Fired RadiumOne CEO Denies 'Overblown, Exaggerated' Charges, Acknowledges 'Losing Temper'
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The San Francisco tech executive fired by his company over the weekend amid the backlash over his plea bargain in an attack on his girlfriend has denied the "overblown and grossly exaggerated" allegations against him, while apologizing for losing his temper.
Internet advertising firm RadiumOne fired its CEO Gurbaksh Chahal on Saturday after it faced intense criticism following Chahal's guilty plea to misdemeanor battery and domestic violence battery in a deal that allowed him to avoid prison on the 45 other felony charges he faced.
On his personal blog, Chahal vehemently denied the charges listed in the complaint against him, in which police said he beat his former girlfriend 117 times within a 30-minute period. Police said the beating was captured on video from at least one of the many cameras placed inside his penthouse condo in San Francisco.
The video was not allowed in court after the judge ruled it had been unlawfully seized. On his blog, Chahal called talk of any videotape evidence "bullshit," saying "If anything, it actually made the SFPD look bad because they violently assaulted me as I opened my door despite my being fully cooperative."
While tech columnists and commenters have called for him to release the video, Chahal said the video in not in his possession in response to a question on Twitter.
In his blog post titled, "Can You Handle the Truth?" Chahal said his temper "got the better of him" after he found out his girlfriend was "having unprotected sex for money with other people."
But I didn't hit her 117 times, injure her, or cause any trauma as the UCSF medical reports clearly document. This was all overblown drama because it generates huge volumes of page views for the media given what I have accomplished in the valley.
Chahal bemoaned how much he and his supporters have suffered because of his actions.
There can be no dollar value placed on the pain and suffering I have caused my family and friends, my employees and customers my investors, and everyone else who has looked up to me in the past. The humiliation and shame I feel is immeasurable. The dollar cost to my business and my reputation is incalculable.
Chahal, who has founded three different startups - the first when he was 16 years old - also referenced his self-made success story and how "misrepresentations" can take it all away.
What is the American Dream? That you can come from nothing and make something of yourself not once, not twice but three times, only to have all of it come crashing down from misinformation, that is spun wildly out of control into the world of make believe and then goes viral into the blogosphere. We need to hold on to the American Dream, and reject those who would rather make it a nightmare.
Our Founding Fathers believed in the dream, why not the bloggers.
In a separate blog post, Chahal criticized the RadiumOne board members for firing him after originally supporting him, noting how much money he has made for them in the past.
Not to forget, in my last startup I made these same individuals over 800% on their investment? Whatever happened to real ethics? What happened to integrity? Whatever happened supporting your CEO during the tough times knowing the truth? Or is just a fabrication of today's society of greed at all costs.
