Lying Tech CEO Diverted $28M to Live High on the Hog: Feds
Christopher Kirchner was killing it.
The 35-year-old founder of software company Slync had a private Gulfstream jet, a half-million-dollar luxury box at the football stadium, membership at an exclusive private golf club, and a black Ferrari Superfast 812. The former Best Buy employee even had designs on buying an English soccer club.
With the help of Goldman Sachs, his Dallas-based company raised a whopping $67 million between January 2020 and May 2021, impressing investors with robust revenue and big sales deals.
The only problem, the feds say, is the entire thing was a charade; his company was barely making $1 million and he was claiming it was raking in $30 million a year.
Now Kirchner is charged with wire fraud in U.S. District Court and facing action from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“We allege that Kirchner lied about Slync’s business to secure tens of millions of dollars from investors, a massive portion of which he then stole from the company to live extravagantly while not paying Slync’s employees,” Sheldon L. Pollock, Associate Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office, said in a statement Tuesday.
According to criminal and civil complaints, Kirchner brazenly diverted $28 million of his backers’ money to his own coffers.
“I took a distribution from my company today and am moving money out for a few things I need to get taken care of before year end,” he emailed private bankers regarding a $20 million transfer in December 2020.
He is also accused of using company funds to buy clothing, visit vineyards, take private flights, and pay off massive credit card bills.
Kirchner was canned as CEO of Slync this past August after missing payroll for Slync employees—who told the trade publication Freight Waves they were outraged he was living high on the hog as the company faltered.
“As I was trying to figure out how I was going to pay my mortgage and child care for the second month in a row, I saw photos of Chris playing golf with celebrities in Ireland,” one ex-employee said. “That’s when I realized he didn’t care about us and our hard work that brought in new investor money. Everything was about him and how fast he could spend it.”
Kirchner was accused in lawsuits of firing other Slync executives who raised questions about the financial shenanigans.
He was arrested this week at his 6,000-square-foot home in Westlake, which Forbes says is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country. He could not be reached for comment.
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