Sexual Misconduct Allegations Expelled From Tinder Founder’s Valuation Lawsuit

A motion to include sexual misconduct allegations against a former Tinder CEO in the ongoing valuation lawsuit has been thrown out, after no sufficient evidence was brought forward to relate the two cases.

Led by Sean Rad, a team of Tinder’s founders and initial employees are accusing Match Group and IAC of deliberately undervaluing the company, in order to pay out significantly less on early stock options. 

The lawsuit was first introduced in 2018 and the plaintiffs sought to receive $2 billion in damages. This figure has been raised significantly over the past few years to $5.6 billion.

Fresh assertions were made last month that claimed Match Group and IAC covered up the sexual misconduct allegations against Greg Blatt, to make sure he was in position to oversee the valuation in question. Tinder’s former VP of marketing and communications Rosette Pambakian accused him of groping her and several other female employees at a Christmas party in 2016.

However, New York State Supreme Court Justice Joel Cohen has decided to exclude them from any future trial regarding the valuation.

According to Law360, Justice Cohen explained: “The bottom line is after years of litigation and waves of deposition and millions of pages of documents, plaintiffs have not come up with any evidence, based on my review of the documents, of any inference that the Tinder holiday party incident and the subsequent investigation had any bearing on the valuation that this case is actually about.”

He also concluded that Match Group and IAC don’t need to hand over their notes relating to the internal investigation that was conducted at the time. The plaintiffs have previously called that investigation a “sham”.

A Match Group spokesperson told Law360: “We have always maintained that Sean Rad’s lawsuit was filled with outrageous allegations and exploited the #metoo movement for his own financial gain. 

“But today, the court ruled that his conspiracy theories have no place in a valuation dispute. We look forward to our day in court.”

A statement from Blatt’s team also revealed his confidence at winning his own defamation lawsuit against Rad and Pambakian.

Read more here.