A Fancy Life And Some Fodder For Thought 🏌️‍♀️

Founders can have scandalously lavish lifestyles.

Here’s an account of one such crooked founder who fooled investors and embezzled their money to buy a Ferrari (among other things). 

Last week, the SEC charged the co-founder of Texas-based software firm Slync - Christopher S. Kirchner - for embezzlement and fraudulently selling more than $67 million of securities to multiple investors.

Between March 2020 and August 2023 Slync’s employees didn’t receive timely salaries on several occasions. They should’ve taken this as a red flag and jumped ship. Because while the employees were running on low (monetary) fuel, the former CEO of the $240 million Goldman Sachs-backed firm was allegedly transferring tens of millions of dollars from Slync’s corporate accounts to his personal bank accounts. 🏦

Here are some of the fancy things Kirchner did with his embezzled money. 

🏌️‍♂️ Paid for membership at an exclusive private golf club Vaquero, where the initiation cost is reportedly $175,000, followed by annual dues over $15,000.

🚘 Purchased a Ferrari Superfast 812, which retails for around half a million dollars

✈️ Bought a $16 million private Gulfstream jet. 

🏟️ Got a $495,000 luxury suite at a local sports stadium

Yes, Slync’s executives were obviously getting suspicious of these purchases. Sadly, they lost their jobs before they could blow the whistle, courtesy of Kirchner.

🧑‍⚖️ Court Decisions: A judge in Colombia - Judge Juan Manuel Padilla Garcia - used ChatGPT to make a court ruling. He used the AI tool to answer legal questions about the case, and included ChatGPT’s responses in his decision.

📝 Crafting Legislation: Earlier this month, ChatGPT wrote a bill to regulate and limit the usage of generative AI. The bill was filed in Massachusetts.

🦠 Apps and Malwares: One developer was able to build an entire app using the AI, though the output required some human intervention. Cybercriminals are also finding it easier to hack computers and accounts. They're creating effective malware using ChatGPT without any prior experience.

TikTok has added another 70,000 new insights to its TikTok Insights tool. 💩

Originally launched last May, TikTok’s Insights tool enables you to filter the results displayed by different topics and regions.

According to data retrieved from TikTok last week, TikTok users are more likely to impulse shop on the platform, starting their shopping spree at least a week before the holiday season. So now sellers on TikTok know when to start advertising their merchandise.