Early Uber investor slaps founder Travis Kalanick with lawsuit

Uber’s embattled founder and chief executive, Travis Kalanick, might have stepped down—but the company’s problems are far from gone.

One of the ride-sharing company’s early and largest investors, Benchmark Capital, is suing Kalanick for fraud, saying that the former chief executive attempted to “increase his power over Uber for his own selfish ends.”

The lawsuit, which was filed this week in Delaware, aims to oust Kalanick from Uber’s board of directors and restrict him on making business decisions. The lawsuit accuses Kalanick of “fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and breaches of contractual obligations.”

Kalanick responded through an attorney, who called the suit, “completely without merit and riddled with lies and false allegations.”

The lawsuit comes just days after reports that Kalanick told people he’s “Steve Jobs-ing it”—meaning Kalanick would return to Uber in a similar fashion to Jobs, who returned to Apple as its chief executive in 1997.

Bloomberg reported that Benchmark’s lawsuit is “likely to paralyze the company.”