
Color Labs And Bill Nguyen Sued By Ex-Employee Alleging Retaliation - moocow01
http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/19/color-labs-and-bill-nguyen-sued-by-ex-employee-alleging-retaliation-emotional-distress/
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coffeemug
_In or around late 2011, [then Color CFO Alyssa] Solomon began noticing
discrepancies in Color’s finances. Upon information and belief, Defendant
Nguyen was spending corporate funds on numerous personal items, such as
charging personal items on Color’s American Express card and putting his
family’s nanny, Sally Orr, and his family’s Lake Tahoe‐based ski instructor,
Hillary Governer, on Color’s payroll._

If this is actually true, this is a Really Big Deal (tm). The IRS (and
relevant legislation) is very serious about these things, and I can't imagine
anyone running a high profile company who has a career at stake actually doing
this of their own accord.

This isn't just about ethics. It's an allegation of embezzlement, which
carries a penalty of imprisonment for up to twenty years(!) Doing that to save
some money on a nanny seems absolutely insane to me.

~~~
raverbashing
I'm not sure about the legality of it

But the ethical aspects, together with the crash and burn of Color are
hopefully more than enough for him not to get a single penny out of VCs any
more

There are lots of serious people out there looking for funding, save the
investments for them instead for the loud bozos

~~~
rhizome
The allegations seem to cover just about the same things Dennis Kozlowski is
in prison for right now.

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hkmurakami
Bill Nguyen seems like a relatively young guy who would seem to have more
punches left in him in the form of starting more companies. But given these
allegations, are investors actually going to back him in the future?

Maybe this is just who I am, but if I were a VC, I'd have serious reservations
about investing in a man who has demonstrated serious character issues and is
known to create a dysfunctional corporate culture. In fact, I would _never_
invest in anyone who bullies or torments their team members no matter how much
of a track record he has. I wonder if thinking like this automatically
disqualifies me from ever acting in such a capacity.

~~~
kajecounterhack
If you also examine his track record, he seems to start companies, make big
exits, and then those companies tank / die. I imagined that would raise some
red flags.

But apparently not, at least with Color's investors.

~~~
hkmurakami
Well "investors" probably don't care much about what happens after a part of
their portfolio gets a "big exit" since that's the end goal. :(

~~~
jfb
Well, they certainly didn't get a "good exit" from Color, which was an
unmitigated catastrophe.

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nlh
A fascinating read, for sure, but do take the accusations with a hefty grain
of salt. As an employer who has dealt with his share of totally-irrational
employees in the past, I've learned never to believe everything you read in an
employee complaint/lawsuit -- especially when there is so much personal
animosity/family stuff going on here.

That being said - I emphasize that I've learned never to believe _everything_
you read. Not anything :) I'd be willing to bet at least parts of this are
based in truth.

~~~
iamtherockstar
Right. The mob mentality of the internet often jumps to conclusions when
accusations are leveled like this. We have defense attorneys and such for a
reason. If these accusations are true, let's get some evidence and a trial
together.

I'm willing to bet this will be settled out of court and the details will not
be publicly available.

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moocow01
Its probably NSFW but items 18, 31, 32, 33, 44, 45, 47, 49, 81, 98, 100 are
pretty enlightening about the behavior of Bill Nguyen (I guess I should add
'if true')... very sad.

~~~
codewright
The gun parts in 44 and 47 are strange and don't seem to have much meaning
except to enhance the perceived threat of the _actual_ threats which are
mostly legal/non-violent/career-centric in nature.

~~~
ajross
The allegation is apparently that Nguyen invited someone into the office
environment, with a visible weapon, and called attention to that. That would
certainly seem to constitute a "threat" to most people. I don't really see why
you wouldn't think so.

I'm going to guess that you feel this is an infringement on "Dunphy's" right
to carry that gun. It's not. The right to bear arms doesn't extend to the
unrestricted ability to use them as a means of intimidation.

~~~
codewright
>The allegation is apparently that Nguyen invited someone into the office
environment, with a visible weapon, and called attention to that.

This is the part I would have qualms with. The problem is that the
presentation of context in the filing isn't great. I saw a one-liner that
mention Nguyen telling somebody else about Dunphy having a Glock or something.

>I'm going to guess that you feel this is an infringement on "Dunphy's" right
to carry that gun.

Please _no_. Not what I was getting at. I'm mostly concerned with the
dissonance in what the filing is trying to convey versus how it might be
perceived.

Mentioning that somebody carries a firearm _in itself_ isn't a threat, it's
heavily contextual. I have little trouble imagining that Nguyen was mentioning
it in a threatening manner from what's provided in the filing though.

