{"id":171124,"date":"2026-02-10T01:07:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T01:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/171124\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T01:07:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T01:07:59","slug":"ex-uc-berkeley-student-tech-start-up-founder-accused-of-defrauding-investors-out-of-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/171124\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-UC Berkeley Student, Tech Start-Up Founder Accused Of Defrauding Investors Out Of Millions"},"content":{"rendered":"

BERKELEY, CA \u2014A former UC Berkeley student and tech startup founder has been charged with fraud in connection with a multi-million dollar scheme involving her company, authorities<\/a> said. <\/p>\n

G\u00f6k\u00e7e G\u00fcven, 26, of Turkey, is accused of defrauding investors out of $7 million during the “seed round” of investing for her New York-based technology startup company, Kalder Inc. <\/p>\n

In 2022, G\u00fcven was quickly generating “significant publicity” in the New York tech scene<\/a> with her startup Kalder. She spoke on panels, attended networking events and was named to the Forbes “30 Under 30” list for marketing and advertising in late 2024, according to the United States Department of Justice. <\/p>\n

But behind the scenes, Kalder had little to no traction, according to prosecutors. This, according to prosecutors, prompted G\u00fcven to hatch a scheme that would defraud investors out of millions. <\/p>\n

Using “fake revenue, inflated brand partnerships, and fabricated documents, and then using the same lies to secure a visa reserved for extraordinary ability,” prosecutors said. <\/p>\n

“G\u00fcven allegedly curated a fa\u00e7ade of her business ingenuity to unlawfully reap financial and personal benefits,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said in a statement last month. “The FBI will continue to expose any manipulative tactics employed to advertise misleading investment opportunities at the cost of their related stakeholders.”<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old then tried to defraud her way into getting a visa, according to prosecutors, using Kalder as a sponsor and forging signatures from business executives. Ultimately, using many of the same tactics she used against investors, G\u00fcven secured an O-1A visa, prosecutors said. <\/p>\n

The 26-year-old was arrested on Nov. 27, 2025, in connection with the fraud investigation. She was charged on Jan. 29 with securities fraud and wire fraud \u2014 two crimes that carry 20-year prison sentences if convicted, prosecutors said. <\/p>\n

She also faces visa fraud and aggravated identity theft charges, prosecutors said. <\/p>\n

“This indictment displays the lengths that individuals will go through to defraud investors and the American public, and how they are ultimately caught to pay for their crimes,” United States Postal Inspection Service Inspector in Charge Ketty Larco-Ward said. “Investors placed their trust in this emerging fintech founder and CEO, only to be misled and scammed, as alleged.”<\/p>\n

G\u00fcven claims on LinkedIn<\/a> to have graduated from UC Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science in International Business. She served as a developer and engineering lead for Blockchain at Berkeley between 2018 and 2020 and was a researcher at Stanford University from 2016 to 2017, according to her LinkedIn. <\/p>\n

She went on to work for several companies, including Robinhood and OpenSea, before launching Kalder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERKELEY, CA \u2014A former UC Berkeley student and tech startup founder has been charged with fraud in connection…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-171124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}