Why Soham Parekh, the startup scammer, isn’t the only one to blame

He had a catchy resume, whizzed past interviews and landed jobs at not one, but over 15 Silicon Valley startups. However, Indian techie Soham Parekh’s only blip was that he was working at all of those startups at once – a moonlighting saga that has made him famous overnight and earned him an avalanche of brickbats.

But, how did Soham manage to pull it off in an age where background checks can be done with a simple click? Experts pointed out that it may be more than it meets the eye.

After Soham’s flight of fancy was busted by Suhail Doshi, co-founder of Playground AI, the founders of the startups where Soham worked wasted no time in coming out and accused him of deception and resume fraud.

Yes, he might have exploited the loopholes of remote work culture, but how did he get past the verification process? Several users on X questioned how the startups did not even verify his location.

“He lies about his location. We thought we were hiring someone in the US. Even sent a laptop to a US address. Got it back! Allegedly, it was sent to his ‘sister’,” Suhail wrote while outing Soham’s modus operandi.

VERIFICATION PROCESS?

The US Tech Workers, a non-profit organisation operating under the Institute for Sound Public Policy, raised a pertinent question. How did Soham get past the I-9 employment eligibility verification process?

As per rules, employers in the US have to mandatorily fill Form I-9 to verify an employee’s identity and legal authorisation to work in America. It has to be substantiated using documents such as a valid visa and Social Security Number (SSN).

SSN is a nine-digit number issued to US citizens, permanent residents, and temporary or working residents.

Soham’s case raises questions about whether the startups that hired him diligently followed the verification process or bypassed it completely in a bid to hire talent remotely.

Social media users pointed out that the startups might have remained silent as it was a win-win situation – get talent without having to break the bank.

“We all know the reason why – the amount paid would have been much less than what others based in the US would have demanded. So, the companies who are just blaming it on the employee are either being too naive or just plainly deflecting the blame on the weakest link,” a user tweeted.

Another tweeted, “Now, it’s managers who want to delegate before they can afford, so they hire cheap foreign labour so they can sit back and post about how great their startup is.”

Moreover, none also bothered to verify his resume. Sharing Soham’s CV, the Playground AI founder pointed out that 90% of the content was fabricated, and the provided links were no longer active.

REMOTE WORK FRAUD

However, the story doesn’t end there.

As the magnitude of the deception started unravelling, another US-based entrepreneur mentioned how the Indian techie used the tensions between India and Pakistan during Operation Sindoor to “guilt-trip” him.

Leaping AI co-founder Arkadiy Telegin, who shared screenshots of his chats with Soham, claimed that the Indian techie pretended to be in a conflict zone during the hostilities and cited it for the delay in completing his task.

Experts said the Soham Parekh story was just “the tip of the iceberg”, exposing a growing trend of remote work fraud.

A viral LinkedIn post by Deedy Das, a tech investor, has detailed how several such Soham Parekhs were exploiting the remote model – using mouse jigglers (a tool with which one can simulate the movement of a mouse) and outsourcing deliverables.

In his post, the investor cited a Reddit thread where an engineer claimed to be earning USD 8,00,000 per year juggling five jobs.

Amid the row, Soham, in an interview, said his actions were driven by a financial crunch and suggested that he worked 140 hours a week.

However, Deedy Das suggested the claims to be misleading and fraud and pointed out flaws in his resume. “All this while saying he didn’t want to ‘center a div for 6hrs’ in BigTech,” Das tweeted.

– Ends