An employee who exposed Rothenberg Ventures to the SEC

Post by dmschulman » Tue, May 09, 2017, 6:37 PM UTC

endorphone wrote: post #45

gregshap wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't listened to the podcast, but according to the backchannel article linked above, the money came from the funds themselves > The $5 million that went into launching River Studios came from Rothenberg Ventures’ second and third funds...One LP says that in a phone call with investors in August after Rothenberg had told them about the River Studios investment in an email, one grilled him on why River Studios was…

Later information is much more vague about this, and one of the core complaints is that he used the management fees of his funds to sponsor companies that arguably competed with holdings of the funds - a serious conflict of interest. This fund was started with a ridiculous fee structure of 17.5% of total investment upfront, and then apparently no going forward fees. Like a "lifetime VPN" subscription, the economics d…

Post by sctb » Tue, May 09, 2017, 7:17 PM UTC

GrumpyNl wrote: post #18

crusso wrote: post #16

"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" That's kind of troubling, depending upon the details. If I hire someone and he starts fishing around on the servers that he has access to, looking to p…

With those ethics, you would be a great soldier.

Post by crusso » Wed, May 10, 2017, 2:26 AM UTC

ivraatiems wrote: post #17

crusso wrote: post #16

"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" That's kind of troubling, depending upon the details. If I hire someone and he starts fishing around on the servers that he has access to, looking to p…

Why are you assuming he was "fishing around?" He suspected illegal activity, found evidence, and reported it. I don't care how much you're paying me; if I see you punch a guy in the break room, I'm calling the police. This is more like that than it is an employee shirking his duties.

Post by antihero » Wed, May 10, 2017, 3:37 PM UTC

kazinator wrote: post #39

If I found out that someone I know (friend, family member, ...) were being deceived by the company, I'd pass the info on to that person (not the government). Otherwise, none of my business. Of course, unless I'm in a position where I'm legally required, like an officer of the company, or accountant or whatever. As someone just doing in-house development or IT work or whatever, no way. The litmus test for whistling is…

Post by kazinator » Thu, May 11, 2017, 1:37 AM UTC

antihero wrote: post #57

kazinator wrote: post #39

If I found out that someone I know (friend, family member, ...) were being deceived by the company, I'd pass the info on to that person (not the government). Otherwise, none of my business. Of course, unless I'm in a position where I'm legally required, like an officer of the company, or accountant or whatever. As someone just doing in-house development or IT work or whatever, no way. The litmus test for whistling is…

I think you've kind of missed the point of ethics entirely.