By now, the Forbes 30 Under 30 list has change into greater than just a little infamous for the quantity of entrants who go on to be charged with fraud. Notable alumni embrace FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Frank CEO Charlie Javice, Joanna Smith-Griffin, founding father of the AI startup AllHere Schooling, and “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, amongst others. Now, one other member of the listing has been hit with federal prices.
Gökçe Güven, a 26-year-old Turkish nationwide and the founder and CEO of fintech startup Kalder, was charged last week with alleged securities fraud, wire fraud, visa fraud, and aggravated identification theft.
The New York-based fintech startup — which makes use of the “Flip Your Rewards into [a] Income Engine” tagline — says it might assist corporations create and monetize particular person rewards packages. The corporate was based in 2022, and provides taking part companies the chance to earn ongoing income streams by way of accomplice affiliate gross sales, Axios previously reported.
Güven was featured in final 12 months’s Forbes 30 Beneath 30 listing. The journal notes in the writeup that Güven’s purchasers included main chocolatier Godiva and the Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation, the commerce group that represents a majority of the world’s airways. Kalder additionally claims to have loved the backing of a number of prominent VC firms.
The U.S. Division of Justice alleges that, throughout Kalder’s seed round in April of 2024, Güven managed to lift $7 million from greater than a dozen traders after presenting a pitch deck that was rife with false info.
In keeping with the federal government, Kalder’s pitch deck claimed that there have been 26 manufacturers “utilizing Kalder” and one other 53 manufacturers in “reside freemium.” Nevertheless, officers say that, in actuality, Kalder had, in lots of instances, solely been providing closely discounted pilot packages to lots of these corporations. Different manufacturers “had no settlement with Kalder in any respect—not even without spending a dime companies,” officers mentioned in a press launch asserting the indictment. The pitch deck additionally “falsely reported that Kalder’s recurring income had steadily grown month over month since February 2023 and that by March 2024, Kalder had reached $1.2 million in annual recurring income.”
The federal government additionally accuses Güven of getting saved two separate units of economic books. A type of units included “false and inflated numbers,” and was introduced to traders or potential traders to cover the “true monetary situation of the corporate,” the federal government claims. The DOJ additionally alleges that Güven used lies about Kalder in addition to cast paperwork to acquire a class of visa reserved for people of “extraordinary potential,” that might permit her to reside and work in the US.
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June 23, 2026
TechCrunch reached out to Güven by way of her private web site. The CEO mentioned that she could be sharing a press release in regards to the prices on Tuesday.
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