Gawker
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john rogers
The dotcom douche of Beverly Hills
Poor John Rogers. The former CEO of Pay By Touch can't pin the fall of his online-payments startup, which raised $340 million and employed 750 people before going bankrupt. This self-aggrandizing outlaw has no one but himself to blame.
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By Owen ThomasComment by growhappy: People on coke are fast talkers. 1 Responses | Other threads
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pay by touch
Washed-up NFL players want money back from SF startup
Seven former NFL football players — including Drew Bledsoe — are suing UBS, a Swiss bank, for investing their money in collapsed electronic-payments firm Pay By Touch. They claim the bank neglected to mention that Pay By Touch's founder, alleged cocaine addict John Rogers, was once charged with a felony. We'd love to know how an investment bank's lawyers would have framed this disclaimer in legalese. More » -
real estate
Commercial real estate vacancies show no sign of dot-bomb 2.0
Recent reports from local real estate trackers put the amount of office space relinquished by local companies in the last quarter at the highest it has been since the third quarter of 2002 — 436,933 sq. ft, according to commercial broker CB Richard Ellis, or the equivalent of nearly all the space in the Transamerica pyramid. The East Bay and the South Bay also saw an uptick in vacancies. The bankruptcies of Sharper Image, Pay By Touch, and RedEnvelope helped push up San Francisco's vacancy rate, but South of Market remained an untouched bubble of business leases, thanks to expansion by Monster.com, Advent Software, and Splunk. (Photo by Thierry) -
deathwatch
Requiescat in pace, Pay By Touch
Biometrics payments firm Pay By Touch shuttered for good yesterday. The last remaining client retailers will unplug their Pay By Touch fingerprint payment machines Thursday morning, a tipster tells us. He goes on to say, "I hope that piece of shit John Rogers goes to jail." Wishful thinking: Past run-ins with the legal system don't seem to have taught him anything.
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Comment by Slartey: @lucia1: As you said, you met him briefly - anyone can be charming for a short period of time. It... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
John Rogers's Pay By Touch finally falls apart
Here's John Rogers. He's morally and financially bankrupt. He's a once-convicted felon with addiction problems and a taste for threatening strangers and lovers. And his dream is dead. More »
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Comment by StutiKollarbear: amazing. this guy tried to buy an apartment building i had for sale in minneapolis. this was in 1991 and... more » | Other threads
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bloggers
Pay By Touch threatens to sue over blog post
Biometrics payments firm Pay By Touch is selling assets in "a mad scramble to recover any money whatsoever that our convicted Google stardom dreaming leader John Rogers pissed away," a tipster tells us. One of those assets was Pay By Touch subsidiary ATM Direct, a business Alex Muse and other Texas investors were hoping to acquire. But that didn't happen. To explain why, Muse wrote a post to his Texas Startup Blog. It's critical of Pay By Touch. Critical enough that Pay By Touch chief Thomas Lumsden threatened Muse with a lawsuit if he didn't remove it. Below, we've reposted the whole thing. More »
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Comment by PhoebeMalinkoo: Once a fellow offered to buy my boat for $3000 with $500 down and monthly payments - I sold it... more » | Other threads
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pay by touch
Who stands to lose if Pay By Touch shuts down
These court documents show who stands to lose the most if Pay By Touch shuts down, besides its already ill-fated hundreds of employees. We like to think of corporations scheming to screw over the little guy. But Pay By Touch's bankruptcy filing shows us this: They spend just as much time trying to screw over the big guys. Big guys like Verizon ($135,000) and Oracle ($111,000). More »
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Comment by Owen Thomas: @The_Age_of_Plastic: If that's the problem, writing about Pay By Touch is hardly the solution. more » | Other threads
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bankruptcy
Creditors attempt to block Pay By Touch shutdown
A tipster tells us top management at Pay By Touch, the biometrics payments firm run into the ground by felon John Rogers and now struggling in bankruptcy, has auctioned off its "core assets" in an attempt to pay off creditors. That may not be the case: On Friday, a party of creditors filed a restraining order with a court in Los Angeles to prevent management from "shutting down the operations of Pay By Touch Payment Solutions" — its main business. A shutdown, presumably, would only come after a failed attempt to sell the operation. How touching that someone still wants Pay By Touch to stay in business. -
