The race for Silicon Valley Congress is starting to get dirty

The original didn’t arrive until early June, though CA-17 competition between five-year-old Ro Khanna and tech startup Ethan Agarwal is already getting ugly. Agarwal entered the race in March, with the support of a group of famous tech billionaires especially in response to Khanna public support about a California’s voting system which would result in a one-time 5% tax on residents over $1 billion.

Agarwal, on his part, has been following Khanna in mentioning his business while at work.

Now newsrooms covering the race have been receiving digital court documents detailing Agarwal’s background. The file includes a personal judgment of $683,000 against him after he stopped paying for a $2 million copyright settlement with Universal Music Group, which accused his company Aaptiv – an exercise program that combines audio training with official music – using his music without permission; a nearly $2 million landlord lawsuit tied to Aaptiv’s One World Trade Center office, which was issued in 2023 on a lease that Aaptiv walked away from during the COVID crisis; and a 2019 federal indictment alleging adult content was downloaded to Agarwal’s IP address. The last one was brought by Malibu Media (a company that filed thousands of similar suits against IP addresses across the country and was widely criticized as a violation of the law).

The landlord’s lawsuit was later dismissed; The Malibu Media case was settled without any court proceedings. The UMG decision is the most important thing in the file. Agarwal guaranteed repayment of $2 million before suspending payments three months from the end; the two sides later terminated another agreement.

Agarwal directed one story himself. According to the New York Post on Friday ran the headline “Silicon Valley tech student accused of downloading large amounts of porn,” Agarwal he shared On television, he wrote: “I think that transparency and honesty are very important among people who seek politics, we are people.

Investor Chamath Palihapitiya, one of his prominent backers, took action soon after, tweeting to Agarwal: “An investigation has started on you because you might win and Ro is getting worried.”