An investor is suing Uber, alleging that the company's value has plunged because of the scandals

Travis Kalanick

A Texas-based retirement fund that invested in Uber is suing the company and its former CEO Travis Kalanick, alleging that the company made misleading statements about its business to drum up billions of dollars in investment starting in June 2014.

Irving Firemen's Relief & Retirement Fund filed the lawsuit in California federal court on Tuesday. The lawsuit does not say how much Irving Firemen's Relief & Retirement Fund is suing for, but alleges that Uber has lost at least $18 billion in private market value as a result of a series of scandals and controversies.

The retirement fund invested $2 million in Uber at a $62.5 billion valuation in February 2016, according to the Wall Street Journal. The retirement fund invested its money through a Morgan Stanley fund.

"In a span of only a few months a shocking litany of corporate misconduct came to the fore, and investors learned startling truths about the willingness of Uber’s C-Suite executives to flout local, national and international law, stifle competition, misappropriate trade secrets and seek vengeance against detractors," the suit claims. "The Company’s vaunted corporate culture was revealed to in truth consist of a toxic hotbed of misogyny, sexual discrimination, and disregard for the law that threatened the Company’s reputation, business and prospects."

The suit specifically cites practices Uber used to track its rivals and deceive authorities — which Uber called Hell and Greyball respectively — claiming that these tactics threatened the health of Uber's business.

"Kalanick and Uber failed to disclose that, in order to show strong short-term growth, the Company was employing and plotting to employ a variety of illicit business tactics that threatened Uber’s business, reputation and long-term prospects," the suit claims.

Additionally, the suit delves into Uber's ongoing lawsuit with Google's self-driving car spin-out Waymo, the theft of a passenger's medical records after she was raped by an Uber driver, and details the findings of the Holder investigation, which examined Uber's corporate culture after several allegations arose of sexual harassment and discrimination.

An Uber representative declined to comment, and a representative for Travis Kalanick was not immediately available for comment.

You can read the lawsuit here:

Plaintiff Irving Firemen’s Relief & Retirement Fund lawsuit filing against Uber and Travis Kalanick by Steven Tweedie on Scribd

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