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pay by touch
Pay By Touch tries free beer
Pay By Touch laid off 250 employees last fall and now it needs a $150 million investment to survive. So what's the company to do? More » -
rumormonger
Scandalous ex-CEO's mom to leave Pay By Touch
Remember John Rogers, the former CEO of Pay By Touch? He's morally and financially bankrupt. He's a once-convicted felon with addiction problems and a taste for threatening strangers and lovers alike. Rogers is, in other words, the type of guy only a mother could love. But now, even she's had it. Though Rogers remains on Pay By Touch's board, his mother, Judy Nelson, is out as Pay By Touch HR head, marking the end of a controversial tenure. More » -
deathwatch
Pay By Touch wants to raise $150 million next year
In a shareholders' conference call yesterday, Pay By Touch CFO Robert Sigler told investors the company plans to raise $150 million in 2008. This after Pay By Touch management has already burned through over $300 million since its founding and cost some 250 jobs just this fall. Tell you what, I hope Sigler and returning COO Eula Adams find their investors. Beause whoever they are, maybe I can find something to sell them, too. (Photo of the Brooklyn Bridge by absolutwade)
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Comment by xinetix: I am a burned S&H shareholder and was not informed. It seems that communication is only to large shareholders that... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Pay By Touch's $50,000 internal investigation came up empty
Eula Adams, who's returned to trouble payments company Pay By Touch as its COO, said during a conference call for investors today that at least two independent investigations into alleged illegal acts by officers of the company came up empty:When issues were raised, we spent $50,000 hiring a firm to interview people and try to determine whether allegations were valid or invalid. And we were prepared to take action.
Nothing turned up, claimed Adams. A surprising outcome, considering what we've heard about the company and the man who ran it. More »
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Comment by Slartey: More likely they just didn't ask the right questions... more » | Other threads
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confirmed
Pay By Touch "took out" 90 employees since Thanksgiving
Failing biometrics company Pay By Touch has shed 250 employees in the last "couple months," COO Eula Adams said on a call for shareholders today. Of that 250, Adams said new management "took out" 90 employees in the last couple of weeks. The cuts came to "non-core" Pay By Touch initiatives in "healthcare, online, government," Adams said. More »
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Comment by Desertstorm: These people blew something good in online. The guy running it had a half dozen resellers lined up and was... more » | Other threads
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john rogers
Bankrupt founder to stay on Pay By Touch board
The financially and morally bankrupt John Rogers remains involved with the company he founded, Pay By Touch employees learned during an all-hands meeting Friday. Though the company no longer employs the once-convicted felon and confirmed bully, Rogers will remain on the board of directors. How could this be? More »
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Comment by sftecher: The blog is factual! V4VISTA obviously has no idea of what has being going on or is in denial of... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Pay By Touch entering Chapter 11, selling subsidiaries
Failed biometrics payments firm Pay By Touch has filed voluntarily for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will sell subsidiaries ATM Direct and CardSystems, employees learned during an all-hands on Friday. During the meeting, Pay By Touch COO Eula Adams asked employees to remain positive. Then he virtually assured that wouldn't happen by explaining the company's payroll situation. More »
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Comment by jackflash: It would help if their biometric payments revenuecould support more than two employees. Cood luck on that Chapter 11! more » | Other threads
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acquisitions
Freefalling VeriFone to acquire Pay By Touch?
VeriFone, a maker of credit-card readers, wants to acquire biometric payments firm Pay By Touch, according to Pay By Touch court filings obtained by BusinessWeek. Or at least VeriFone at one time expressed in interest in such a deal. But that was probably before December 3, when the company announced it would restate earnings, citing inventory-accounting problems and then watched its share prices drop 46 percent. No deal? That would be a shame. A company that can't count its inventory buying a company that can't pay for its inventory. Sounds like a perfect match.
