Suhail Doshi, founding father of Playground AI and analytics platform Mixpanel Inc., publicly accused an Indian software program engineer of concurrently working at a number of startups whereas allegedly defrauding Y Combinator portfolio firms.
What Occurred: Doshi wrote on X Wednesday that Soham Parekh “works at 3-4 startups on the similar time” and has been “preying on YC firms and extra.” The viral submit, which garnered 12.1 million views and 15,000 likes, included Parekh’s resume displaying concurrent employment at DynamoAI, Union.ai, Synthesia and Alan AI.
“I fired this man in his first week and instructed him to cease mendacity/scamming individuals. He hasn’t stopped a yr later,” Doshi said. He described 90% of Parekh’s credentials as fabricated, with {most professional} hyperlinks inactive.
The resume exhibits Parekh claiming a grasp’s diploma in laptop science from Georgia Institute of Expertise and senior engineering roles at a number of firms concurrently. His listed expertise contains advanced technical implementations throughout machine studying, distributed programs, and cloud infrastructure.
A number of business professionals corroborated Doshi’s allegations within the remark thread. “He has been doing this for years and works at greater than 4 startups at any given time,” wrote Nicolai Ouporov, Agent Engineer at fleet. Michelle Lim, beforehand head of product at Warp, confirmed canceling a piece trial with Parekh after seeing the submit.
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Why It Issues: Doshi revealed Parekh allegedly misrepresented his location to look U.S.-based, with one firm delivery gear to a purported sister’s tackle. “Will get nothing completed. Made up fixed lies. Corroborated by 6+ different firms,” Doshi wrote when questioned in regards to the accusations.
The incident highlights rising issues about employment fraud within the distant work period. Federal Commerce Fee knowledge exhibits job scams elevated threefold between 2020 and 2023, with reported losses reaching $470 million in textual content message scams alone final yr.
Related multi-employment fraud instances have emerged globally, together with a Chinese language girl who concurrently held 16 positions, producing $7 million in fraudulent wages. The Division of Justice not too long ago charged people related to North Korean IT employee schemes that infiltrated over 100 U.S. firms.
Following the viral publicity, Parekh reportedly contacted Doshi asking for recommendation on profession restoration, in line with Doshi’s subsequent posts.
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Disclaimer: This content material was partially produced with the assistance of AI instruments and was reviewed and printed by Benzinga editors.
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