[pstoica]

Ex-employee here. Adam Rogas is a pathological liar and sociopath who dragged this out for years. I don't know how multiple audits failed to raise red flags over multiple $999,999.99 fake Stripe payouts. He literally inserted millions every few lines that didn't match up with the data around it. They never asked anyone else to produce the same report. Everyone involved should never be responsible for this amount of money again (looking at you, Lightspeed).

If your CEO is actively siloing all financial and customer information, your entire company needs to speak up and get on the same page. Don't let this happen to you.

[pstoica]

Anyway folx, don't invest in a "hot startup" you've never heard of.

[elliekelly]

Do you know when the company/Rogas first came under investigation?

[pstoica]

The SEC tried investigating since December 2019, possibly earlier. Again, public information.

[wakeywakeywakey]

Why did you choose not to blow the whistle?

[pstoica]

I didn't have all the information that's coming out now. People tried. Read the article. The last investment was finalized days after someone raised concerns after realizing we didn't contact 70% of our customers.

[wakeywakeywakey]

The details of your post go beyond those mentioned in the article. Could you provide additional links?

[pstoica]

I was someone at the bottom of the totem pole who tried to do my job and ask what questions I could. I certainly noticed a lack of analytics or basic traffic/revenue/customer data. Retroactively, it was obvious that this was essentially a fake job, but I couldn't piece this together and there wasn't enough company-wide transparency.

The fake financial statements were publicly released: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1317641...

[edm0nd]

How much were you being paid a year to do basically nothing?

[pstoica]

Decent salary, but that's not the point. I'm distraught to realize I spent 5 months on nothing, and it's not something I'm proud to have or explain on my CV. It's cruel how much money these people throw away, but we were misled into thinking it was real. I wouldn't have taken this position to support such a scumbag.

[pjc50]

Why would you? Even if you've got all your ducks in a row you've made yourself a target for media attention and lawsuits.

[libria]

Why not? Anonymously demanding moral action from others makes me righteous and costs me nothing. =)

[tomashertus]

And how was the quality of product? Was it something breathtaking that it attracted $157.9M in funding?

[pstoica]

Hell no, a $400 million valuation made no sense, but he kept feeding us these lies.