CEO Nabbed for Identity Theft From Own Employees

BuzzardsBay writes "And you think your boss is a jerk? Check out this VARBusiness story about a tech CEO the feds say was using his employees' personal information to apply for loans and credit cards to the tune of $1 million. Somewhere a whole lot of businesses who bought this guy's managed-services pitch are cringing with the thought of who is taking care of their data now. And 50 employees are gonna have to sweat out their credit reports even as they look for new jobs. Now that's a lousy boss!"

Comments

It's not what you signed up for, that's for sure

[BadAnalogyGuy]

While it may seem wholly inappropriate for a business to use its employees' identities to defraud credit companies into providing loans, perhaps we should take a step back and look at the reason the CEO had to resort to such tactics in the first place. It is deathly hard to get a business loan.

While some entrepreneurs in hot sectors have to beat off VCs with their bare hands, other entrepreneurs in more established sectors can't get a second glance from VCs, much less banks. So if you've got this great idea and no one is going to fund it, what do you do?

Either you say "screw it" and give up your dream, or you try to find different cash reserves. That's what the CEO did. If the company did well, the payoff would be more than enough to pay back all the loans and extra on top of that for the burden of putting the employees in debt inwittingly.

I'm not saying that the CEO should be let off the hook for his criminal actions. I just think that the system should be set up to reward risk takers rather than banks that refuse to lend. It would go a long way towards improving the economy.

Still think so

[syousef]

Actually I still think my boss is a jerk...

(I'm definitely kidding. Got 2 of the best bosses I've ever had just at the moment. And they don't even read slashdot, so this isn't just a suck up).