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Comment by Slartey: Well I hope this doesn't come true - there'd be nothing worse than the atrocious managers of Pay By Touch... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
A Pay By Touch supplier's tale of woe
Michael Barnes, the president of NorhTec, a computer hardware maker, says he's been royally stiffed by Pay By Touch, the troubled biometrics company now under court supervision. Stiffed to the tune of $3 million in promised orders, including more than half a million dollars in unpaid shipments. Former Pay By Touch CEO John Rogers left behind not just 750 angry employees with jobs on the line, and investors whose $300 million in funding looks unlikely to return much. To that list of aggrieved parties add suppliers like Barnes, who filled orders for the failing company but say they haven't been paid. Perversely, Barnes is rooting for the company to make a comeback, if only so he'll have a chance of getting what he's owed. Here's Barnes's story: More »
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Comment by 0x6772: "Welcome to NorhTec - the Next Generation of Network Computing," you know, after Larry Ellison couldn't make it work three... more » | Other threads
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john rogers
Pay By Touch founder puts a 4,500 percent markup on company
An ex-employee tell us that before his departure, former Pay By Touch CEO John Rogers shopped the company around to investors for $5 a share. (The company isn't publicly traded, but has issued shares to investors and employees.) It didn't seem like much until I took a closer look at Rogers's bankruptcy filling — specifically item 10 on page 21. More »
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Comment by JFergison: It's really amazing how loose investors can be with their funds these days. I met John Rogers when he was out... more » | Other threads
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john rogers
Bankrupt Pay By Touch founder "needs" $1,000 per month for clothes
We got a hold of former Pay By Touch CEO John Roger's public bankruptcy filing. In the document, Rogers had to declare his remaining personal assets. And for a guy who celebrated his 40th birthday with a cake decorated "240 by 40" — celebrating the fact that he'd raised $240 million in financing for his companies by age 40 — he's doesn't have a lot to show for it. There's $1,275.68 in a Schwab account, $93.23 in a UBS account, $4,335.21 at Wells Fargo Bank, an $8,000 security deposit with his landlord, $2,000 in household goods, and $2,500 worth of clothing to his name. But no wonder, considering the monthly expenses John Rogers detailed in the filing. Spending $1,000 on clothes each month really adds up. He owes American Express a grand total of $68,272.67. And there's more, too. More »
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Comment by Slartey: I can't believe that his monthly expenditure on "Recreation, clubs and entertainment" was only $500. Makes you wonder why he... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Pay By Touch to ditch 49 employees today?
Pay By Touch, the biometrics firm run into the ground by cocaine addict and convicted felon John Rogers, is accelerating plans to lay off 49 employees. Originally scheduled for this week and next, the layoffs are happening early, a tipster tells us, so that Pay By Touch won't have to issue Friday's paychecks to the affected employees. An all-hands meeting is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. today.
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Comment by anon_employee: Hey look, it's that time again! Rumor has it that TODAY IS LAYOFF DAY! Again! Yes more of the dedicated employees... more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
Ex-Pay By Touchers aren't getting paid?
Employees smart enough to flee the sinking ship known as Pay By Touch are getting their comeuppance. While the new custodial rule of Tom Lumsden has managed to raise $9 million, part of which is earmarked for six weeks of missed paychecks during founder John Rogers' last hurrah, he's not wasting pennies on deserters. A tipster forwarded us an email exchange between a "screwed employee," who was originally told ex-employees would be paid back wages alongside the suckers, and Pay By Touch HR executive Judy Nelson. Here's the key piece of the email: More »
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Comment by softice: Common be nice. Ehh I know that PBT owes a lot of money to its employees but still if you want... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Pay By Touch layoffs begin with SmartShop "originator"
A tipster tells us Gary Hawkins, "the originator and moving force for SmartShop, Pay By Touch's only successful product, has been let go." This, our source says, "would indicate that Eula Adams and company have no interest in continuing the business, but plan to close it down and sell it off." This follows news that court-appointed consultant Tom Lumsden had secured a $9 million loan in order to catch up on missed payrolls, and layoffs were to be announced this week.
