Date: October 8th, 2015 8:50 AM
Author: Awkward slimy kitty
http://www.wsj.com/articles/harvard-goldman-sachs-venture-capitalfugitive-1444261176
A boyish 43 years old, Iftikar Ahmed ticked every box of the immigrant success story, going from Harvard Business School to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and then landing as a partner at one of the oldest venture-capital firms in the country. He and his wife owned a mansion in Greenwich, Conn., and two apartments on Park Avenue in Manhattan, and gave large sums to local and Indian charities.
Yet before Mr. Ahmed fled the U.S. in May, he allegedly stole $65 million through a series of frauds that prosecutors and regulators said became increasingly brazen over the years and that exploited the trust-based culture of the venture-capital firm, Oak Investment Partners. Regulators said Mr. Ahmed began to commit fraud within months of joining Oak in 2004.
Mr. Ahmed’s former colleagues at Norwalk, Conn.-based Oak found that he used doctored deal documents, phony exchange rates and fake invoices to siphon off millions of dollars into secret bank accounts, according to prosecutors and regulators. Oak made the discoveries only after Mr. Ahmed was arrested on insider-trading charges unrelated to his work at the firm.
In a civil lawsuit in May against Mr. Ahmed alleging fraud, the Securities and Exchange Commission said there were at least nine companies in which Mr. Ahmed allegedly manipulated Oak investments to enrich himself.
Massaging Figures
In December, Mr. Ahmed persuaded fellow Oak partners they should pay $20 million for a $2 million stake in a Hong Kong-based online retailer, pocketing the $18 million difference, the government alleged.
Oak officials didn’t independently verify much of the information Mr. Ahmed provided them, according to court documents and testimony as part of the SEC fraud case. Grace Ames, Oak’s chief operating officer, told a federal court in July: “There is a basis of trust that’s required within the partnership.”
The SEC and prosecutors didn’t name any companies involved, but the Hong Kong retailer was Giosis Mecox Lane, according to people familiar with the matter.
A representative of Giosis Mecox Lane, which sells apparel and lifestyle accessories, couldn’t be reached for comment. A representative of Mecox Lane Ltd., the company that sold its stake to Oak, declined to comment.
Arrest and Flee
After Mr. Ahmed was arrested in May on federal insider-trading charges, he surrendered U.S. and Indian passports, according to court records. In May, he fled the country using an expired passport, according to court documents. He is now a fugitive. Mr. Ahmed couldn’t be reached for comment.
Mr. Ahmed is believed to be in India, according to his lawyer, Alex Lipman. The former executive needs authorities’ permission to leave India, after being held in prison for 61 days until July 23 for allegedly entering the country illegally, Mr. Lipman said. He faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years in the U.S. if convicted of insider trading.
In the U.S., the venture-capital industry is still agog over the plight of Mr. Ahmed, known as “Ifty” to friends and colleagues.
Oak, founded in 1978, was for years among the industry’s pre-eminent firms, funding companies ranging from Whole Foods Market Inc. to online-travel site Kayak Software Corp.
Oak was among those who lobbied in 2011 to ensure venture-capital firms aren’t required to register with the SEC, which would subject them to examinations by the agency.
Venture firms are by nature secretive, intimate clubs in which the partners often give one another wide latitude for making investment, spending and management decisions.
‘Rogue Employee’
A spokesman for Oak Management Corp., which operates as Oak Investment Partners, said in a statement an internal probe had found Mr. Ahmed was a “rogue employee” who repeatedly circumvented the firm’s policies and procedures. Oak has now reviewed its internal controls and is taking steps to enhance them, the statement said. Oak has told its investors the alleged frauds affect only about 1% of the capital in the affected funds, according to a person familiar with the fund.
“The reason the [Oak] story is so shocking is that by and large, the venture-capital model of oversight…has been a phenomenal success,” said Jeffrey Bistrong, a technology investment banker at Harris Williams & Co. who has done business with Oak.
