Afiniti founder, Sitara-e-Imtiaz holder, steps down after rape allegations

Zia Chishti is alleged to have pressured an employee into having sexual relations while on a business trip

Amid allegations of sexual misconduct and rape, the founder of tech group Afiniti, Zia Chishti, has resigned.

Zia Chishti was alleged to have pressurized an ex-employee into having sexual relations with him while accompanying her abroad for business. Chishti has also been accused of hitting the employee.

Following accusations presented before the Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives, David Cameron, former United Kingdom prime minister, stepped down as chair of Afiniti’s advisory board.

According to a report in Financial Times, Afiniti gave an official statement on Thursday night that Chishti had resigned from his triple responsibilities at the company with immediate effect.

The board would announce further organizational declarations in the next few days, it added.

A spokesman for Afiniti has said that Chishti strongly disagreed with all the allegations made about him.

Investors in Afiniti had expressed worries after the accusations surfaced. GAM, the Swiss fund management firm which has shares in the company, supported impartial investigations about the accusations.

Cameron had been advising the company since 2019. A representative for Cameron said that the incidents of which Chishti had been accused of happened before Cameron joined the company and he was totally unaware about them till their emergence at the congressional hearing.

Afiniti is the supplier of call-center technology to big telecommunications and other companies. Princess Beatrice, daughter of Prince Andrew, also works at the New York Office of Afiniti.

Afiniti was created in 2005 after Chishti left a dental appliances company which he had also set up. Afiniti was showing remarkable progress in the last few years, and it was mentioned as a potential candidate for a multibillion-dollar flotation in the coming year.

The allegations were put forth by Tatiana Spotiswoode, who is studying law at Columbia University, who testified before the House Judiciary Committee looking into how justice was denied to survivors of sexual misconduct and rape in official fora through improper prevention by enforcing arbitration clauses.