Former Slync CEO Convicted of Defrauding Investors
Slync co-founder Christopher Kirchner has been convicted of defrauding investors out of at least $25 million, concluding a bizarre saga that led to the demise of the supply chain technology company.
On Jan. 25, following a four-day trial, 36-year-old Kirchner was found guilty of four counts of wire fraud and seven counts of money laundering. He was indicted on the federal charges last May, a year after a lawsuit filed by another former executive accused him of using Slync as his own “personal piggy bank.”
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The disgraced former executive now faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each count of wire fraud, and up to 10 years in prison per each money laundering count—amounting to a potential maximum of 150 years. Kirchner’s sentencing is scheduled for July 11.
Kirchner served as Slync’s CEO from 2017 until 2022, when he was terminated by the board of directors due to allegations of misconduct.
In February 2023, Kirchner was charged via criminal complaint by both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for fraudulently selling more than $67 million in securities. At the time, both agencies alleged that Kirchner misappropriated over $28 million to bankroll his lifestyle.
All investor funds, which were supposed to be used for “product development and other general corporate purposes,” were initially wired into the company’s account at Silicon Valley Bank. However, the funds were later moved to a separate company account at Chase that only Kirchner could access before he transferred more funds into his personal bank account.
Kirchner used some of the funds to buy a $16 million private jet—which he has since sold—to fly to celebrity golf tournaments. He also attempted to buy an English soccer team.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Kirchner even attempted to replace some of the money he had misappropriated by convincing at least four investors to wire approximately $850,000 to Slync as part of a purported Series C investment round. Slync’s board of directors never authorized this funding round.
Before his firing, the CEO faced scrutiny after terminating two Slync employees who expressed concern about his management of the company.
One of the terminated employees was former vice president of engineering Jason Selvidge, who sued Slync the next month on allegations that Kirchner failed to pay employees for months on end.
Selvidge accused Kirchner of unfair business practices, breach of contract and retaliatory behavior, and alleged that former chief financial officer Samar Kamdar was fired for sharing his concerns about how the freight tech firm shared financial reporting with its board.
Throughout the ordeal, Kirchner maintained his innocence, calling the allegations a “deliberate smear campaign” by Slync and the board that ousted him.
The company had to file bankruptcy and wind down operations in October, stemming from a suit Kirchner filed against the company in September 2022 for legal fee advancement and indemnification. During the bankruptcy, new CEO John Urban said the company couldn’t afford to grow and pay the legal fees at the same time. Additionally, the company wasn’t able to raise any new capital, and couldn’t be sold due to liability concerns from potential suitors.
Slync first landed an $11 million Series A funding round in March 2020—just months before the Covid-19 pandemic brought the issue of supply chain visibility to the fore as e-commerce sales across industries accelerated and global trade became more congested.
The technology was built to bolster workflow across the supply chain, marrying data across systems like enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and transportation management services, as well as integrating emails, PDFs and spreadsheets.
Customers could leverage the Slync platform to automate back-end logistics functions, such as documentation, invoicing and carrier management—all in an effort to improve productivity and service-level reliability.
In February 2021, the company raised another $60 million in its Series B investment round, which raised its valuation to $240 million. Despite the high valuation, which was common among tech companies as venture capital firms doled out record funding at the time, the company appeared to be exclusively propped up by the rounds.
According to the company’s bankruptcy petition in October, Slync brought in a combined revenue of $1.7 million between 2019 and August 2022. Throughout the same four-year stretch, the tech firm’s net losses totaled $3.8 million, $28.4 million, $25.6 million and $21.4 million.
The FBI’s Dallas field office conducted the investigation. The trial was held in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District in Fort Worth, Texas.
