The lawsuit alleges ride-sharing startup Getaround deceived its earliest investor into selling shares to CEO’s friends and family at below-market price.

San Francisco, CA, January 15, 2019 

(PR.com)– The San Francisco law firm, Gaw | Poe LLP, has filed a lawsuit against Getaround Inc., its CEO and co-founder, Sam Zaid, and its CFO, Adam Kosmicki. The lawsuit alleges that these defendants fraudulently deceived Getaround’s earliest outside investor into selling his Getaround shares to Mr. Zaid’s family and friends for $1.785 million less than what those shares were worth.

The lawsuit alleges: when the plaintiff was approached by investors interested in purchasing his Getaround shares, Mr. Zaid and Mr. Kosmicki provided detailed information about the company and its prospects to help plaintiff and his interested buyers value his shares; the plaintiff, relying on that information, agreed to sell his shares for $1.80 per share; thereafter, Getaround closed a Series C-1 financing round priced at $7.75 per share and announced a major strategic partnership with Uber; these highly material facts were intentionally concealed from plaintiff and his interested buyers.

The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Zaid and Mr. Kosmicki, after misleading plaintiff into selling his shares at $1.80 per share, directed Getaround to exercise its right of first refusal to acquire those shares, and then assigned them to Mr. Zaid’s father, brother, and friends, and to Getaround’s CTO’s father. The lawsuit further alleges the purpose and effect of this conduct was to instantly enrich Mr. Zaid’s family members and friends at plaintiff’s expense.

“Our client supported Getaround and Mr. Zaid from the very start, only to be swindled out of $1.785 million that went straight into the pockets of Mr. Zaid’s family and friends, as we allege,” said Samuel Song, plaintiff’s attorney and a partner at Gaw | Poe LLP. “Our client deserved better than this from a person he had supported and trusted for years, and we’ll do what it takes to get what rightfully belongs to him,” he added.

The lawsuit alleges claims for fraudulent concealment, aiding and abetting and civil conspiracy to defraud, securities fraud and insider trading in violation of California statutory law, and unjust enrichment. The case is captioned Geoffrey Shmigelsky v. Getaround, Inc., et al., Case No. CGC19572740, and is filed in the Superior Court for the State of California, County of San Francisco.