Chief Executive of Social Finance, an Online Lending Start-Up, to Step Down<br />In a letter to employees, sent on Monday evening, Mr. Cagney wrote<br />that “the combination of HR-related litigation and negative press have become a distraction from the company’s core mission.” Mr. Cagney is stepping down as both chief executive and chairman, and the company said it had begun a search to find a new chief.<br />In 2012, for example, Mr. Cagney sent sexually explicit text messages to Ms. Munoz, an executive assistant,<br />according to five people who saw the messages or discussed them with Mr. Cagney and Ms. Munoz.<br />The company also said on Monday that Mr. Cagney would be replaced immediately as the company’s<br />chairman by another board member, Tom Hutton, who is an early investor in SoFi<br />According to interviews, sales documents and correspondence between investors<br />and company executives, the company said it had raised $90 million in debt financing for one of the loan products that it sold to investors in 2012.<br />This year, Uber, the ride-hailing company based in San Francisco, has grappled with claims of sexual harassment<br />and questions over its business tactics, resulting in many of it senior leaders — including its chief executive, Travis Kalanick — leaving their positions.<br />The spokesman also said that the board investigated a dispute between Mr. Cagney, a married father of two,<br />and a former employee, Laura Munoz, in 2012, and it found no evidence of a romantic or sexual relationship.<br />According to interviews with more than 30 people familiar with the company, Mr. Cagney often overstepped personal and business boundaries.<br />Several former employees said that Mr. Cagney, 46, had inappropriate relationships with SoFi employees, which helped foment a toxic workplace culture.
