Ms. Kwan’s lawsuits were filed on February 1 and 2. On March 8, Mr. Deshmukh agreed to serve, lower than an hour after receiving a fact-checking inquiry from The Times. Five days later, Ms. Kwan agreed to withdraw the lawsuits after the parties settled.
Sheryl Heefner, CEO of Superiority Burger, said in an announcement that “Ashwin has been instrumental in the development of Superiority Burger” and added: “he is also a friend of mine who I love working with.”
Mr. Deshmukh shouldn’t be famous, but he’s widely known amongst downtown tech investors, restaurateurs, bar owners, journalists, fashionistas, podcasters, DJs and influencers. If you’re employed in New York within the cultural industry – media, fashion, art, music, publishing – there’s a definite possibility that you simply went to a celebration at Jean’s sponsored by a cool brand or a brand trying to be cool, or otherwise ate a slice of one in all the pizzas he sent for a celebration, vernissage or corporate event. And if not, Instagram’s algorithm can have shown you one in all this stuff. You probably know Ashwin Deshmukh’s world, even when you do not know him.
Most people who meet Mr. Deshmukh find him intelligent, informed, funny, kind and a bit elusive, but in his own quirky way. But amongst the numerous New Yorkers who know Mr. Deshmukh only slightly, there’s a subset of people who know him slightly more. These people, of which there are various, ashamed and still finding their way, will say that Ashwin Deshmukh is a thief.
In response to an in depth list of questions, Mr. Deshmukh responded by email through a Jean’s representative by which he disputed many features of the story, without providing further details.
Ben Carlos Thypin I met Deshmukh sir in 2012 through a mutual friend. Thypin is an actual estate broker and political player who co-founded Open New York, a number one pro-housing group. But on the time, he was an unproven heir to a steel-turned-real estate fortune looking to make a reputation for himself. He said his first impression of Mr. Deshmukh was that “he seemed like a smart and competent guy.”