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Comment by fatbastard: Aye, the welfare electronic payment thing and the credit card payment processors were the only real revenue generators. Hell, I... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Wondering who was willing to put up $9 million to bail out Pay By Touch, the troubled San Francisco biometrics firm? Current backers, collectively holding $96 million in debt, are Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, Denarius Touch and Plainfield Asset Management. What's that old saying about throwing good money? [VentureBeat]
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Comment by fatbastard: Och-Ziff is run by a bunch of tards. Barrons ripped them to shreds last week or so. Great time to... more » | Other threads
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eula adams
Pay By Touch new boss could be worse than old boss
Pay By Touch CEO John Rogers is definitely out of the troubled San Francisco biometrics company, an employee tipster tells us. But the new boss, COO Eula Adams, may not be all that better. "From an employee perspective, in regard to stock options, Adams may be worse than Rogers, as hard as that may be to believe," he writes. He explains this sentiment in a long email. Here's the short version. More »
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Comment by prosperlender: prosper users are asking the same questions. if there are any experts here who would like to share what happened... more » | Other threads
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pay by touch
Happy holidays! Pay By Touch layoffs to be announced next week
Pay By Touch, the biometric payments firm run into the ground by cocaine addict and convicted felon CEO John Rogers, will announce layoffs "immediately after the Thanksgiving holiday," a tipster tells us. Who among Pay By Touch's 700-plus employees can expect their sudden parole? More »
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Comment by ron_burgundy: "Rogers had one good idea" Uh...what was that? Certainly not the idea of paying with your thumb. more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Tom Lumsden, Pay By Touch's superhero
Who's the lucky chap appointed by the Delaware Chancery Court to oversee the mess that is Pay By Touch? That'd be Tom Lumsden, senior managing director at advisory firm FTI Consulting. He's spent 29 years getting companies shipshape, and if his leaked memo is any indication, he's all about getting things done. He's been on the job for maybe four business days and has already secured $9 million to help Pay By Touch do important things like pay employees. More »
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Comment by SFJT: Yeah, if it wasn't for that darn Planfield, PBT would be alright, it was only 2.75 billion transactions from making... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Pay By Touch to pay employees by Thanksgiving
Pay By Touch, the company whose biometric technology lets you ... well, yes, that ... may finally pay its employees who have worked pro bono for the past six weeks. Something to do with founder and convicted felon John Rogers skipping town. According to a forwarded memo (posted after the jump), court appointed custodian Tom Lumsden has cashed in some favors to raise $9 million to put toward one of the three missed payroll periods and cover employee benefits and expenses. An added bonus: the funds are enough, Lumsden writes, to "enable me to commit that you will be paid going forward for this month and beyond." So why aren't employees receiving all that they're owed? Good question. At least those foolish enough to stick around can have a happy Turkey Day knowing that, with court approval, they'll receive a paycheck this Wednesday. Two things Lumsden didn't say: Who gave the company that $9 million, and what strings were attached to the money. More » -
bad ideas
Why Pay By Touch was doomed from the start
You can't say nobody saw Pay By Touch's demise coming. Remember the recent college grad Pay By Touch CEO John Rogers said he would sic a former Israeli secret agent on? Here's an executive summary of the paper he wrote back in 2004 titled "Credit Card Fraud, Biometrics, and the Pay By Touch Method." More »
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Comment by PBTFE: Are you joking? The payment processor (formerly Card Systems) sucked the life and bank account out of this start up.... more » | Other threads
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john rogers
Pay By Touch CEO's felonious rampage
Pay By Touch, the San Francisco biometrics company in the middle of a legal implosion, employs over 700 people in offices scattered across the country. Previously, we reported that the man at the top, cocaine addict CEO John Rogers, is a convicted felon. Word out of Pay By Touch, however, is that Rogers had his 1998 felony converted to a misdemeanor. Fine. Show us those papers. But either way, a new legal classification won't change what Rogers actually did to his ex-girlfriend and her property. Here are the legal documents detailing the incident so you can see for yourself. It's all there: legal threats, destroyed kitchens, and a promise to make her life a "living hell." Our source has asked us to blur the victim's name. More »
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Comment by 0x6772: Missed a few blurrings of Miss C's name there, guys. more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Pay By Touch's gory legal history
A source tips us off to how Pay By Touch CEO John Rogers celebrated his 40th birthday at the office. "They had a cake decorated with '240 by 40,' which meant $240 million raised by the time he was 40. The guy is a serious egomaniac." An egomaniac whose company faced legal trouble almost since its formation. If you're the sort who slows down to check out the wreck on the other side of the road, here's the whole sordid history, culled from mountains of legal filings. More »
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Comment by 0x6772: This is just priceless: "Rogers's mother takes Robertson's job." "Mommy, the scary old witch in HR won't let me do what... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Court forces Pay By Touch to hand over the reins
Pay By Touch continues to get slapped around legally. A Delaware court has ordered it be placed under outside control, thanks to investor concerns over management. No kidding? Convicted felon and CEO John Rogers blew $190 million-plus in venture funding and has a slew of unpaid employees. He also has a bad case of moral bankruptcy.
