TL;DR
- OSOM’s former Chief Privateness Officer has filed a lawsuit towards the corporate, particularly concentrating on the actions of its founder and CEO, Jason Keats.
- The lawsuit, detailed in courtroom information seen by Android Authority, asks the Delaware Court docket of Chancery to compel OSOM Merchandise, Inc. to grant the plaintiff entry to the corporate’s books and information.
- The previous CPO seeks these information to show that the corporate’s founder misused funds to pay for his racing pastime and lavish way of life.
Again in 2017, a startup named Important launched the Important Telephone, a tool that was celebrated for its design and long-term software program assist however in any other case obtained combined evaluations and offered poorly. When Important shut down in early 2020, lots of its former staff got here collectively to type a brand new enterprise named OSOM Merchandise. After two product launches, it now seems that the corporate is in shambles, with a former govt alleging that the founder has been misusing firm funds to pay for 2 Lamborghinis and his lavish way of life.
OSOM Merchandise rose from the ashes of Important in late 2020. Its founder and “Chief Hooligan,” Jason Keats, needed to construct one thing new with out the involvement (and related baggage) of Important’s earlier founder, Andy Rubin. The corporate employed a number of individuals who beforehand labored at Important, together with digital camera engineer Nick Franco, programmers Gary Anderson and Jean-Baptiste Théou, and advertising officer Wolfgang Muller.
OSOM, which the corporate says stands for “Out of Sight, Out of Thoughts,” acknowledged that one in every of its objectives was to create privacy-focused merchandise. To guide these efforts, the corporate employed Mary Stone Ross in early 2021 to be their “Chief Privateness Officer.”
In 2022, the corporate launched its first product: the Saga, an Android smartphone backed by the big cryptocurrency and blockchain platform firm named Solana. It launched its second product, the OSOM Privateness Cable, in 2023 and seemingly held talks with Solana Cell later that 12 months to create a successor to the Saga. Nevertheless, it appears that evidently not solely has the Solana Saga Two been canceled, however its total smartphone enterprise may be over.
In a lawsuit docketed on Friday, August 30, 2024, within the Court docket of Chancery of the State of Delaware (C.A. No. 2024-0894-BWD), Mary Ross, who left the corporate in Might 2024 in keeping with her LinkedIn, requested the courtroom to compel OSOM Merchandise, Inc. to grant her entry to the corporate’s books and information. She filed this lawsuit in an try and show her many allegations of economic mismanagement by Jason Keats.
The allegations she highlights within the lawsuit, detailed in courtroom information seen by Android Authority, are extremely damning if true. Shockingly, the lawsuit alleges, citing a number of conferences with the corporate’s Board and inner paperwork offered by former CMO Muller, that Keats misused firm funds to buy two Lamborghinis, pay for his racing pastime, pay for his racing associate’s wage, expense a number of first-class journey tickets, pay his mortgage, and extra. The swimsuit means that the corporate’s earlier Head of Finance might have resigned on account of these practices and that the corporate’s substitute was introduced on board to course of funds for Keats’ private bills.
Allegedly, Keats tried to pivot the corporate in direction of making an “AI-powered digital camera” as its subsequent product after the collapse of its smartphone plans. Earlier than this pivot, although, Keats allegedly tried to engineer a sale of OSOM Merchandise, Inc. to HP; the lawsuit claims that Keats mentioned HP would purchase OSOM for a sure sum, however the worth stored dropping, and the deal by no means materialized. In accordance with the swimsuit, OSOM’s sources are allegedly depleted, and Keats has claimed the corporate now wants to boost extra capital to proceed.
We reached out to Jason Keats for remark however didn’t hear again previous to the publication of this text. We additionally reached out to OSOM and obtained the next assertion:
“We’re conscious of the outlandish allegations by a former worker, and sit up for disproving them in courtroom.” – OSOM spokesperson.
If the allegations introduced up within the lawsuit are true, then it could counsel that OSOM as an organization is in main bother. Not solely do the allegations counsel that its smartphone enterprise is over, however in addition they counsel the corporate is suffering from monetary troubles which might be the direct results of actions allegedly taken by its personal founder. Although OSOM says these allegations are “outlandish,” we’ll have to attend for the corporate’s official rebuttal in courtroom to see its counter-evidence.