Tinder co-founder and former CEO Sean Rad Photo by Eóin Noonan/Web Summit via Sportsfile

Match Group, the Dallas based online dating company behind popular services including Tinder, OkCupid and PlentyOfFish and its parent firm IAC has filed a lawsuit against Tinder co-founder and ex CEO Sean Rad alleging theft of company files and other proprietary files. The lawsuit filed in a Manhattan state court on Tuesday claims $250 million in damages.

It comes six months after Rad and other Tinder co-founders filed a $2 billion lawsuit against IAC, alleging it manipulated data to lessen Tinder’s valuation and rob them of stock options, and that former CEO Greg Blatt engaged in sexual harassment.

IAC chairman Barry Diller image : John Koetsier on Flickr

IAC is now alleging that Rad in violation of an employment agreement, created backups of internal e-mails, directly copied company files that include “highly sensitive, non-public information concerning his employers’ business strategies and plans.” and forwarded company e-mails to personal addresses.

Tinder’s history has had a share of lawsuits beginning from that of co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd alleging fellow executives and co-founders Rad and Justin Mateen had engaged in discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against her while IAC’s Sam Yagan, Tinder’s corporate supervisor did nothing (Herd later founded and now heads Bumble, a Tinder competitor with tens of millions of users and a $1 billion valuation according to Forbes).

This new lawsuit escalates the fight between its founding team and parent company Match Group under which it incubated.

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