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Comment by Owen Thomas: @0x6772: I've knocked over MJ's flat-panel TV. That ought to learn her but good. more » | Other threads
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pay by touch
Pay By Touch CEO threatened critic with Israeli Mossad agent
Our tale begins with a fresh-faced college grad who, taken in by its gloss of Jetsons futurism, say his career in the biometrics payments industry. Scan your thumbprint, pay your groceries! Who wouldn't fall in love? At the time, the biggest player in the industry was Pay By Touch, the company founded by cocaine addict John Rogers. But when our source took a closer look at the company, he reeled, seeing an ever-shifting executive team and a bad business structure. So our disillusioned young biometrician wrote a little post-college dissertation on the company. His white paper got around to investors, and this displeased Rogers. Here's the threatening missive Rogers composed in response: More »
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Comment by ScalaWag: @mandarin: All your thumbs are belong to us. You will be assimilated. more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
A June memo predicted Pay By Touch's downfall
Back in June 2004, an email from biometrics firm Pay By Touch went out to potential investors. It touted a "very special & very unusual" investment opportunity. Three years later, Pay By Touch investors were sending out a very different kind of memo about their special and unusual investment. Pay By Touch is the 750-employee company run by financially and morally bankrupt convicted felon John Rogers. The subject line of the recent missive? "The time for change is now." Here's the 100-word version. More » -
deathwatch
Pay By Touch founder addicted to cocaine, new CFOs
Pay By Touch CEO John Rogers has an addiction problem. And we're not talking about his cocaine habit, which multiple sources confirm often kept the convicted felon out of the office for days at a time. During his rocky tenure at the top of the company, Rogers had a bad habit of milling through new CEOs and CFOs. More »
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Comment by Fontana: Mayor Gavin's Daddy, William Newsome used to be on this Board...... more » | Other threads
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exclusive
Pay By Touch CEO a convicted felon
Pay By Touch CEO John Rogers is more than just financially and morally bankrupt. He's also a convicted felon. It's a tiny little fact Rogers never managed to tell Pay By Touch's investors, raising the possibility he could be convicted of fraud. Here are his conviction papers, provided by a tipster. We're also hearing that Rogers might have had an addiction that kept him out of the office for weeks at a time, but we're still looking for the smoking gun on that. Let us know if Rogers buried it in your back yard.
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Comment by Trackback: (This story has been updated with company response, and a copy of a leaked memo from an investor alarmed about... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Pay By Touch founder files for bankruptcy
John Rogers, the founder of biometrics startup Pay By Touch, has filed for personal bankruptcy, the San Francisco Business Times reports. On top of that, four employees are seeking $60,000 or more in back pay from the company, and are trying to force Pay By Touch into bankruptcy to get what they're owed. Pay By Touch is not actually in bankruptcy yet, and the company could try to oppose the move in court or come to a settlement. Rogers, who has a controversial past, holds two-thirds of the company. But investors who have arranged a $163 million loan for the company are suing in a dispute over the makeup of the board. Add that credit line to the $190 million in venture capital the company has raised. With $350 million in stake, you'd think investors would be fighting over how to salvage something from this troubled company.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Nicholas Carlson: @SFJT: This I need to hear about. Shoot me an email? more » | Other threads
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pay by touch
Founder had history of bad behavior
The investors whose $190 million investment in biometrics startup Pay by Touch is now at risk can't say they didn't know any better. Founder and chairman John Rogers "is just this side of a con man," writes a Valleywag commenter who claims to be a former Pay by Touch employee. Rogers, it turns out, has a history of scandals. There was the time Rogers reportedly blackmailed his girlfriend's husband with threats to turn the cuckold into the IRS. Charming, eh? Here are highlights from a 2001 article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: More »
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Comment by Trackback: (This story has been updated with company response, and a copy of a leaked memo from an investor alarmed about... more » | Other threads
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deathwatch
Pay By Touch to close up shop?
Despite glowing reviews in the press for its biometric payment system, "serial venture raisers (and huge burners)" Pay By Touch is going under, a tipster tells us — and hints that a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is possible. Apparently founder and chairman John Rogers has gone missing after a tenure marked by what our tipster called a "spend big, live big, party big, girls, drugs, meals binge of a global scale." Sounds like a fun way to burn through nearly $200 million, raised from the likes of Mobius Venture Capital, the Getty family, and Global Trust Ventures. In a very unusual move, Global Trust cofounder Robert Sigler joined the company as its CFO in July. As far as we've heard, investors never get their hands dirty working at a company in their portfolio — unless they suspect something's going seriously wrong, and they want to pore over the books. Any idea what Sigler has been seeing? Tell us more.
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Comment by Rlot: Sigler is no CFO either. I've seen his handy work first hand as clueless a con man as Rogers.... more » | Other threads
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