Chahal has been booked on 45 felony counts.
By Raif Karerat
Follow @ambazaarmag
The trial of Indian American advertisement mogul Gurbaksh “G” Chahal who has been booked on 45 felony charges has been postponed amid allegations that he bribed $1 million to a politician to make the charges of violence and abuse “go away,” according to multiple sources.
The ousted CEO of the ad-tech company RadiumOne, was willing to pay former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown $1 million to make his domestic-violence charges disappear, reported the Wall Street Journal, which first broke the story.
Chahal originally faced 45 felony counts after prosecutors said he beat his girlfriend more than 100 times in one night in August 2013, according to documents hosted on Scribd. Chahal pleaded guilty in April 2014 to two misdemeanor charges and is serving three years of probation.
According to the Journal:
Venture capitalist and one-time California state controller Steve Westly, who joined RadiumOne’s board in November 2013, suggested in a Dec. 3, 2013 email to Mr. Chahal that lawyer Willie Brown, former San Francisco mayor and State Assembly speaker, “believes that he can help you.” Mr. Westly, who is considering a second run for governor, wrote that Mr. Brown knows the district attorney and “may be able to ‘back him off,’” adding that Mr. Brown is a “very good deal broker.”
Six days later, in an email with the subject line “Willie Brown,” Mr. Chahal wrote to Mr. Westly: “Just met him. Wants $1 million if he can make this go away. Just gave him a $250K retainer. If you meet him tomorrow. Apply some pressure on him to make this go away in 2013.”
Mr. Westly responded: “Wow. That’s pricey, but probably worth it if he can make it happen. I suspect he will pull out all the stops to get this done.”
Subsequent emails between Mr. Westly and Mr. Brown’s assistant show Mr. Westly trying to schedule meetings between the district attorney and Mr. Brown. The emails don’t show that any meetings ever took place. There is no evidence that Mr. Chahal and his supporters swayed the district attorney.
Since then, Chahal has been charged with another instance of abuse: He allegedly hit another woman he met during his trial. That episode of alleged abuse, like the first, involved hitting and kicking as well as verbal abuse and manipulation, reported the Gothamist.
Gurbaksh Singh Chahal was born July 17, 1982 and is a noted entrepreneur and writer. By the age of 25, he had sold two advertising companies for a total of $340 million and in 2008 released his book, “How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions.”
Chahal was born in Tarn Taran Sahib in Punjab, India to Avtar Singh and Arjinder Chahal. Chahal has one brother and two sisters. In 1985, his parents received a visa for America through the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, also known as the Green Card Lottery, and the following year, when he was four, the family settled in San Jose, California, according to the Punjab State Information Portal.
Chahal dropped out of his school at the early age of sixteen in 1998. He subsequently devoted his entire purview to his first business venture, ClickAgents, an advertising firm concentrating on performance based advertising.
A few of years later, ValueClick purchased ClickAgents. In January 2004, another Chahal’s business advertising company came out under the name of BlueLithium. In 2007, Yahoo! purchased BlueLithium for $300 million, while Chahal continued on as the CEO of the company.
In September 2009, the third business venture of Gurbaksh Chahal came out as he formed the gWallet, a virtual advertising company on the social games available on the web. The company subsequently rebranded as RadiumOne and came up with a bigger ad network. In March 2011, the company announced that the net worth of RadiumOne was $200 million.
1 Comment
Domestic Violence from Google Facebook and Yelp (SOMA / south beach)
Two years after my only marriage my spouse started drinking several pints of liquor a day and continued to terrorize and abuse me and my child over the next 6 months. I finally, was able to place a restraining order and get a divorce to stop some of the terrorizing but it still continues online.
Domestic violence abusers are using Google, Facebook, and Yelp to harass and abuse their victims. Being a domestic violence survivor has given me experience to share. Experiences that are common to many other victims of domestic violence. I want to share my story to raise awareness as I have not been able to remove the harassment from online channels.
He stalks me on Facebook, sending friend requests to anyone that might be a Facebook friend so that he can see my account, he stalks me through friends that have public postings, he steals my profile and cover photos and makes accounts in my name. I changed my name but he still makes accounts in my real name that I can not have removed.
He stalks me on Google. He posted my address on a MyMaps that says my name and directs you to the local prostitution hotel. I have tried to have this removed but Google says no way. He posted a bad review about my employer on Google plus with a photo of himself shooting the finger. I have reported this review many times and received no results from Google. Google is a giant and helping me is not anywhere on their list of important things to do. I am no one to Google and being harrassed by my domestic violence abuser is not their concern. At least that is the way I feel when I can’t have harmful information removed.
He post bad reviews on Yelp about my employer. What can I say? Another ‘tech company’ about profits and not ethics. I am being harassed by a domestic violence abuser on Yelp. But Yelp doesn’t take sides so his harassment stands protected under their ‘policies’. By not taking sides, Yelp is taking his side as he is the abuser using Yelp to achieve his goals.
Something to think about in this age of technology. When you are ‘no-one’ and have no control over the ‘policies and processes’ of tech companies, you’re rights are taken away. Tech companies protecting the public online acts of domestic violence abusers because the abusers can ‘get away with it’. Getting away with it is how it works in domestic violence situations. Taking advantage of those without evidence even though the violence and terrorization continues.
Will it ever happen? When will tech companies care more about the community then profits? Never?