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Candice Lee · · 7 min readMoovaz navigates challenges: Harassment, missed payments, and legal proceedings
Amendment: The following article was the result of our own investigation. By the time it was published, Moovaz has paid S$226,167.80 out of the S$257,198.37 owed from its previous management.
A work conversation with her boss in November 2022 took a distressing turn for Wanda Tan (not her real name), who was then a management staff at Moovaz, a Singapore-based relocation service company.
“Hey I know you and [name redacted] are fuck buddies,” Moovaz co-founder Vishnu Vasudeven suddenly told her nearly a year ago. “But make sure it won’t affect Moovaz.”
Tan vehemently denied this, which led Vasudeven to accuse her of lying. He then fired her by sending a text on WhatsApp, according to messages seen by Tech in Asia.
“Fuck u, u r out,” he wrote.
Vasudeven then sent her a string of 56 messages that included threats of putting her under police investigation, accusations that she had committed criminal offenses, and unsolicited remarks about her religion.
The conversation led Tan to resign and successfully sue Moovaz over her unpaid salary and wrongful dismissal.
Moovaz co-founder Vishnu Vasudeven / Image credit: Timmy Loen
According to a source, the judge found that Vasudeven’s conduct crossed all reasonable boundaries of acceptable behavior. The court also found that his comments mocked Tan’s religion and his claims about her criminal offenses were unsubstantiated.
Tan sought a harassment protection order against Vasudeven as well, which the court granted.
Based on Tech in Asia’s review of legal filings, these lawsuits are not the only legal problems that Moovaz has been entangled in this year.
The company was also taken to court by its biggest vendor for unpaid services worth over S$50,000. As of August 2023, the Singapore court ordered Moovaz to pay a sum of over S$73,000 (US$51,623) to both the vendor and Tan.
Moovaz has filed an appeal against the court’s verdict on Tan’s wrongful dismissal, which will extend the proceedings. According to Tan, the company has not followed court orders to pay her by September 1.
ServiceBack, another renovation service company founded by Vasudeven, was sued this year by former staffer Luke Teh (not his real name) over his unpaid salary.
Moovaz’s white knight?
Unpaid staff and vendors
Vulgar and harassing texts
What court disputes and bankruptcy?
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Vishnu Vasudeven, the relocation firm’s founder, has been involved in multiple court cases and ordered to pay at least S$84,681 to staff and vendors.
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