Most people know Shervin Pishevar as a wealthy businessman and a philanthropist. He has established himself as a Silicon Valley insider and a technology star. However, the news being spread about him by his former employees suggests something different. The 42-year Iran-born tech star started his first company immediately he left school. He formed Freewebs, which later became Webs and the Social Gaming Network (SGN), which investors preferred to Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA). Zynga has thus been struggling up to date, and SGN has since been sold.
Shervin Pishevar has also funded more than 100 startups. He has made donations to political groups and Democratic Party candidates amounting to more than $370,000 since 2011. He has actually hosted fundraisers for the current President of The US, Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
What went wrong?
Shervin’s recent project, Hyperloop One is the new reason why he is in the limelight. A lawsuit filed in the LA suggests that Shervin turned Hyperloop One into an investment for his own personal gains. In the lawsuit, Brogan BamBrogan, who co-founded the company with Pishevar, accuses Pishevar and the company of wrongful termination of his job, defamation and assault and breach of contract. And that is not all.
Brogan was forced to resign from the company last month, and he is fighting his way back together with other employees. Pishevar hired Afshin, his brother and made him a highly paid general counsel which stock options that were far much more than what top engineers got, according to the complainant. The chairman of the company was also in a relationship with the company’s Public Relations officer, thereby increasing her salary from a meager $15,000 to a massive $40,000 per month. Pishevar also stopped the company’s operations on several occasions to hold parties for his friends and relatives.
Shervin Pishevar has not commented on the lawsuit but his lawyer, Orin Snyder says that the lawsuit will be met with the appropriate legal response.
