THIS HAS RUINED MY CHRISTMAS
TYCOON’S MESSAGE TO WORKERS LEFT WITHOUT PAY
Fly-away boss breaks silence to insist he is a victim too
A tech tycoon who flew out of Scotland days before his firm went bust leaving almost 400 workers without pay broke his silence yesterday.
Kaiam chief executive Bardia Pezeshki denied accusations of cowardice after he left the country before his workforce in Livingston were told they would not be receiving their expected wages tomorrow because the company had gone into administration.
Speaking to The Sunday Post from his $3 million home in San Francisco, he insisted the collapse of the firm had ruined his Christmas too, adding: “I’m no Grinch. I know this is really painful but it was quite unpredictable. There is nobody chickening out or enjoying their holidays. I am not sure I deserve the humiliation that me and my family are going through.”
However, the comments from Mr Pezeshki, who we can also reveal attended the firm’s Christmas party before jetting out, failed to impress workers.
Atycoon who flew back to America hours before his business went bust leaving nearly 400 workers without Christmas pay broke his silence yesterday to insist: “I’m not a Grinch”
Kaiam chief executive Bardia Pezeshki spoke to The Sunday Post from his $3 million home in San Francisco to deny he was a coward after leaving Scotland just before his workforce were told they would not be paid tomorrow as expected.
Staff at technology firm Kaiam’s Livingston plant have been summoned to a meeting with administrators KPMG tomorrow to find out whether the facility has a future.
But Mr Pezeshki boarded a flight home to California on Thursday shortly before workers were told they won’t receive their December wages. Yesterday, he admitted he “may have made mistakes” but is not a “coward or a criminal”.
He complained of the “incredible sacrifice” he has made to build the business and the “heavy toll on one’s personal life and family”.
“My wife and children feel abandoned because I dedicated so much to the company,” he said, adding: “I am not a Grinch”.
And, in a letter to local MSPs who had demanded an explanation of the firm’s sudden collapse, he added: “I know this is really painful but it was quite unpredictable.
“There is nobody chickening out or enjoying their holidays. I am not sure I deserve the humiliation that me and my family are going through.”
But his insistence that he had ploughed a fortune into the company and worked tirelessly to keep it afloat left critics unimpressed last night.
Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: “Mr Pezeshki’s sob story will ring hollow with hundreds of workers who he’s left unpaid and who will be asking the question: where is the huge windfall he received from the business deal in England?”
Mr Findlay added: “The behaviour of the chief executive of this company has been nothing short of outrageous. He has shown a complete disregard for a loyal workforce. People have been treated with contempt.”
The collapse of Kaiam came despite the sale of a plant in England for $80m last year. In May 2017 Kaiam completed a deal to purchase Compound Photonics (CP) in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, last May then sold it to optics and photonics firm II-VI for $80m (£62m) in August.
Mr Pezeshki also confirmed he got a “windfall” from that deal. However, he insisted all of the profits were put into Kaiam “to help pay wages”. He said he made “very little” from the sale.
John Jack, 54, a production operator at Kaiam’s Livingston factory, said: “Managers let it slip about the deal and we were led to believe it would secure our future. But they never spent a penny on the plant – some machines are held together with sticky tape.”
I may have made mistakes but I am not a criminal