Saleh, a tech entrepreneur who was then helping launch the Bangladeshi ride-sharing start-up Pathao, gave Fahad a coding assignment to return within 24 hours.

"I expected him to not ... even talk to me," Fahad recalled. "But he did. He listened to my idea. He didn't care that I was 17 and still in high school."

Fahad is now a 22-year-old vice president at Pathao.

Saleh, who most recently founded the Manhattan venture capital firm Adventure Capital, was well known his support of fledgling techies like Fahad.

"He genuinely liked doing these things for young people," Fahad said. "He took a bet on me. It changed my life."

Saleh, 33, was killed in his Manhattan apartment on Monday, according to police.

His executive assistant, Tyrese Haspil, 21, has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with Saleh's decapitation and dismemberment.

Haspil, who handled Saleh's finances and personal matters, was in his late teens when the entrepreneur hired him, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation.

"When I first heard about his death, I was in denial," Fahad said. "I honestly expected him to come out at any moment and say, 'This is all a joke. This is all a big prank.' Because that's the type of guy he was."

Saleh was himself in high school when he founded PrankDial.com, a website for prerecorded prank phone calls that, he wrote in 2018, had generated over $10 million since its start.

Assistant allegedly owed boss a lot of money

Saleh was found dead on Tuesday afternoon in the living room of his luxury condo on the Lower East Side, police said. His cousin had gone to check on him. His head and limbs were severed.

Haspil allegedly assaulted Saleh with a Taser before killing him one day earlier, NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said. Saleh had just stepped out of an elevator that went straight to his seventh-floor apartment.

Saleh was last seen in surveillance video getting into the elevator with a masked man dressed in all black, according to a law enforcement official.

The assistant allegedly owed his boss tens of thousands of dollars, and was on a repayment plan, the official said.

An autopsy showed Saleh died from five stab wounds to the neck and torso, according to the criminal complaint.

Surveillance video from a Manhattan hardware store on Tuesday morning captured Haspil purchasing an electric saw and cleaning supplies, which were later discovered near Saleh's dismembered and decapitated torso, the complaint said.

When Saleh's cousin buzzed his condo later Tuesday, the assistant was allegedly dismembering his body with the saw and fled, according to a law enforcement official.

Haspil was arrested in Manhattan on Friday morning.

CNN has sought comment from Haspil's attorney. He was arraigned early Saturday and remanded in custody.

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