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SEC Charges Former CEO of Silicon Valley Startup With Defrauding Investors
https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2019-50SEC Charges Former CEO of Silicon Valley Startup With Defrauding Investors
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2019-50
Washington D.C., April 2, 2019 —
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the founder and former chief executive of a Silicon Valley startup with defrauding investors in Jumio Inc., a private mobile payments company. The former CEO, Daniel Mattes, agreed to pay more than $17 million to settle the charges.
According to the SEC’s complaint, filed in federal court in California, Mattes grossly overstated Jumio’s 2013 and 2014 revenues and then sold shares he held personally to investors in the private, secondary market. The complaint alleges that Mattes made approximately $14 million by selling his Jumio shares and hid these sales from Jumio’s board. According to the complaint, Mattes also falsely told an investor that he didn’t want to sell any of his shares because there was “lots of great stuff coming up,” and that “he’d be stupid to sell at this point.” Jumio restated its financial results in 2015, wiping out most of its revenue, and the shares became worthless after it filed for bankruptcy in 2016.
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