The former head of a billion-dollar data and software company located in Bermuda is taking legal action against the company seeking advance payments to cover legal expenses.

Zia Chishti, the founder and chief executive of Bermudian-based Afiniti, resigned from the company after he was accused of pressuring a former employee into having sex with him on a business trip.

He has denied the allegations and has not been charged with a crime.

The allegations sparked a wave of legal actions, including lawsuits by Mr Chishti against his accuser, the company and The Resource Group, a shareholder of the company at which Mr Chishti served as chief executive and chairman.

The Resource Group responded with its own legal actions against Mr Chishti.

Mr Chishti also argued that under a deed of indemnity, Afiniti was required to pay him $1 million in advance of the legal expenses expected to accumulate in the various cases.

While that case has yet to be argued, in an interlocutory hearing in the Supreme Court of Bermuda he argued that references to an arbiter’s finding that he had committed sexual assault should be inadmissible.

Mr Chishti also called on the court to make a confidentiality order to block the public and the media from access and reporting on the proceedings.

Puisne Judge Shade Subair Williams refused the application for a confidentiality order, but found that “judicial portions” of an award against Mr Chishti and comments made by the company’s chief legal officer were inadmissible under hearsay rules.

The litigation stemmed from an award against Mr Chishti by which he was held liable for sexual harassment and sexual assault against Tatiana Spottiswoode, a former employee of the company’s subsidiary.

She accused him of beating her after he allegedly pressured her into having sex with him on a work trip to Brazil in 2017.

In November 2021, the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee was examining the practice of various corporations requiring employees to privately arbitrate workplace sexual misconduct rather than engage in open and public litigation.

She told the committee that her employment contract and a later referral to arbitration made it impossible for her to make the allegations public.

Ms Spottiswoode gave sworn evidence before the Judiciary Committee on her account of the acts carried out by Mr Chishti, which resulted in the widespread publicity of her testimony.

Mr Chishti resigned from his posts at the firm days later and proceeded to launch a raft of legal actions.

While he sought an advancement under a 2020 deed of indemnity, Afiniti has argued he has no such entitlement.

Counsel for the firm said in written submissions: “The underlying question in this case is whether Afiniti, a company whose former CEO was found to have sexually harassed and assaulted a company employee, must thereafter fund that former CEO’s legal campaign for revenge against the company, his victim and others.”

The outcome of the case has yet to be determined.

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