[ajiang]

Without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC’s complaint, Rothenberg and Rothenberg Ventures agreed to settle the charges. The settlement is subject to approval by the federal district court for the Northern District of California which would determine the amount of disgorgement and civil money penalties. Rothenberg also agreed to be barred from the brokerage and investment advisory business with a right to reapply after five years. An SEC order imposing the bar will be instituted following court approval of the settlement.

Fascinating, but not surprising, that it settled right away. I am curious whether the settlement details would be made available in any way.

[ciscoriordan]

Whistleblower here. It took 25 months from when I reported the fraud until the settlement.

[function_seven]

I hope you were well compensated for going out on that limb. Thanks.

[kirillseva]

the whistleblower gets some significant % of settlement

[throwawaymath]

Out of curiosity, would you do it again? Has there been any damage to your professional life?

[jboggan]

Article is about the whistleblower/commenter above.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-09/he-blew-t...

[miguelmota]

> Rothenberg’s staff included frat brothers from Stanford, and he was known for buying luxury boxes at concerts and high-profile sporting events, sponsoring auto racing, supplying virtual-reality headsets at parties he threw for minor celebrities, organizing puppy-petting parties, even renting out San Francisco’s AT&T Park, where the Giants play.

How much do puppy-petting parties cost?

[dlgeek]

Hell, if you do it right, I bet you could work with a local shelter to get it for just about free, if you're a big enough business.

Get them to bring the pets on site (maybe you'd have to pay for transit costs?) for an adoption drive where employees could play with the animals and start the adoption process if they found the right one.

[downandout]

I can see why future employers might find this tough to swallow. It’s a difficult thing because on the one hand you want enployees that do the right thing and are generally ethical people, and this certainly shows that he meets that criteria. On the other hand, companies don’t want the liability of having an employee that has proven that they are willing to share confidential information and documents, such as bank records, with third parties - regardless of the reason.

I hope he lands on his feet, or gets enough of a reward that he doesn’t have to work for a while, since finding work may be tough now. Doing the right thing isn’t always easy.

[zeusk]

Available only for users with terminal access.

[larkinrichards]

Google webcache text only works:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:eaNgmTP...

[coverband]

If Google webcache expires, there's archive.org: http://web.archive.org/web/20170509120239/https://www.bloomb...

[jhabdas]

If archive.org stops working there's…

[munk-a]

Good job and thanks for sticking your neck out!

[jboggan]

Good job Francisco!

[samstave]

Can you eli5/to:Dr exactly what the frauds were