Prosecutors in New York last week accused Omar Amanat of participating in a conspiracy to defraud investors in Kit Digital Inc., Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Lawyers for the prosecution told the judge he owes money all over world, and that Amanat claims he has just $2,700 in the bank and a negative net worth yet pays $10,000 a month to rent his $4.75 million home. His arrest widens the sprawling criminal case surrounding Kit Digital, a troubled video-software startup that became one of the largest of its kind before going bankrupt in 2013. Last September, former Chief Executive Kaleil Isaza Tuzman was jailed in Colombia at the request of U.S. prosecutors who accused him of cheating Kit investors. Rounding off Kit’s woes, former Chief Financial Officer Robin Smyth in March pleaded guilty to fraud, admitting he conspired to mislead investors and regulators about the company’s financial health. Smyth is cooperating with prosecutors. Amanat’s arrest muddies a roller-coaster life story which, by his own account and media reports, goes from early financial success to a brush with death on Sept. 11 and repeated legal brawls. Read more.
For a further analysis of commercial fraud, make sure to pick up a copy of ABI’s Fraud and Forensics: Piercing Through the Deception in a Commercial Fraud Case.
