Uber employees visited a South Korean escort bar.
When one member of the party later complained, Uber SVP of Business Emil Michael contacted Gabi Holzwarth (who had been dating Kalanick at the time) — asking that she tell anyone who asked that it was just karaoke. She refused, taking his request for a cover-up as impetus to discuss the incident publicly.
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 305) reports that after Michael contacted Holzwarth, he alerted Uber SVP of Communications Rachel Whetstone who consulted with general counsel Salle Yoo and others — all hoping to conceal the situation so it wouldn’t leak.