3 ms·

CEO lies, commits fraud, and the startup craters

17 points by burgessct 9y ago

tdumitrescu 9y ago
Discussion of the original post when this first happened: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12379518 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12379518 And quick followup after the story blew up: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12394679 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12394679
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- vkou 9y ago
  From the article, it seems that he's only been indicted for wire fraud. What would a likely outcome be? The statute caps sentencing at 20 years, but being a first-time offender, I doubt he will see anything of the sort.
  - burgessct 9y ago
    You are correct. The alleged Federal Crime he committed was forging the wire transfers. If he pleads out, I imagine he will be given a much reduced sentence and given his erasure of his online presence, it begs the question ... what's next?
- merricksb 9y ago
  And discussion less than two weeks ago about the wire fraud case: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14517551 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14517551
sillysaurus3 9y ago
It's slightly scary how much power blogging has. This is an example of a single blog post effectively killing a startup. You can't quite reduce it to those terms, since without the misdeeds, nobody could've written a blog post that killed the company. But you have to admit, it's very different from the old days.
- zitterbewegung 9y ago
  It is scary but its not unprecedented. Journalism has a long history of taking down people where it is warranted. Look at Watergate.
- leroy_masochist 9y ago
  > This is an example of a single blog post effectively killing a startup. To be fair, the blog post in question provided detailed allegations of the CEO committing multiple felonies.
- burgessct 9y ago
  As the author of the piece, I too was surprised at how similar the DOJ Indictment and the former employee's piece were in detail. One might deduce, that simultaneously with the publishing of the blog in Medium, she made a call to the Feds re the forged wire transfers (a criminal act).

17 points by burgessct 9y ago

Discussion of the original post when this first happened: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12379518 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12379518 And quick followup after the story blew up: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12394679 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12394679

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
vkou 9y ago
From the article, it seems that he's only been indicted for wire fraud. What would a likely outcome be? The statute caps sentencing at 20 years, but being a first-time offender, I doubt he will see anything of the sort.
- burgessct 9y ago
  You are correct. The alleged Federal Crime he committed was forging the wire transfers. If he pleads out, I imagine he will be given a much reduced sentence and given his erasure of his online presence, it begs the question ... what's next?
merricksb 9y ago
And discussion less than two weeks ago about the wire fraud case: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14517551 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14517551

sillysaurus3 9y ago

It's slightly scary how much power blogging has. This is an example of a single blog post effectively killing a startup. You can't quite reduce it to those terms, since without the misdeeds, nobody could've written a blog post that killed the company. But you have to admit, it's very different from the old days.

zitterbewegung 9y ago
It is scary but its not unprecedented. Journalism has a long history of taking down people where it is warranted. Look at Watergate.
leroy_masochist 9y ago
> This is an example of a single blog post effectively killing a startup. To be fair, the blog post in question provided detailed allegations of the CEO committing multiple felonies.
burgessct 9y ago
As the author of the piece, I too was surprised at how similar the DOJ Indictment and the former employee's piece were in detail. One might deduce, that simultaneously with the publishing of the blog in Medium, she made a call to the Feds re the forged wire transfers (a criminal act).