Silicon Valley is abuzz with a tale of deception, burnout, and extraordinary technical talent after revelations that Soham Parekh, a software engineer based in India, secretly held jobs at several tech startups at once — often without the companies’ knowledge.

The saga began earlier this week when Suhail Doshi, CEO of image-generation startup Playground AI, posted a warning on X (formerly Twitter): “PSA: there’s a guy named Soham Parekh (in India) who works at 3-4 startups at the same time. He’s been preying on YC companies and more. Beware.” Doshi claims he fired Parekh a year ago after discovering the deception.

Doshi’s post went viral, racking up over 20 million views and triggering a wave of similar stories. Founders of other startups, including Lindy, Antimetal, and Sync Labs, came forward to say they, too, had unknowingly hired Parekh — and later fired him when the truth emerged.

Despite the fallout, many of these employers noted Parekh’s strong performance in technical interviews. “One of the top three performers,” said a former engineer at Reworkd, a Y Combinator-backed startup. However, inconsistencies in Parekh’s resume, GitHub activity, and location — he claimed to be in the U.S. but was found in India via an IP tracker — raised suspicions.

In an interview on Thursday, Parekh admitted to working multiple jobs since 2022, citing financial hardship and a passion for coding. He claimed to work 140 hours a week and said he did not use AI tools or outsourced help to juggle responsibilities.

While some label him a fraud, others are fascinated. Parekh recently announced — then deleted — a new role at Darwin Studios. The company’s CEO said in a statement: “Soham is an incredibly talented engineer, and we believe in his abilities.”