The Snapchat legal saga continued this week after a complaint filed by a former employee was released in a public filing, exposing new details about the allegations made against the company’s CEO Evan Spiegel, Variety reports.
Snap Inc (SNAP), the parent company of the photo-messaging app, is fighting a lawsuit launched by Anthony Pompliano, a former Snapchat employee. The suit alleges that the company misled investors and advertisers about the app’s performance.
But the filing released Monday contains other allegations, as well, reports Variety. Pompliano said in his complaint to the court that Spiegel had cut him off during a 2015 user growth meeting to remark that Snapchat “is only for rich people.”
The comment was allegedly made in response to Pompliano’s suggestion that the app could have growth potential in places like India and Spain.
“I don’t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain,” Spiegel allegedly said, according to Pompliano’s statement filed to the L.A. Superior Court. The document, filed in January, was made public this week after Snap abandoned an effort to keep it under seal.
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Snap contends that Pompliano, who the company has referred to as “a disgruntled employee fired for poor performance,” fabricated the allegations in the suit. The company’s legal team said Pompliano and his lawyers were “just making things up,” according to Variety.
The suit centers on Pompliano’s claim that Snapchat was providing investors and advertisers with inflated metrics and false claims about the company’s month-to-month user growth rate. Pompliano, who worked at the company for about three weeks, said that he raised these issues with senior managers, including Spiegel, who ignored him and later terminated his employment.
Snap has reportedly filed a motion to force the case into arbitration, according to Variety.
