RadiumOne Fires their CEO (Update 5/30)

As you may have heard,  the technology-advertising firm RadiumOne's CEO, Gurbaksh Chahal,  has been receiving a lot of media attention after having been charged with 45 felony counts of domestic violence. Well finally, he settled his case by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge for which he received a $500 fine, three years probation and a mandatory domestic violence class and 25 hours of community service. Now that the case has been settled, the repercussions are still pouring out.

The Situation at RadiumOne

However, after nine months of waiting on the results, RadiumOne's board decided that these accusations were unacceptable and, on Sunday, decided to fire Chahal, sending a message that this sort of behavior is unacceptable, even for a founder/CEO. After getting fired, Chahal took to his blog to defend his actions and attempt to provide clarity in a very confusing situation:

I want you to know that this is not an excuse. I know that intimate partner violence is never excusable under any circumstances. I recognize that my temper got the better of me, and I will regret that for the rest of my life.  But there is a difference between temper and domestic violence, and the truth of what actually happened is no where close to what the police claimed nor anywhere near what the online chatter and pundits are now making it out to be. I have two sisters, a niece and a mother. I love them all to death, and would never want any harm to ever come their way. The situation that resulted in my legal case began when I discovered that my girlfriend was having unprotected sex for money with other people. (She testified to this in her interviews with the cops.) I make no excuse for losing my temper. When I discovered this fact and confronted my girlfriend, we had a normal argument. She called 9-11 after I told her I was going to contact her father regarding her activities.  And yes, I lost my temper. I understand, accept full responsibility and sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart for that.  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. Thee tape in question that was thrown was also bullshit. If anything, it actually made the SFPD look bad because they violently assaulted me as I opened my door despite my being fully cooperative. The girl in question here, was herself so appalled by the false allegations made by the police, that she agreed to be photographed to demonstrate that there were no bruises or injuries.  She could have left my apartment at any time during the argument. She felt safe and chose to stay. Those pictures she agreed to take would have been entered into evidence had my case proceeded, and they would have proven that the police claims were egregiously misleading.

He went on to apologize to his friends and family for everything they have been through, as well as reminding us all that high net worth individuals are all at risk of having something similar happen to them. Overall, his blog post seems to make things even more confusing as he does not actually address with much detail what actually happened. However, given the fact that he's been fired, it is clear that he is nowhere near completely innocent.  His $500 fine pales in comparison to the damage done to his reputation and ultimately, his career. Despite finally taking action, RadiumOne has been receiving a lot of negative publicity for months now, with many having called for Chahal's firing for months, including consultant Anil Dash, Venture investor Jason Calacanis and Fortune's Dan Primack  all questioning the Board's inaction. The company itself has been suffering as a result of this publicity disaster, and it will be interesting to see how it can lift itself out of it.

Update 5/30: The Story Gets Even Stranger

There are two elements to this story that have made matters a little bit stranger. First of all, after being fired, Former CEO Chahal has decided to sue his former board stating that:

"You [the Board] have left me with no other options but to seek legal recourse, You will now have to face severe legal consequences individually for this in the court of law.

According to the board however, the lawsuit does not have any merit. Furthermore, in perhaps an even stranger twist, news has broken out that one of RadiumOne's former employees was wanted by the Secret Service. Yes, let that sink in for a second. Brad Smith, the former director of engineering who left in February of this year, has been confirmed as Bradley Raymond Anderson, a man the secret service has been searching for since 2008. Things are definitely getting weird for the employees over at RadiumOne. What do you think? Is he innocent? What should his punishment have been if he wasn't? Join the discussion here.