Vishal Garg — the former CEO who once fired 900 of his workers over a Zoom call — is now being sued by his own company.
Better Home & Finance is suing the company's founder, Garg, accusing him of carrying out a "scorched-earth campaign" to retake control of the company, Forbes reports.. The lawsuit includes accusations that Garg insulted his employees, calling them names like "monkeys" and "dumb dolphins."
Garg made headlines during the pandemic when he fired approximately 900 of his staffers in a Zoom call that lasted less than two minutes.
On August 3, the company's board voted to remove him as CEO. Every member except for Garg voted for the ousting.
The company cited net losses exceeding $1.5 billion since 2022, and a more than 90 percent drop in the company's stock price under his leadership, the lawsuit claims.
It accuses Garg of trying to build a "coalition of shareholders" to back his bid to retake control of the company from the board and of "flooding the market with misleading statements" about the company.
The lawsuit alleges that Garg's actions are a violation of federal securities law.
The filing claims that Garg launched a "campaign of retribution" against the company after his August 3 firing. On August 10, Garg allegedly sent a letter to the company's board requesting that all of its members resign. He is said to have claimed to have a group of "concerned shareholders" backing his play.
He amassed the shareholder army through a media blitz, according to the lawsuit. It says he used press releases, social media, and traditional media spots to falsely claim that the company "already corralled 52 percent" of the shareholder vote, even though he apparently hadn't filed any of the necessary proxy statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Proxy disclosures are used to inform shareholders who cannot be present at important meetings — like board meetings — of critical information regarding a company's outlook and performance.
The company is asking the court to void all of Garg's shareholder support and to prevent him from requesting more shareholder support for at least 30 days.
Garg himself wrote that "the only people who may have committed securities law violations are Daniel Lewis and the board,” referring to the interim chief executive.
The Independent has sought comment from Better Home & Finance and from Vishal Garg.
