Just to be safe, we’re going to need a team of fraud investigators to keep tabs on our fraud investigators.
A few months ago, the startup NS8 was riding high. The online shopping boom made its major product — analytics software that sleuths out identity theft in online purchases — more important than ever.
In June, NS8 claimed to see a 200% revenue jump, with $62m in profits in its bank account. But according to the SEC, the company only had $28k on hand.
Talk about a payday
NS8’s CEO Adam Rogas allegedly funneled $17.5m+ out of the corporate account and into his own pockets.
Last week, authorities arrested Rogas, and NS8 laid off most of its 200+ staffers. Few in the company seem to have known about the scam.
NS8’s high-profile backers — like Lightspeed Venture Partners, who’d showered the company with a whopping $123m in funding — were also purportedly in the dark.
A season of scams
The NS8 saga is the latest in a series of recent corporate flubs:
- Nikola…
- China-based Luckin Coffee was caught inflating its sales by $300m.
- Electronic payment firm Wirecard collapsed after being wrapped up in a ~$4B global fraud.
