Gurugram: Tribeca and its founder booked for 'cheating' former CEO

Gurugram: Tribeca and its founder booked for ‘cheating’ former CEO

GURUGRAM: A real estate firm, which launched Trump Towers in Gurgaon and Kolkata, and its founder-director have been booked for allegedly duping its former CEO of Rs 7.5 crore, on the orders of a city court.

The firm’s management is accused of inducing IIM-Calcutta alumnus Manish Jaiswal to join them by promising buyback of equity partnership at the time of his exit, which was never fulfilled.

Manish joined Tribeca in June 2015 as a full-time partner to help set up the firm’s real estate business. In his complaint, he alleged that Kalpesh Mehta, the firm’s founder, promised him equity of up to 5% with a buyback assurance. Over the next four years, Tribeca’s real estate arm launched Trump Towers Gurgaon and Trump Towers Kolkata, both of which raked in more than Rs 1,200 crore of sales.

“For creating stellar results, I was also promoted to CEO’s position by Kalpesh with some more promises,” he said.

In July 2019, Manish resigned from the company and requested for the buyback of his equity shares.

“The value of my equity stake at the time was more than Rs 30 crore based on market estimates. Even though I agreed to a much lower amount of Rs 7.5 crore in November 2019, Mehta never gave me any money even after following up for months. I was left with no option but to approach the Gurgaon court,” he said.

Based on the court’s order, an FIR was lodged on April 25 at Sector 53 police station against Tribeca and Kalpesh under sections 403, 406, 420, 467 and 471 of the IPC.

Tribeca challenged the order of the Gurgaon court in the Punjab and Haryana high court but the plea was dismissed on May 3.

In its statement, Tribeca said Manish is a disgruntled ex-employee, who was caught performing serious illegal activities against the firm.

“This current complaint by Manish is nothing but a facade to defend his previous illegal acts. The claims made in the complaint are false and preposterous. We are not aware of any company in the world that gives assurance of equity buybacks to employees. We certainly did not give any such assurances…”