SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Despite being ordered to serve a 12-month jail sentence for the disobeying the terms of his probation stemming from a domestic violence matter, the embattled Gurbaksh Chahal has reassumed his role as chief executive of Gravity4.
Chahal had previously relinquished executive control of the company he founded to his sister, Kamal Kaur, after San Francisco Judge Tracie Brown found him guilty in July of violating his probation by attacking a woman in his apartment and threatening to report her to immigration authorities when she discussed filing for a restraining order against him.
Kaur previously held leadership roles at Chahal’s other companies, including RadiumOne and BlueLithium, which was sold to Yahoo in 2007 for $300 million.
James Lassart, Chahal’s attorney in the domestic violence case, said Chahal “stepped down of his own initiative” after his probation was revoked. Lassart is also running point on Chahal’s appeal of the probation violation. In the meantime, Chahal has surrendered his passports to the court.
It’s not clear why Chahal is back as Gravity4’s CEO — or how long he will last.
Kaur was listed as the company’s CEO on its website until last week, when she was suddenly removed without explanation. Her profile has now been replaced with Chahal’s, which describes him as a “diehard entrepreneur” and makes no mention of his legal problems. Lassart, Chahal’s attorney, did not respond to requests for comment about the latest CEO swap.
Chahal’s legal problems began in 2013 when he attacked a woman in his San Francisco penthouse. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of assault and was placed on probation for three years on the matter. A second woman accused Chahal of kicking her in the same apartment in September 2014, and Judge Brown determined that there was enough evidence of the attack and immigration-related threats to find that Chahal had violated his probation.
Despite his guilty plea, Chahal has maintained his innocence — a series of blog posts where he wrote his defense have since been deleted. In the posts, Chahal claimed the charges were “bullshit” and that “there is a difference between temper and domestic violence.”
Throughout it all he has fought to maintain control of his multiple companies — some of the fights have included lawsuits brought forth by former employees in addition to the criminal charges.