😱 AI startup founder blew $4M in investments on a house, luxury cars, and a wedding!

I can't help but love these wild tales—who doesn’t enjoy a good plot twist? But seriously, don’t take this as a playbook. Alex Bekman and his wife Valerie Lau Bekman (who was also the company’s lawyer) got arrested last week in the US.

We're talking about GameOn (aka On), the startup that was all about AI chatbots. Founded in 2014, they snagged around $125 million in funding, but now they’re facing fraud charges of around $60 million! 😳

Here’s the scoop: Bekman and his wife allegedly spent $4M on themselves—think San Francisco mansion, private schools, luxury rides, and their nuptials. But wait, there’s more!

Bekman reportedly faked financial reports too! Prosecutors claim that GameOn's revenue was barely over $500k most years. Yet he sent out phony revenue figures like it was no biggie. From falsified letters from the CFO to fake audit reports, it was quite the elaborate scheme.

And get this—he even doctored bank statements to show a hefty $13M balance when it was really just about 25 bucks. 💸

This scandal came to light last summer when some employees noticed only 37 cents where there should’ve been around $11M! That led to Bekman's resignation and a probe uncovering all these fakes. With only about $550k left for around 60 staffers after layoffs, GameOn had to hit pause on operations.

[After his ousting last summer](https://t.co/kZsHV3Oyiu), Bekman claimed he left voluntarily for the good of the company and insisted there were inaccuracies in reports about him. Well, guess those “inaccuracies” just got a whole lot clearer! 😅

Interestingly enough, co-founder Kalin Stanoev isn’t implicated. He says he focused on product while Bekman handled finances—guess he picked the wrong partner there! 🤷‍♂️