Better, the online mortgage lender whose chief executive officer infamously fired 900 staffers on a Zoom call, is now facing a whistle-blower lawsuit, Bloomberg reports.
CEO Vishal Garg misled investors in his effort to keep them on board with his plans to take the company public, an ex-executive said in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.
A Better spokesperson said a lawyer for the company said the claims are “without merit” and that the company is confident in its financial and accounting practices and “will vigorously defend this lawsuit.”
Better HoldCo is a mortgage and real estate startup backed by SoftBank Group. The lender entered a merger agreement with Aurora Acquisition in May 2021. That deal has been amended several times. Aurora has yet to file a proxy and there’s been no word on when a shareholder vote would occur.
The lender has spent more than $84.1 million in layoff expenses and cut approximately 920 workers in India late last year. The employees were let go in December via a Zoom call in a move that sparked a public relations disaster.
Garg, who conducted the firings via teleconference, took a hiatus from his job shortly after the firings became public, though later returned to work.
The company allegedly offered voluntary separation agreements to its 2,100 employees in the country, but pulled back after 90% of them initially accepted. Read more.
