Indian origin CEO fined $1 Million
By Shalini Singh

Naveen Jain grew up in middle-class Uttar Pradesh, India but always aimed for the top.  To his credit,   he studied at IIT (Roorkee) and then did an MBA for the prestigious XLRI.  Naveen got his first big break when he joined Microsoft and had a chance to study the success of his role model, Billionaire Bill Gates.  He made his way up to one of the Group Managers at Microsoft.

Later, Naveen would float InfoSpace, which at its peak, was valued at $30 Billion dollars. The dot com crash reduced its value to $300 Million. 

In the last few years, Naveen has been embroiled in many questionable business practices (Full details at the end of this article).

But Naveen’s latest marketing scheme Intelius has now been found guilty of scamming thousands of American consumers.  The Washington State Office of the Attorney General has just released a statement about how Intelius has agreed to pay a fine of $1.3 Million to settle claims against it

“
Intelius banked on consumer confusion, says Washington Attorney General

Online provider of background searches to pay $1.3 million to settle claims its post-transaction marketing practices were illegal

Hundreds of thousands of consumers may have unknowingly enrolled in membership programs while using Web sites owned by Bellevue, Wash.-based Intelius. A two-year investigation by the Washington Attorney General’s Office alleges that Intelius received thousands of consumer complaints regarding unauthorized enrollment in the programs and that  company management including CEO Naveen Jain knew about the complaints but chose to continue the deceptive and tremendously profitable marketing tactics.

“Intelius chose cash over candor,” Attorney General Rob McKenna said. “Despite a continuous stream of complaints from consumers about mysterious charges, despite a consultant’s belief that Intelius’ advertising practices were causing confusion and despite a recommendation from its own staff to make it easier for consumers to opt out of additional purchases, the company wouldn’t change course.”

McKenna said a $1.3 million settlement with Intelius will protect consumers. Filed today in King County Superior Court, the settlement doesn’t require the company to admit any wrongdoing, but significantly restricts its future advertising practices. Intelius will also provide refunds to Washington state residents who were enrolled in the company’s “Identity Protect” program but never used the service.
“

(Techgoss had published the following on April 25, 2009)

Indian origin CEO sues and gets sued
By Shalini Singh

Naveen Jain grew up in middle-class Uttar Pradesh but always aimed for the top.  To his credit,   he studied at IIT (Roorkee) and then did an MBA for the prestigious XLRI.  Naveen got his first big break when he joined Microsoft and had a chance to study the success of his role model, Billionaire Bill Gates.  He made his way up to one of the Group Managers at Microsoft.

But his heart was always on running his own business.  Naveen founded and was the CEO of InfoSpace, a company set-up to deliver real-world information on the internet.  It was the late 1990s and the dot com boom was doing very well.  At one point Naveen’s InfoSpace was valued at a staggering $30 billion dollars and was being touted as the next Microsoft.

Some of the fundamentals of InfoSpace were a bit shaky.  And then the dot com crashed happened.  From $30 billion dollars it had been reduced to one percent of its value of 300 million dollars in mid-2008.  InfoSpace Board of Directors ‘let go’ Naveen in 2002.

Next, he floated Intelius which was dubbed by American super tech blogger and commentator, Michael Arrington, as a ‘scam’.

Now, Naveen Jain is in the American news again, but for all the wrong reasons.

Techflash is reporting:

“
Perkins Coie has sued Internet entrepreneur Naveen Jain, claiming he failed to pay legal bills from October 2001. The suit, filed in King County Superior Court earlier this month, alleges that the Intelius founder did not pay for legal services that arose from a house purchase.

Perkins Coie is asking the court for monetary damages of about $188,000, plus interest on unpaid invoices. Litigation is nothing new between Jain and Perkins Coie, Seattle's largest law firm.

In early 2004, the former InfoSpace CEO filed a malpractice suit alleging that Perkins Coie did not provide adequate legal advice in an insider stock trading case. Jain was hit with a $247 million judgment as a result of the insider stock trading case, later settling the matter for $105 million.

………….
“