Better Home & Finance Holding Co. is calling on ousted CEO Vishal Garg to end what it says is a “revenge campaign” against the company, claiming he lacks sufficient shareholder support to undertake a “boardroom coup.”
“Mr. Garg has aggressively solicited shareholders in an effort to secure their support and has done so by misrepresenting facts and in a manner that clearly violates federal securities laws,” Better alleged in a press release Monday.
Last week, Garg took his beef with the Better board of directors public, demanding that multiple board members resign and that he be reinstalled as chief executive. He said he is willing to work for a salary of $1 until the company becomes profitable.
Garg, who founded the New York-based fintech mortgage lender in 2014, had served as its CEO until Aug. 3, when the company announced it had hired hedge fund executive Daniel Lewis as interim CEO. Garg had agreed to step down and assist with the leadership transition, according to a company press release, which quoted Garg as saying that “now is the right time for new leadership.”
But that narrative was upended by a press release from Garg on Aug. 13, in which he claimed he had corralled enough support from company stockholders to “take back the company he founded.”
Get these articles in your inbox
Sign up for our daily newsletter
Get these articles in your inbox
Sign up for our daily newsletter
Better disputed that characterization, saying Monday that Garg does not have the votes required to override the board’s decision to fire him, “even including the substantial voting power associated with his own super-voting Class B shares.”
The company also sharply criticized Garg’s performance as CEO.
“The record under Mr. Garg’s prior leadership is stark: since 2022, Better accumulated more than $1.5 billion in losses, while its publicly traded shares lost more than 90% of their value,” the company release stated.
Garg made national headlines in 2021 when he fired more than 900 employees during a Zoom call. He subsequently took a leave of absence and apologized for how he handled the situation, saying he “blundered the execution” in a memo to Better employees.
