Mob Boss Of Uber Forced To Step Aside

I've been really trying not to write about Uber again but the company continues to shock with its constant criminality and abusive behavior. And the more the company attempts to clean up its image, the more evidence of that criminal and abusive behavior comes to light.

Last week we learned that a senior Uber executive traveled all the way to India in order to illegally obtain the medical records of a woman there who claimed she was raped by an Uber driver. This seems to be part of an apparent attempt to somehow discredit the victim and/or blame this incident on a rival ride sharing firm that Uber claimed was trying to sabotage them.

Police in India floated the possibility of criminally charging Uber in the case for lax background checks but ultimately banned Uber from India for a period of time. Uber responded to the incident by rolling out enhanced background checks and other safety features. But, as usual with Uber, that was largely a façade, as the company simply outsourced these tasks to companies that clearly were not thorough and had enormous language problems in even taking down reported incidents.

This incident with the Indian woman's medical records were part of a staggering 215 incidents of improper company behavior that has been reported to the investigators tasked with looking into the issues at Uber. According to the recode article, "20 employees were fired for a range of infractions, from sexual harassment to unprofessional behavior to retaliation. About 100 others are either still being investigated or saw some type of action — such as warnings or mandatory employee trainings."

I'm sorry but when you have a company with well over one hundred people being investigated or reprimanded for multiple infractions, you've pretty well defined an ongoing criminal enterprise.

Yesterday, the don of Uber, Travis Kalanick, was essentially forced to take an indefinite leave of absence. This is the business equivalent of the mob hit, where the new boss eliminates the old boss and takes over the criminal enterprise. It is an apt metaphor for Uber.

But even when taking this action, Uber managed to put its sexism and misogyny on full display. When the company highlighted a woman on the board and indicated it could lead to other women joining the board, a male board member said that those actions would just result in "more talking". The employees and board members at this meeting were aghast and the male board member has since resigned. But it is a telling sign of just how deep the abusive and criminal behavior goes at Uber. And it starts at the top.

If millions of dollars of other people's money had not been invested in this corporate disaster, this company would be shut down as a criminal enterprise. Virtually every act it takes in furtherance of its elusive profits have been unethical or illegal. It would only be divine justice if all those investors who have enabled the criminal enterprise actually lose their investment.