Phaneesh settles sexual misconduct battle with IGATE

Erstwhile IGATE CEO Phaneesh Murthy has settled his legal battle against the company, which sacked him in may 2013 over a sexual misconduct allegation.

Erstwhile IGATE CEO Phaneesh Murthy has settled his legal battle against the company, which sacked him in may 2013 over a sexual misconduct allegation.

In its 2014 annual earnings report, IGATE said it had incurred a one-time charge for legal settlements of $4.6 million, without specifying details.

Confirming the settlement, Murthy told HT in an email that “The only statement I can make is all matters have been resolved.” The IGATE spokesperson did not respond to HT’s repeated attempts to reach out to her.

Murthy was fired from IGATE for not disclosing his relationship with the company’s investor relations head Araceli Roiz. Murthy challenged this and filed a case in California court stating the company was aware of his relation and contested IGATE’s decision to withhold his vested stocks and other benefits.

Murthy was sacked from Infosys on similar charges in 2002. The software goant had settled the issue out of court. One of the youngest directors and the company’s head of global sales, Murthy was a rising star at Infosys and was seen by many as on track to be the company’s first non-founder chief executive. He was also among the company’s highest paid employees.

After leaving Infosys, Murthy founded a company that was bought by IGATE in mid-2003. In 2011, he teamed up with buyout firm Apax Partners to conduct IGATE’s $1.2-billion purchase of much-bigger Indian rival Patni Computer Systems.