When Fighting (Alleged) Crime Doesn't Pay

摘要

Rothenberg Ventures didn't waste any time with the red flags, Francisco Riordan says. During Riordan's first week working on the website for the San Francisco company, known to Silicon Valley startups for its over-the-top spending on parties and perks, Rothenberg's finance director resigned with no explanation. That was February 2016. By July, Riordan says, he'd downloaded emails, financial reports, and other records from the network that he says showed the company's namesake, Chief Executive Officer Mike Rothenberg, was using investor money to fund other projects he owned-projects the investors hadn't agreed to support. "It just kept escalating and escalating," says Riordan, 28. So he contacted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.