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A 26-year-old technology entrepreneur who founded a New York-based fintech startup defrauded investors of approximately $7 million through fabricated financial documents and false claims about brand partnerships, then used similar misrepresentations to obtain a U.S. visa, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
Gokce Guven, founder and CEO of Kalder Inc., faces charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, visa fraud and aggravated identity theft in a superseding indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Guven, a Turkish citizen, was previously arrested on Nov. 27, 2025.
Prosecutors allege that Guven maintained two sets of financial books for her company — one accurate set prepared by an outside accounting firm for internal use, and another with inflated figures that she distributed to investors and prospective investors during Kalder's seed funding round in 2024.
"As alleged, Gokce Guven built her seed round on fake revenue, inflated brand partnerships, and fabricated documents, and then used the same lies to secure a visa reserved for extraordinary ability," U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement.
According to the indictment, Guven marketed Kalder as a fintech-marketing platform that enabled brands to create and monetize customized reward programs. Beginning in April 2024, she solicited investments from dozens of venture capitalists using pitch materials that prosecutors say contained material misrepresentations.
The pitch deck claimed that 26 brands were "using Kalder" and 53 brands were in "live freemium" status, meaning they were using basic services at no charge. In reality, some brands had only entered limited-time pilot programs at heavily discounted prices, while other brands listed had no agreement with Kalder whatsoever, according to prosecutors.
Guven's materials also falsely reported that Kalder's annual recurring revenue had grown steadily month-over-month since February 2023, reaching $1.2 million by March 2024, the indictment states. Through these misrepresentations, Guven raised approximately $7 million from more than a dozen investors.
After her student visa expired, Guven applied for an O-1A visa, which is typically reserved for individuals demonstrating extraordinary ability in sciences, education, business or athletics. Prosecutors allege she repeated the same misrepresentations about Kalder's financial performance in her visa application.
Additionally, Guven allegedly forged letters of support purportedly signed by business executives by digitally signing the documents herself without the executives' knowledge or consent. She was granted the O-1A visa in fall 2025.
"Gokce Guven allegedly exaggerated her company's fiscal condition and partnerships to swindle more than seven million dollars from prospective investors before using these misrepresentations to unlawfully obtain a highly acclaimed visa to the United States," said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr.
Despite the alleged fraudulent activity, Guven appeared on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list for Marketing & Advertising in 2025. The Forbes profile, published Jan. 1, 2025, stated that Kalder had 28 clients including chocolatier Godiva and the International Air Transport Association, and reported that the company had raised $11 million in funding at a $35 million valuation with $1.5 million in revenue.
Guven faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count of securities fraud and wire fraud, 10 years for visa fraud, and a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years for aggravated identity theft. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan and is being handled by the Office's Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force.
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