CHICAGO — A criminal background check for a popular ride share company misses a federal conviction.
Raja L. Khan was recently released after serving seven years for aiding an individual with ties to terrorism. He spent 30 years as a Chicago cab driver and attempted to reinstate his license. He was denied by the city and by ride share company Uber.
A different ride share company, Lyft, accepted his request when he passed their background check.
WGN Investigates tracked down Mr. Khan.
He says, “They should check my background before they give me the job. That’s their problem, not my problem. I don’t want to go on welfare. I’m a hard worker. I want to earn my money and feed my family. ”
The city’s business affairs division has cited Lyft with more than 230 citations with fines of up to $2 million.
Lyft emailed WGN Investigation a statement saying:
The safety of the Lyft community is our top priority. We immediately deactivated the driver in question when we became aware of this situation. Our independent background check provider should not have approved the driver, and this is unacceptable. We believe this is an isolated incident, and are re-running background checks for Chicago drivers. We will also voluntarily allow the City of Chicago to audit our background checks on an ongoing basis at Lyft’s expense. We are working closely with City officials.