Born in India, Mr. Ahmed graduated from the elite Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi before getting an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School. He and his wife, Shalini Ahmed, were prominent figures in Connecticut’s close-knit and wealthy Indian-American community.
According to court testimony in the SEC case, Mrs. Ahmed said she met her husband in 1999 when he was working at Goldman Sachs in a group that invested money on behalf of the firm. She told the court that when she heard the allegations against Mr. Ahmed: “I was shocked. I was stunned. That was not my husband.”
Fake Invoices
One of Mr. Ahmed’s first deals was buying $7.5 million of shares in a Korean online-shopping site called Gmarket Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Ahmed told a Gmarket executive that Oak would forgo its right to any dividend payment on the shares in return for a $600,000 “management fee,” the SEC said. The agency said the company sent the money to a bank account that purported to “do business as” Oak, but was set up and controlled by Mr. Ahmed, one of more than 50 accounts the SEC said he and his family used beginning in 2004, in a web of multimillion-dollar transactions.
A spokeswoman for eBay Inc., which acquired Gmarket in 2009 for $1.2 billion, said “eBay is not a party to the case” and declined further comment.
Mr. Ahmed used fake invoices for frauds totaling more than $20 million involving at least four companies, according to the SEC.
Oak doesn’t appear to have checked with the companies to verify any of the claims for payment allegedly made by Mr. Ahmed using the fake invoices, according to the court documents. Oak also failed to catch another type of scam he allegedly used to steal at least $8 million, starting the year after he joined Oak: the phony exchange rate, according to the court documents.
An Insider Tip
In another instance in late 2007, Mr. Ahmed allegedly collected $4.7 million by telling Oak a deal involving a Seoul-based technology company called CDNetworks was valued at $47.5 million, when the value was $42.8 million when using the correct exchange rate, according to court documents and people familiar with the matter. A representative of CDNetworks couldn’t be reached for comment.
Asked in court if Oak had any procedures for checking the exchange rate Mr. Ahmed used on deals, Ms. Ames, the chief operating officer, replied: “I don’t recall…that that was done.”
In April 2013, Mr. Ahmed was diagnosed with cancer following an operation, according to court testimony from his wife, who didn’t give any details of the illness.
That month, prosecutors and regulators alleged, he illegally traded in Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. after getting a takeover tip from a friend. He also committed two invoicing frauds totaling more than $2 million, the SEC said, and told his fellow Oak partners about an investment opportunity at Nomorerack, an online discount-fashion company, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.
The firm eventually agreed to make a $25 million investment in Nomorerack.
“Well done [Ifty],” Fred Harman, an Oak partner, wrote in an email after the firm signed on, according to court documents.
A representative of Nomorerack, which changed its name to Choxi.com Inc. in April, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
At the time of the deal, Oak didn’t realize that Mr. Ahmed already owned Nomorerack stock through a company he set up and controlled. Oak’s Ms. Ames later told a court that she had asked Mr. Ahmed if he owned Nomorerack shares at the time, and he said no.
A year later, Mr. Ahmed persuaded the firm to pay $7.5 million for those shares he secretly controlled, which he bought for $2 million in late 2012, according to the SEC’s lawsuit alleging fraud.
$18 Million Check
Meanwhile, Mr. Ahmed’s wife is fighting criminal charges of money laundering filed against her and her husband in August tied to the alleged frauds. In the weeks after Mr. Ahmed was arrested on insider-trading charges, she completed the $8.6 million cash purchase of a Manhattan apartment and tried to transfer about $250,000 to India, prosecutors said. The fraud, insider-trading and money-laundering cases are continuing.
Jonathan Harris, a lawyer for Mrs. Ahmed, said she “has done nothing wrong, and had no knowledge of any wrongdoing, if any, by anyone.”
Mrs. Ahmed said she assumed the money her husband gave her—including an $18 million check in January, according to the SEC—were the rewards of his line of work. “I understand it’s a lot of money,” she told the court. “But…a partner at a venture-capital firm like Oak is like a partner at Goldman Sachs.”
—Christopher M. Matthews contributed to this article.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3011646&forum_id=2#28924689)