Fintech CEO and Forbes 30 Under 30 Alum Charged for Alleged Fraud (techcrunch.com) 20
An anonymous reader shares a report: By now, the Forbes 30 Under 30 list has become more than a little notorious for the amount of entrants who go on to be charged with fraud.[...] Gokce Guven, a 26-year-old Turkish national and the founder and CEO of fintech startup Kalder, was charged last week with alleged securities fraud, wire fraud, visa fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The New York-based fintech startup -- which uses the "Turn Your Rewards into [a] Revenue Engine" tagline -- says it can help companies create and monetize individual rewards programs. The company was founded in 2022, and offers participating firms the opportunity to earn ongoing revenue streams via partner affiliate sales, Axios previously reported.
Guven was featured in last year's Forbes 30 Under 30 list. The magazine notes in the writeup that Guven's clients included major chocolatier Godiva and the International Air Transport Association, the trade organization that represents a majority of the world's airlines. Kalder also claims to have enjoyed the backing of a number of prominent VC firms. The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that, during Kalder's seed round in April of 2024, Guven managed to raise $7 million from more than a dozen investors after presenting a pitch deck that was rife with false information.
According to the government, Kalder's pitch deck claimed that there were 26 brands "using Kalder" and another 53 brands in "live freemium." However, officials say that, in reality, Kalder had, in many cases, only been offering heavily discounted pilot programs to many of those companies. Other brands "had no agreement with Kalder whatsoever -- not even for free services," officials said in a press release announcing the indictment. The pitch deck also "falsely reported that Kalder's recurring revenue had steadily grown month over month since February 2023 and that by March 2024, Kalder had reached $1.2 million in annual recurring revenue." The government also accuses Guven of having kept two separate sets of financial books.
Guven was featured in last year's Forbes 30 Under 30 list. The magazine notes in the writeup that Guven's clients included major chocolatier Godiva and the International Air Transport Association, the trade organization that represents a majority of the world's airlines. Kalder also claims to have enjoyed the backing of a number of prominent VC firms. The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that, during Kalder's seed round in April of 2024, Guven managed to raise $7 million from more than a dozen investors after presenting a pitch deck that was rife with false information.
According to the government, Kalder's pitch deck claimed that there were 26 brands "using Kalder" and another 53 brands in "live freemium." However, officials say that, in reality, Kalder had, in many cases, only been offering heavily discounted pilot programs to many of those companies. Other brands "had no agreement with Kalder whatsoever -- not even for free services," officials said in a press release announcing the indictment. The pitch deck also "falsely reported that Kalder's recurring revenue had steadily grown month over month since February 2023 and that by March 2024, Kalder had reached $1.2 million in annual recurring revenue." The government also accuses Guven of having kept two separate sets of financial books.
You can buy your way with forbes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
From my experience, you can buy anything in the "business" world. Its one of the core reasons why these people are so pathetically and notoriously incompetent.
I learned that when I studied CS: We had two tries for any exam and that was it. Fail twice and your studies were over. The "business assholes" (as they were know for their crappy behavior around the other students) paid $100 for an exam, but they could repeat it as often as they liked by simply paying again. They were taught what corruption looks lik
fake it until you make it is out of hand (Score:2)
Fake it until you make it has become the norm. Stretching the truth knowing you can is not ideal but has been done many times. Outright lies are criminal and should be prosecuted.
Shame on Forbes for rubber stamping these frauds and giving them the air of legitimacy without doing their due diligence. I hope Forbes takes a hit for this as well.
Re:fake it until you make it is out of hand (Score:5, Funny)
Outright lies are criminal and should be prosecuted.
Alternatively, the fraudster should be elected to the highest office in the land.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not really "faking it" if everyone else are in the same boat. So technically "faking it" is the same as "real."
Re: (Score:2)
Why not both? Oh, wait...
the quickest way to become rich (Score:2)
The quickest way is to cheat your way to the top. But youth and inexperience leads to a failure to sufficiently cover your tracks and too few powerful connections in industry and government to protect yourself. And ideally a person enters into wealth in childhood so that their parents and grandparents would have already taken care of these things.
Re: (Score:2)
The two other ways are
1) Be born very rich (e.g. Trump)
2) Be born rich and get incredibly lucky (e.g. Musk)
For these two groups, many people hang on as parasites and they all have a vital interest that the (usually pathetic) wealthy person does not get sent to prison for whatever crap they do and that they stau rich.
Does 30 Under 30 actually have a lot of frauds? (Score:4, Insightful)
By now, the Forbes 30 Under 30 list has become more than a little notorious for the amount of entrants who go on to be charged with fraud
Have there really been that many frauds? Gemini found 7 former winners who have been charged with fraud (5 found guilty with 2 cases ongoing) out of 420 members. When you include other issues like sex offenses and workplace bullying it goes up to 15. So around 1.5 - 3.5% of their winners either went on to do bad things or were already doing them without getting caught.
Is the rest of the enterprise business world really any better than that?
Re: Does 30 Under 30 actually have a lot of frauds (Score:2)
Yes, the rest of the business world is way better than that. I've worked with literally thousands of people who were never charged with a crime for their work.
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That is, incidentally, pretty close to the rate of psychopaths in the human race (about 1%). Add selection bias and we may have an observation that matches expectations.
Yes, the general rate of "business" people that get charged with fraud is much, much lower.
Re: (Score:2)
If you consider everyone in the business world, I think the rate is much lower than that. But if you consider only people in senior management positions, 3% sounds about right to me. That's based on people I personally worked with who later did or were found to have done illegal things they could have been sued or prosecuted for.
But none of them actually was sued or prosecuted. There would have been nothing to gain from it. Once people figured out what they were doing, the response was to show them the
Start the clock (Score:2)
Forbes should rename the list (Score:2)
Rename it to "Forbes 30 (years to life) Under 30" and then you really have something
Financial Crime? (Score:5, Insightful)
There's no such thing as a "financial crime" in the US if you have over a billion dollars and are willing to pay tribute to the king.
Just FYI (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yet another reason Vlad The Impaler had to not love the Turks so much.
Experience cannot be bought (Score:2)
And a huge ego is not a working replacement. The only thing that gives you experience and the critical insight that comes with it is time. This insane celebration of youth has to stop.
At that level... (Score:2)
...probably most of them are fraudsters in some way, shape, or form. It goes with the territory. Cream and bastards rise, and these days it seems there's a lot more bastardry than creaminess. So it's pleasing when they're caught out, and I wish a lot more of them were similarly exposed and dealt with.
Fraud it till they laude it. (Score:1)
New mantra for 30 under 30 list.