~~~
trhtrsh
There are different laws for concealed carry vs open carry, and "brandishing"
a weapon is a crime.

It is very much a relevant issue to determine the context in which a gun is
mentioned. Connecting a firearm mention to an otherwise unrelated statement is
quite reasonable interpreted as an implied threat to use the firearm.

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simplekoala
There are also direct allegations on the Board ( except Doug Leone) that they
were complacent, and did nothing in spite of being privy to all the alleged
shenanigans of Bill Nguyen. This is serious stuff.

~~~
jessedhillon
Worse than nothing, they compromised the integrity of their investigation by
leaking allegations and identifying the source of the claims. (Allegedly, per
items ~48-54, and 67-68)

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revelation
Brilliant purchase there, Apple. The concept of meritocracy is well and alive.

I can't imagine why they would break-even the VCs that had so clearly failed
in fulfilling their role as board members. They could probably have easily
snagged all the engineers, given the dysfunctional work environment and well
... failure.

~~~
sriramk
I suspect it is way cheaper to buy an engineering team (and IP/patents in this
case?) as a unit rather than chase every engineering hire separately and try
and construct a team afterwards.

~~~
cwb71
In ¶ 64 it says that “there was no space in Patrice Gaultier’s [sic] group at
Apple for Witherspoon.”

According to <https://www.linkedin.com/pub/patrice-gautier/0/14/139>, Patrice
Gautier is VP of Engineering, iTunes Store and iCloud.

So maybe that is where those engineers will turn up…

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jfb
And here I've been trying to get my _Schadenfreude_ under control ...

~~~
pyre
Reminds me of this clip: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WAwuSK36Gw>

    
    
      "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffin' glue."
    

I wonder if that dates me, or if "Airplane!" is a movie that is still
relatively well-known with a younger crowd.

</off-topic>

~~~
X-Istence
It dates you. 24 year old here :-)

~~~
jrockway
I'm 27 and consider the movie well-known.

~~~
edanm
Counterpoint: I'm 27, know the movie, but definitely consider it an older
movie that most people don't know. I know it through older cousins who
insisted on showing it to me.

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k-mcgrady
Obviously we can't be certain all or any of this is true, but if it is the
board members should be ashamed of themselves. Failing to act for so long on
the reports against Nguyen as employees were fired for standing up to him, and
giving the guy a free pass because of his past successes is despicable.

I think it also shows some failings in employment legislation. His ability to
apparently fire people at will wouldn't be possible in many other countries.

~~~
namank
Only difference between "firing" and "getting to quit" is in the severance
package.

That said, this guy seems like he may have preferred firing over getting
employee to quit.

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mbesto
Outsiders perspective - SV culture is becoming more and more just like Wall
Street. Sad.

~~~
dannyr
This is ONE startup out of 100s in Silicon Valley.

~~~
mkr-hn
People were falling over themselves to sing the praises of Color when it came
out.

~~~
jamesaguilar
I do not remember this. People were shocked at how useless it was and how much
money was sunk into it.

~~~
mkr-hn
I meant when the news of Color came out.

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rdl
I'm curious what department this guy was Dunphy guy was in the OIG office of
-- OIG isn't an agency, it's a role within larger agencies (like the internal
police for each department of government, the equivalent of internal affairs
in a PD).

I have zero problems with firearms, but if the guy was breaking the law, using
official status, etc. to help his friend, that I have a problem with, and I
imagine any agency would as well.

~~~
cwb71
Based on the document located at
[http://www.nalcbayarea.com/PDF%20Files/Rong%20Arbitration.pd...](http://www.nalcbayarea.com/PDF%20Files/Rong%20Arbitration.pdf),
it looks like as of 2007 Corey Dunphy was a Special Agent of the United States
Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General.

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woodchuck64
More proof that charismatic CEOs with Narcissistic Personality Disorder are
bad for business. Don't be blinded by charisma.

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/01/11/why-
narci...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/01/11/why-narcissistic-
ceos-kill-their-companies/)

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wyclif
Cue DHH tweetbombs.

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neurotech1
According to the legal papers, Bill Nguyen had a friend who is an OIG Agent
(apparently with the US Postal Service) involved. That sounds kind of fishy,
as generally those agents investigate internal matters, not external law
enforcement. The US Postal Inspection Service deals with most outside matters
like postal fraud.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Inspection...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Inspection_Service)

~~~
cwb71
Why is it fishy?

I am sure this agent will testify that he is a personal friend of Nguyen, that
he stopped by the Color office to meet with his friend about a personal
matter, and that he knows nothing about the company's bizarre office politics.

