When in poor countries they want to draw attention to the indecent lifestyle of a well-to-do, but possibly dishonest person, or when demonstrative searches are carried out as part of the fight against corruption, they certainly list in the frame or in the text the real estate of the scoundrel, his cars, and yes, a huge number of predominantly Swiss hours with and without complications.
For some reason, it is watches that are “rinsed” by journalists for a long time, and now everyone knows that a tourbillon is cool and expensive, even if they don’t understand what it is and why. Let's look at what modern scammers from the rich countries of the West spend their money on, suddenly the same lovers of luxury watches will come across there.
Elizabeth Holmes, CEO and founder of Theranos, was not shy about living alone in a huge mansion in Los Altos, California. At the same time, the company, that is, the investors who invested $ 1,1 billion in a medical startup, borne the cost of rent. Elizabeth Holmes, who was accused of fraud on a grand scale in 2018 (she deliberately misled investors and others that she owns some kind of revolutionary blood test technology) refused to fly commercial airlines, and as it turns out, she was often accompanied by up to 20 security people. What shines on her?
On January 3, 2022, Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty on four of the seven counts of conspiracy to defraud investors and fraud (the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on three other counts). Holmes was acquitted on four counts of patient fraud. The 37-year-old fraudster faces a fine and up to 20 years in prison for each count. The court will set the sentence in September.
She wore an ordinary steel Rolex Datejust.
In 2014 year Marcus and Mitch Weller caused quite a stir in Silicon Valley when they founded Skully, an augmented reality motorcycle helmet company, the Skully AR1. Skully raised over $2,4 million on the IndieGoGo platform for the release of the AR-1, but the company soon ran into trouble. Despite exceeding the fundraising target by nearly 1000%, the company repeatedly pushed back the AR-1 shipment date, citing logistical difficulties and technical problems in the early stages of production.
However, the two brothers actually spent most of their IndieGoGo money on renting an apartment in an upscale San Francisco neighborhood, buying two sports cars (a Dodge Viper and an Audi R8), as well as four motorcycles, limousine rentals, and entertainment at the "club for gentlemen." The total investment in the startup was $13 million, and no one has ever seen the helmet.
It is known that the founding brothers even bought food in the supermarket at a corporate expense, but no one has ever convicted them of buying expensive watches.
Mozido (mobile payment service) raised $314 million (among investors - MasterCard). In 2014, it was estimated at more than $ 2 billion, everyone saw a great future, but it was not there: the founder of the company, Michael Liberty, was inundated with lawsuits and allegations of fraud, which immediately affected the business prospects. In 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Liberty of defrauding 200 investors from whom he collected $55 million. Through shell companies and accounts, Michael Liberty withdrew and spent investors' funds on personal needs - for example, he paid for repairs to his ex-wife's home. But the purchase of watches at the expense of investors does not seem to appear in the case ... How is it?
Rothenberg Ventures had modest start-up capital, but caught the attention of the SEC fairly quickly - fund founder Mike Rothenberg imagines himself to be Bobby Axelrod, but at the expense of investors, spending at least 7 million of the fund's funds on luxury parties with celebrity performances and rent expensive VIP boxes for Super Cup matches. He also co-produced some Coldplay music video...
I confess that I studied a fair amount of foreign publications, even found an official list of American corrupt officials of various calibers, but - alas! – there were no watch lovers among them!
