Silicon Valley Mogul Kicks His Girlfriend 117 Times, Video May Send Him To Jail

quote:

---

selling his first digital ad startup, ClickAgent, for $40 million when he was just 18.

---

quote:

---

sold his second digital ad startup, BlueLithium, for $300 million four years later

---

quote:

---

In the meantime, Chahal had agreed in his guilty plea to attend a 52-week domestic violence class. The course was not yet halfway done on Sept. 17, 2014, when police received another 911 call from his penthouse. Chahal’s new girlfriend—whom he’d met in Las Vegas while the first case was pending and who should not be confused with the supposedly harassing “female fan”—reported to the dispatcher that he had physically assaulted her in his penthouse.

“Same room, same bed, just no security camera that we know of,” says Beverly Upton, executive director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium.

Unfortunately, there was one more similarity between the two cases: this alleged victim also suddenly declined to cooperate with the investigation. She is said in court papers to have hopped a plane back to her native South Korea after Chahal allegedly threatened to turn her in for immigration fraud. The district attorney’s office again found itself without enough material to prosecute a criminal case.

But where a criminal case requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the district attorney’s office needed only a preponderance of the evidence to establish that Chahal had violated his probation when he allegedly assaulted a second woman.

In a brilliant move, the district attorney’s office asked the judge if the video from the first case could be admitted to establish that the second assault was essentially a repeat offense. The judge ruled that it could.

The prosecution also had a recording of the 911 call made by the second girlfriend. That and the video convinced the judge, who ruled on July 22 that Chahal had indeed violated his probation.

---

quote:

---

In the meantime, The Wall Street Journal has found in court papers a remarkable email exchange between Chahal and a mogul on the board of his third digital ad startup, RadiumOne, back at the time of the first arrest.

The mogul was Steve Westly, who had scored big with eBay early on and hoped for another big score with RadiumOne’s Initial Public Offering. That hope was dimmed by the prospect of the firm’s founder and CEO facing an Initial Prison Offering.

Westly is a former California State Controller who had made a failed run for governor in 2006 and hoped to try again. He was pals with Willie Brown, a former mayor of San Francisco and onetime speaker of the California State Assembly. Westly, the Journal reported, emailed Chahal that Brown “believes he can help you.” Westly told Chahal that Brown was friendly with San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and “may be able to ‘back him off.’”

At Westly’s suggestion, Chahal met with Brown. Chahal reported back to Westly in an email with the subject line “Willie Brown.” Chahal wrote, “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.” Westly replied, “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.”

---

quote:

---

And it seemed certain that 31-year-old Chahal was one Silicon Valley startup star for whom IPO would now stand for Initial Prison Offering.

---

quote:

---

Kicks His Girlfriend 117 Times

---

quote:

---

May Send Him To Jail

---

quote:

---

and deemed one of the planet’s “richest and fittest guys” by Men’s Health magazine.

---