Silicon Valley tech mogul heads to jail after losing appeal

SAN FRANCISCO >> A Silicon Valley tech mogul who made $300 million at age 25 is headed to jail after an appeals court upheld a judge’s decision to revoke his probation for a domestic violence conviction.

Gurbaksh Chahal was remanded into custody Friday to begin serving his oneyear term.

Chahal pleaded guilty in April 2014 to misdemeanor domestic violence charges after prosecutors said surveillance footage from his San Francisco penthouse showed him punching and kicking his girlfriend more than 100 times and trying to smother her with a pillow.

Prosecutors said Chahal violated his probation by attacking a second girlfriend, and San Francisco Superior Court Judge Tracie Brown ruled in their favor in 2016. She sentenced Chahal to a year in jail, but he did not immediately begin serving the term because the judge allowed him to appeal.

Chahal argued that Brown was wrong to consider the surveillance footage of the first attack when deciding whether to revoke his probation. The footage has not been played in court or made public, and it had previously been deemed inadmissible on the grounds that it was improperly obtained.

The state appeals court rejected that argument.

It also rejected Chahal’s claim that prosecutors did not do enough to get his second accuser to testify at his parole revocation hearing. The woman left for South Korea and declined to cooperate with prosecutors, according to court records.

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón welcomed the judge’s decision to remand Chahal into custody.

“Mr. Chahal sought to escape responsibility for assaulting two women, but today he learned that wealth and privilege will not shield him from consequences,” he said in a statement. “Domestic violence is very serious, and we will always be here to make sure that batterers are held accountable.”

At age 16, Chahal started his first internet advertising company in his East San Jose bedroom. He sold it for $40 million.

At 21, he started his second internet advertising company, BlueLithium, which he sold to Yahoo in 2007 for $300 million.

A year later, he appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in a segment that highlighted his success and promoted him as a highly eligible bachelor.

MICHAEL MACOR — SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE VIA AP Gurbaksh Chahal stands in his penthouse in San Francisco in 2008. The internet mogul, who made $300 million at age 25, faces jail time for violating his probation in a domestic violence case by attacking a second girlfriend, prosecutors say.