Uber shareholder sues company and former CEO for fraud

An Uber shareholder is suing the ride-sharing startup for alleged “illicit business tactics,” putting the embattled company in yet another legal dispute.

Irving Firemen’s Relief & Retirement Fund in Texas, which owns a small amount of Uber equity, alleges that Uber and its ousted CEO Travis Kalanick knowingly deceived investors while raising money. 

The court filing, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, is aimed at starting a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Uber’s investors. The Texas fund invested roughly $2 million in Uber via a Morgan Stanley fund.

{mosads}“The company’s vaunted corporate culture was revealed in truth to consist of a toxic hotbed of misogyny, sexual discrimination, and disregard for the law that threatened the company’s reputation, business and prospects,” Irving Firemen’s Relief & Retirement Fund’s complaint reads.

Over the past year, Uber has been embroiled in scandals related to its treatment of women, its internal programs to avoid government regulation and allegations that it stole technology from a Google autonomous car subsidiary, among other things.

The company is also the subject of three federal probes, including one by the Department of Justice, looking at whether the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices act.

Benchmark Capital, one of Uber’s largest investors and a member of its board, filed a separate lawsuit last month. The venture capital firm has fought to keep Kalanick away from Uber since his ouster as CEO in June.

Uber tapped former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in August to replace Kalanick and deal with the company’s problems. Kalanick still sits on Uber’s board of directors.