Investor gunning for Uber ex-CEO Kalanick

One of Uber Technologies’ largest shareholders on Thursday sued the ride-hailing firm’s former chief executive, Travis Kalanick, in a fight over board seats.

The lawsuit from Benchmark Capital, filed Thursday in Delaware, alleges Kalanick defrauded directors into giving him more control over the board by hiding a range of “inap- propriate and unethical directives.”

Benchmark says it wouldn’t have agreed in June 2016 to expand the board to 11 seats from eight had it known about the company’s “gross mismanagement and other misconduct at Uber,” citing “pervasive gender discrimination and sexual harassment” — and a lawsuit from Google parent Alphabet alleging that Uber and Kalanick conspired with a former Google executive to steal design secrets of self-driving cars. Uber and Kalanick have denied Alphabet’s allegations.

Kalanick’s spokesman said the suit is without merit and “riddled with lies and false allegations.” He said Benchmark is attempting to “deprive Travis Kalanick of his rights as a founder and shareholder and to silence his voice regarding the management of the company he helped create.”

Kalanick was ousted as Uber CEO in June in an investor revolt led by Benchmark.

Uber declined to comment and Benchmark couldn’t immediately be reached.