Court Documents Show Uber Hired Ex-CIA Snoops to Investigate Legal Opponents

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Uber is big and has its fair share of critics. While the ride-sharing company is famously a multinational juggernaut that has become a byword for disruptive innovation in Silicon Valley, Uber is also a named defendant in a number of legal battles. As the Verge reports, Uber is currently embroiled in 70 different federal lawsuits which range from accusing it of stealing wages to running afoul of antitrust laws.

Recently revealed documents suggest that Uber may have crossed a line in attempting to defend itself in one such suit that accused it of price-fixing. Last December, labor lawyer Andrew Schmidt filed a lawsuit at the behest of his client, Spencer Meyer, a Connecticut-based conservationist.

In response, Uber’s general counsel Salle Yoo scrawled off a quick email to Joe Sullivan, the chief security officer, asking, “Could we find out a little more about this plaintiff?”

Uber eventually ended up hiring Ergo, a New York-based business intelligence firm which counts former CIA and national security officials in its C-suite, to dig up potentially damaging information on the plaintiffs. According to Crain’s New York Business, Ergo’s lead investigator in the matter, Miguel Santos-Neves, falsely represented himself as a reporter working on a profile on “leading figures in conservation” in order to interview Meyer’s friends and lawyer and learn about his potential vulnerabilities.

The resulting report by Ergo suggested to Uber that Meyer’s biggest weakness might be his concern for his professional reputation and fears of losing respect in the eyes of his peers.

In June, the judge presiding over the case, Jed Rakoff, ruled that these tactics constituted a reasonable basis to “suspect the perpetration of fraud” and gave the plaintiffs the right to examine emails and documents exchanged between Uber and Ergo.

The documents show that Ergo’s top executives were fully aware of the deceptive methods used by Santos-Neves in his investigation of the plaintiff and that they went so far as to suggest to Uber that they ought to investigate his lawyer, Schmidt, as well.

Uber is pleading ignorance, arguing that it had no knowledge of the specific tactics used in the investigation.

Meyer and Schmidt are currently suing Uber for a penalty for commissioning the investigation as well as reimbursement for any legal costs incurred in the course of their efforts to force the company to turn over its documents. Crain’s reports that the team also seek to bar Ergo from further involvement in the suit.

This is not the first time Uber has withstood criticism for using heavy-handed tactics in defending itself. In 2014, senior Uber executive Emil Michael, a Stanford Law grad and former employee at the Department of Defense, sparked a flurry of outrage when he publicly floated the idea of spending a million dollars to investigate the private lives and families of journalists who were critical of the company.

Featured Photo Copyright: GoodLifeStudio

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