By James Titcomb

and

Lucy Burton

18 November 2021 • 10:48pm

Zia Chishti, the founder of Princess Beatrice’s technology company Afiniti, resigned on Thursday night two days after a former employee accused him of violent sexual assault.

Following a crunch board meeting, directors said Mr Chishti had “stepped down from his role as chairman, chief executive officer, and director of Afiniti, effective immediately”.

The summit that decided his future came just a day after Afiniti’s board had stood by Mr Chishti and said the explosive allegations against him made by Tatiana Spottiswoode were “false”.

In an email sent to staff on Wednesday seen by The Telegraph, the chief commercial officer, Thomas Inskip, told workers that Mr Chishti, 50, would stay on as chief executive and attempt to restore his name.

However, the company's problems subsequently mounted, with David Cameron resigning as a senior adviser and customers and investors putting pressure on the company following Ms Spottiswoode’s account of a series of abusive behaviour and harassment.

On Thursday Ms Spottiswoode told The Telegraph that the company should break non-disclosure agreements silencing former employees.

In her first public comments since her testimony to the US Congress, Ms Spottiswoode said Afiniti should “immediately release all employees from any NDAs or other confidentiality clauses” preventing them from speaking out, and “release all employees and former employees from forced arbitration".

Ms Spottiswoode this week claimed that Mr Chishti, who is two decades her senior, had left her with injuries as part of a series of assaults and abusive behaviour during her employment with Afiniti.

On Wednesday, Mr Cameron, who had chaired Afiniti’s advisory board, resigned with immediate effect in protest at how Mr Chishti had handled the allegations, while customers and investors had also put pressure on the company.

Hours before Mr Cameron's exit, Afiniti had defended Mr Chishti to its own employees and rejected Ms Spottiswoode’s account, according to an email to staff.

Thomas Inskip, the company’s chief commercial officer, told staff: “As you can imagine our board, which governs our company to the highest levels, has all the facts and will make the correct decisions for Afiniti. The board has decided last night that Zia will stay on as our CEO. Zia strongly refutes the accusations against him and will now seek to clear his name.”

Mr Inskip, a childhood friend of the Duke of Sussex, added that Afiniti’s top lawyer, Caroline Mehta, had examined and rejected Ms Spottiswoode’s testimony. 

“Her strong view is that the narrative that was shared with Congress by Tatiana yesterday was false and that the relationship was consensual,” Mr Inskip wrote.

In testimony to Congress, Ms Spottiswoode had alleged that Mr Chishti had “groomed” her from the age of 21 and engaged in a pattern of sexual abuse and harassment after hiring her two years later.

On Thursday Ms Spottiswoode told The Telegraph: "Everyone involved in the misogynist culture at Afiniti – there are quite a few - should be held accountable. Everyone who enabled it should be held accountable. As long as they still have forced arbitration, we can assume that this behaviour is ongoing." 

Ms Spottiswoode urged the company to drop legal action against her and her father, whom she said had been targeted in an attempt to force her to erase an arbitration ruling against Mr Chishti.

"On a personal level, the board should insist that Afiniti and Chishti pay my father for the stock they seized and for his attorneys fees and dismiss the retaliatory arbitration they filed to scare and punish me.”

Princess Beatrice, Afiniti's vice-president of partnerships and strategy, has not commented on the allegations since they emerged. She is currently on maternity leave.