(Newser) – A top engineering executive at Uber, Amit Singhal, is out five weeks after his hire was announced. According to the tech blog Recode, Singhal failed to disclose that he'd left his previous job at Google because of a sexual harassment allegation. Singhal denied the allegation and said he left Google a year ago for his own reasons. In a statement to the AP, Singhal said: "Harassment is unacceptable in any setting. I certainly want everyone to know that I do not condone and have not committed such behavior. In my 20-year career, I've never been accused of anything like this before and the decision to leave Google was my own."

According to Recode, Singhal left Google after executives there informed him of a harassment allegation lodged by an employee, one an internal investigation had found "credible." Citing sources at Uber, Recode said the company did "extensive background checks of Singhal" but did not uncover "any hint of the circumstances of his departure from Google." Sources tell the New York Times that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick asked Singhal to resign after learning of the allegation. Uber found itself in an unrelated sexual harassment firestorm last week after a former female Uber engineer published an essay describing sexual harassment during a "slightly horrifying" year with the company. (Read more Uber stories.)

