Silicon Valley ‘party animal’ VC faces second fraud trial
Mike Rothenberg is charged with raising millions of dollars by telling investors he would use it to back promising startups but actually kept a large portion of the money for his personal use.
By Joel Rosenblatt | Bloomberg
Mike Rothenberg, the venture capitalist once described as Silicon Valley’s “party animal,” faces a new criminal trial over charges he gouged investors after a jury failed to reach a verdict last year on separate bank fraud claims against him.
Rothenberg was indicted in 2020 for what prosecutors said were multiple fraudulent schemes from years earlier that helped him misappropriate almost $19 million.
The first trial, involving allegations that Rothenberg made false statements to Silicon Valley Bank to borrow funds, ended in November with jurors in Oakland, California, unable to reach a unanimous consensus on the two charges. Afterward, Rothenberg asked US District Judge Jon Tigar to acquit him, but Tigar refused in February. No retrial has been scheduled for those counts.
On Friday Tigar set a trial to start Oct. 2 over charges that Rothenberg raised millions of dollars telling investors he would use it to back promising startups but actually kept a large portion of the money for his personal use.
Whether prosecutors can win a conviction in the second trial will be an early test for Ismail Ramsey, who was sworn in last month as the new US attorney for San Francisco, an office that tackles high-profile crime in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area.
Hanni M. Fakhoury, a lawyer for Rothenberg, had no immediate comment.
Rothenberg was known for throwing lavish parties, which served as material for HBO’s show, “Silicon Valley.”
In 2018, Rothenberg settled allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission that he overcharged investors to fund personal projects. In a separate lawsuit, Rothenberg is fighting claims he refused to completely repay a loan of $4.25 million loan from Silicon Valley Bank. The bank’s parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month after it faced a bank run by depositors and was taken over by regulators.
The case is US v. Rothenberg, 20-cr-00266, US District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).
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