A former Silicon Valley ‘party animal’ gets hit with a $31 million bill, alleging fraud and misappropriation of funds

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A former Silicon Valley ‘party animal’ gets hit with a $31 million bill, alleging fraud and misappropriation of funds
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The party's over for this modern-day Gatsby.

Just a few years ago, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Michael Rothenberg was on top of the world — almost literally.

Today, he’s reeling from a $31 million judgment in California federal court to settle allegations of fraud and misappropriation with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He must repay $18.8 million that he took from clients, plus nearly $3.7 million in interest and another $9 million as a civil penalty, the court ruled.

“Having been effectively branded as an embezzler by the bank’s unauthorized transfer, the management company collapsed, costing fund investors tens of millions in would-be investment gains and destroying Mr. Rothenberg’s career,” the lawsuit alleges. “In doing so, and to cover up his misdeeds, Rothenberg engaged in numerous deceptive acts, including modifying accounting entries to make his misappropriation look like investments, entering into undisclosed transactions to paper over diverted money, and shuffling investments from one fund to another to conceal prior diversions.”A post shared by Mike Rothenberg on Jul 4, 2012 at 5:36pm PDT

Rothenberg ran a successful self-promotion campaign that put him on the map very quickly. The 28-year old launched his fund in 2012, and from 2012 to 2016 the Nasdaq Composite nearly doubled, from a low of around 2,700 to more than 5,000. It was in 2016 that the index, a benchmark for high-tech industries, at least broke above its dotcom-bubble highs.

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