Uber's SVP of engineering is out after Recode surfaces previous sexual harassment allegation

Finally, some evidence that Uber is taking sexual harassment allegations seriously.

Amit Singhal, formerly Uber's senior vice president of engineering, has resigned after reports surfaced of him leaving his previous job at Google due to sexual harassment allegations, Recode reported Monday. CEO Travis Kalanick asked for Singhal's resignation Monday morning.

The news comes just a week after Susan Fowler Rigetti brought attention to Uber problems with a toxic work culture and sexism in the workplace with a blog post on her personal experience. Kalanick said he would conduct a thorough investigation of the matter with Attorney General Eric Holder and Uber board member Arianna Huffington.

But apparently this latest development is not due to that team and can be chalked up as another failure by Kalanick and his executive team. Uber executives were informed of the situation after Recode's Kara Swisher informed them of the matter.

"Sources at Uber said that the company did extensive background checks of Singhal and that it did not uncover any hint of the circumstances of his departure from Google. Singhal disputed the allegation to Google execs at the time," Swisher wrote.

The absence of that knowledge by Uber is quite unfathomable. Swisher spoke to multiple sources and had internal notes read to her that provided evidence of an alleged encounter between Singhal and a female employee.

To be sure, Google HR was not contractually obligated to tell Uber HR of Singhal's full reason for departure. No charges were made. The female employee who filed the complaint did not want to go public, according to Recode.

Singhal had spoken with former Google HR head Laszlo Bock and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on the claims in late 2015, Swisher wrote. He resigned from Google in early 2016.

"It has been an incredible journey, and I am starting the next phase of my journey focused on giving back through the Singhal Foundation" Singhal wrote on his blog.

According to anonymous sources speaking with Swisher, Google was prepared to fire Singhal prior to his resignation.

Singhal denied the allegations in an email to Swisher.

“Harassment is unacceptable in any setting. I certainly want everyone to know that I do not condone and have not committed such behavior,” he wrote. “In my 20-year career, I’ve never been accused of anything like this before and the decision to leave Google was my own.”

Uber declined to comment. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This post was updated with clarification on why Uber would not know about these allegations and with a statement for Singhal.