Who is Vivek Ramaswamy? Why is he being sued by former employees?

Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy is looking at two lawsuits from former workers at his asset management company Strive.

One former employee, Joyce Rosely, allege that she was fired after voicing concerns of an execuive making aggressive sexual advances to another staff member. In the other lawsuit, another former employee, John Phillips, said he was fired on false promises and that Ramaswamy misrepresented its finances to employees and investors.

Both allege they were pressured to violate securities laws, which included promising future returns and allowing unregistered employees to make sales pitches to customers.

This means Ramaswamy joins another Republican presidential hopeful, Donald Trump, in having to deal with legal troubles during the election year.

Who is Vivek Ramaswamy?

Vivek Ramaswamy was the founder and CEO of Roivant Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company that aimed to accelerate the development of innovative drugs. It is based in tax-haven Bermuda and was funded by $100 million in start up captial from investors. Using his money from this company he set up his asset management company Strive in 2022.

In February 2023 he announced that he was running for the Republican nomination for president. At 38 years old, he is the youngest candidate in the field and one of the least experienced in politics.

An attraction for Republican voters would be his ‘stand’ against what he perceives as ‘woke’. In 2021, Ramaswamy he penned a book titled “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam,” in which he critiqued what he perceived as the increasing influence of progressive ideologies in corporate America.

He is a supporter of Donald Trump and has promised to pardon him if elected president next year.

Ramaswamy has said he would abolish the Department of Education as well as the FBI and IRS, while he would seek to normalise relations with Russia despite the war in Ukraine.