Delphia, a cell funding platform, is dealing with a lawsuit and allegations that its co-founder and CTO Cameron Agius-Westland sexually assaulted and harassed a former worker, in response to a criticism filed on Monday and shared solely with TechCrunch.
The criticism alleges that on August 17, 2022, Westland “sexually assaulted and harassed Plaintiff for a minimum of half-hour, as he rubbed her again and legs in a scorching tub in a sexual method throughout a piece retreat.” The criticism was filed in each the U.S. and Canada.
“Later within the evening, Westland whispered in Plaintiff’s ear — ‘what do you say, we must always do that, you and I, let’s do that.’ Plaintiff acted like she didn’t perceive or hear him,” the doc alleged. “Then at her first alternative, Plaintiff instructed everybody she was going to mattress, went into her room, and locked the door.” Within the criticism, the previous worker additionally alleges that she later obtained a textual content from Westland asking, “Need to cuddle?” to which she says she didn’t reply.
The next day, Westland is alleged within the criticism to have a minimum of partly acknowledged his habits by sending the Plaintiff and two different colleagues the next message, as shared in a screenshot within the doc:
Screenshot offered by Avloni Law (opens in a new window)
After the alleged incident, the Plaintiff was fired in mid-November 2022, after Westland wished to “change firm technique,” in response to the doc. She was changed shortly after by what the previous worker’s criticism characterizes as Westland’s “shut good friend,” Max Cameron, who’s now director of group merchandise at Delphia.
Andrew Peek, CEO and co-founder of Delphia, shared an announcement with TechCrunch in response to the lawsuit allegations:
Delphia takes the allegations of sexual misconduct in opposition to Mr. Westland very significantly. Delphia has at all times held itself to the very best requirements and, accordingly, we now have retained an impartial third-party investigator to look into these allegations. Mr. Westland has been positioned on a go away of absence pending the investigation. That mentioned, Delphia denies the allegations that the plaintiff on this litigation was terminated for any purpose aside from the truth that her companies had been now not wanted. As well as, the particular person recognized as Mr. Westland’s “shut good friend” works in a completely completely different a part of the group and didn’t take over the plaintiff’s duties.
Delphia closed a $60 million Series A led by Multicoin Capital in June 2022. Different buyers within the spherical embody fintech-focused Ribbit Capital, M13, Lattice Ventures and the now-defunct FTX Ventures. In December 2022, Delphia announced its acquisition of Fathom Privateness, an information rights firm that goals to supply people the flexibility to personal private utility information.
