The parents of Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI researcher found dead in his San Francisco apartment last November, have initiated legal action against the management company and owners of the apartment complex.
The lawsuit was filed on September 22 in San Francisco Superior Court by Poornima Ramarao and Ramamurthy Balaji. They accuse Alta Laguna LLC and Holland Partner Group, the management of the Alchemy apartments at 188 Buchanan St., of obstructing the investigation into their son’s death.
Balaji, age 26, passed away on November 26, 2023. His parents are seeking damages for emotional distress among other claims, with a stated amount of at least $1,000,000.
In their complaint, the family’s attorney Phoenix Thottam has not made any public comments regarding the case.
Diverging from the city medical examiner’s findings, which labeled Balaji’s death a suicide due to a gunshot wound, his family has expressed skepticism. They suggest that Balaji may have been murdered due to his criticisms of OpenAI. They believe a large-scale cover-up involving technology companies, law enforcement, and the media has obscured the truth surrounding his death.
Balaji had been a resident of the apartment for four years and had recently signed a new lease on October 18 prior to his death.
The parents’ lawsuit alleges numerous acts of wrongdoing by the defendants, including firing the apartment manager shortly after he revealed CCTV footage to the family. They also claim that the management company installed an exhaust fan without notice and failed to provide requested video footage spanning seven days, only offering two days instead.
According to the complaint, property manager Cory Valenti initially granted access to garage CCTV footage for a week but later claimed that the cameras were inoperative. The lawsuit states that such actions constituted a deliberate effort to conceal information vital to both the police investigation and the family’s forensic examination.
Moreover, the complaint points to packaged deliveries addressed to Balaji that supposedly disappeared after his death. Neighbors allegedly saw his packages in the mailroom a month posthumously, but these packages later went missing. The family insists these deliveries could contain crucial evidence concerning Balaji’s whistleblower claims against OpenAI.
In February, the medical examiner published autopsy results confirming the suicide conclusion, citing no indications of foul play. Balaji’s parents have rejected this conclusion, engaging independent forensic experts who purportedly identified potential evidence suggesting foul play. However, they have chosen not to disclose the findings of this independent examination.
In the months leading to his death, Balaji had emerged as a whistleblower, publicly voicing concerns over OpenAI’s alleged use of copyrighted material to develop its ChatGPT product.
The complaint, comprising nine counts, seeks unspecified damages for wrongful death, negligence, fraud, emotional distress, and obstruction of evidence. The parents are also pursuing injunctive relief to ensure all relevant CCTV footage, maintenance records, and package logs are preserved.
Neither Alta Laguna LLC nor Holland Partner Group has provided comments regarding the accusations. A representative for Greystar, a company implicated in the lawsuit, noted their management of Alchemy began in July, distancing themselves from its prior operations.
image source from：sfstandard
