A former Snapchat employee accusing the messaging app of faking its growth numbers in order to drive up its value in its initial public offering (IPO), according to Hollywood Reporter.
Snapchat filed for an IPO in November. It aim to be the biggest U.S. stock market debut since 2014.
The lawsuit filed on Wednesday in L.A. Superior Court by Anthony Pompliano, who was the company’s growth lead for just three weeks.
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According to the lawsuit, Pompliano, formerly worked with Facebook, say he was hired away from a similar job because Snapchat wished to obtain confidential and proprietary information from Facebook. He said he was fired for being a whistleblower on the company’s misrepresentations with several executives.
The Hollywood Reporter quoted Pompliano counsel as saying in the court document “Snapchat fraudulently induced Pompliano away from Facebook to run Snapchat’s new user growth and engagement team by falsely representing to him, among other things, the company’s growth, ”
A Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, spokeswoman told Reuters in an emailed statement “we’ve reviewed the complaint. It has no merit. It is totally made up by a disgruntled former employee.”
