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Four of the five charges brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York against Turkish entrepreneur Gokce Guven, founder of Kalder, have been dropped, leaving only one technical count in the case.
The dropped charges were wire fraud, identity theft, visa fraud and identity theft linked to a contract.
The remaining count concerns claims that the company’s growth data and some statements about brand partnerships were not expressed clearly enough.
Guven, a Robert College and UC Berkeley graduate who had ranked highly in Türkiye’s university entrance exam, spoke during the hearing about the company’s rapid growth.
“We were growing fast, moving very fast. As a young and sole founder, I am sorry for the incomplete communications made during the process,” Guven said.
Former and current Kalder employees, close friends and family members attended the hearing to support Guven.
After the hearing, several people close to her said the process was now behind them and that the focus had shifted to the company’s future.
According to the case file, $6.1 million of the alleged $6.7 million in investor losses remains in company accounts.
One of the key details in the file was that no investor had filed an official complaint.
With Kalder’s ongoing sale process, investors may recover their principal and could even make a profit, according to information in the file.
The file also showed that the investigation began after an ex-employee who had a dispute with the company made compensation demands worth millions of dollars.
Most federal cases in the U.S. end in settlements, and the SDNY case, described as unusual because it was filed without an investor complaint, also closed through an agreement between the parties.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office had previously announced a superseding indictment against Kalder A.S. founder and CEO Gokce Guven, alleging that she committed fraud while raising nearly $7 million from investors and obtained an “extraordinary ability” visa through false documents.
Guven had faced a requested sentence of 52 years in prison.
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