Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
A New York City software engineer is suing former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick over claims that he publicly degraded her at a company-wide party to commemorate the firm’s hotly anticipated IPO, leaving her mortified before a room filled with colleagues and top executives.
Yukti Abrol says she wore a unicorn costume to the May 9, 2019, bash at an Irish pub in Manhattan as a fun way to celebrate Uber’s status as a so-called “unicorn” valued at $1 billion or more. Abrol says the festivities were in full swing when she walked in and Kalanick, who had already been pushed out of Uber following a plethora of ugly sexual harassment allegations against numerous corporate staffers, noticed her outfit.
“To [Abrol’s] horror, as she entered the bar… Kalanick approached her and, without warning, grabbed the horn on her costume, made a masturbatory motion on it, smirked at her, and then walked away,” according to a lawsuit obtained by The Daily Beast. “[Abrol] felt humiliated and disgusted. As she looked around, she saw her team members looking at her with shock and concern. Several of her colleagues approached her to ask her if she was okay and express their disgust with… Kalanick.”