The End of Faking It in Silicon Valley

NYT via SF Gate ^ | 4/17/2023 | By Erin Griffith

[NohSpinZone]

Take what happened in the past two weeks: Charlie Javice, the founder of the financial aid startup Frank, was arrested, accused of falsifying customer data. A jury found Rishi Shah, a co-founder of the advertising software startup Outcome Health, guilty of defrauding customers and investors. And a judge ordered Elizabeth Holmes, the founder who defrauded investors at her blood testing startup Theranos, to begin an 11-year prison sentence April 27.

*SNIP*

When Javice was trying to sell her college financial planning startup, Frank, to JPMorgan Chase, she told an employee not to share exactly how many people used Frank’s service, according to an SEC complaint. Later, she asked the employee to fabricate thousands of accounts, assuring her staff that such a move was legal and that no one would end up in “orange jumpsuits,” the complaint said.

After JPMorgan bought the startup for $175 million in 2021, Frank’s investors were quick to take a congratulatory victory lap on Twitter. “So many more students & families will now have greater access to financial aid & #highered opportunities,” an investor at Reach Capital wrote. “It’s so exciting to know you will now have an even bigger platform to make a positive impact on the lives of so many people!” was the praise from an executive at Chegg, which invested.

Javice faces four counts of fraud. This past week, JPMorgan accused her of transferring money to a shell company after the bank uncovered her alleged fraud.

[montag813]

Fake it till you make it used to be the operating principle, to the point of being tech community credo. That was when you were trying to ship software or hardware out the door that you knew was buggy but could be fixed in time.

Mark Cuban did exactly this, but never fixed the "bugs." He sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo (when their stock price was near $400) for billions, and I spoke with the Yahoo Dallas SVP tasked with integrating it back in 2000. He said it was useless and unworkable and Yahoo shuttered it 6 months later - an event that started the stock's downfall. Cuban is a total fraud. All his subsequent startups have failed, including one HDTV channel in which he ridiculously brought on another fraudster, Dan Rather as head of "news."

[Varsity Flight]

https://www.thewealthadvisor.com/article/charlie-javice-says-jamie-dimon-took-personal-interest-her-175-million-acquisition

2008 Bailout

SVB Bailout

Trading Collars

PWG on Financial Markets

[Nervous Tick]

>> That appears to be a federal building

The photo at the link has a caption:

“Charlie Javice leaves Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, April 4, 2023, after signing a $2-million bond to remain free on charges that she duped J.P. Morgan Chase with fake records to acquire Frank, her student loan assistance startup company, for $175-million.”

[minnesota_bound]

Old Twitter and Facebook and Google all are stock fraudsters.