call, is again in the soup. A former employee of Better.com has sued the company and Garg accusing them of misleading the investors. Sarah Pierce, a former executive vice-president for sales and operations at the SoftBank-backed company, claimed in her lawsuit that Garg misrepresented Better.com's statements to ensure investors go through with a SPAC merger instead of withdrawing due to its financial condition.

Vishal Garg has again landed in a fresh controversy.

A company lawyer, contacted by Reuters, said the claims were "without merit".

Better.com is a company that offers mortgage and insurance products to homeowners. Headquartered in New York, the company is headed by Indian-American business entrepreneur Vishal Garg who came to the limelight last year after he fired 900 employees in a sweep at a Zoom call and later apologised for the way he handled the issue.

This year, Garg sent a mail to his employees where he acknowledged that he personally guaranteed $750 million of the $1.5 billion cash infusion into the company by SoftBank. "I am fully committed with everything I own and will ever own. Five years from now, when that SoftBank $750 million loan comes due around my 50th birthday, it means I have nothing. Well, at least we will have given it a real shot... this is true. I did personally guarantee three quarters of a billion dollars and I'm personally liable for it," he told the employees.

Garg has always remained controversial over his handling of the company but the mass firing over a Zoom call went viral. After the incident, Garg wrote an anonymous post on the company message board accusing those laid-off employees of stealing from the company by working just two hours a day. Later, Garg admitted that the post was written by him. "You guys know that at least 250 of the people terminated were working an average of 2 hours a day while clocking in 8 hours+ a day in the payroll system? They were stealing from you and stealing from our customers who pay the bills that pay our bills. Get educated," Garg wrote.

(With agency inputs)

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HT News Desk
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