Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ Turkish CEO jailed in US for deceiving investors; visa fraud

A 27-year-old entrepreneur was jailed on October 30 after she allegedly misled investors with inflated business figures about her fintech-based startup.

Gökçe Güven, who was featured on Forbes ‘30 Under 30' list as the founder and CEO of New York-based technology startup Kalder Inc., was sentenced to 25 months in prison by a New York court last week. Alongside her prison sentence, Güven was ordered to pay $6.7m to her victims.

Güven, a Turkish citizen, allegedly misled investors about the size of her company’s revenues to raise $7 million during a seed funding round in April 2024.

Kalder, her technology startup, helped brands create their own customer rewards and loyalty programmes. The startup supported companies in monetising their loyalty programmes using the slogan "turn your rewards into revenue".

The court found that Güven distributed a pitch deck to investors, claiming the company had achieved $1.2 million in annual recurring revenue. The pitch claimed that the company had 28 clients, including premium chocolatier Godiva and the airline trade body IATA.

However, some of these brands reportedly entered limited pilot programmes, often at heavily discounted rates. Other companies simply had no agreement with Kalder.

“She promised more than a dozen venture capital investors that Kalder had increasing revenue and a growing customer base—none of which was true—and then deployed those same lies and forgeries to obtain an immigration benefit,” US Attorney Jamie McDonald said in a statement.

Prosecutors also highlighted that Güven created an additional set of financial records to conceal the company’s actual financial position. One contained the original information prepared by an external accounting firm, while the other, prepared by Güven, contained inflated figures. She allegedly shared the false financial record to deceive investors.

Apart from this, Güvenalso faked documents to pursue an O-1A visa, which is issued to individuals who possess extraordinary ability in the sciences, education, business, or athletics. She submitted multiple reference letters, which she claimed were signed by business executives, to obtain the visa. However, it was found that Güven herself signed the letter without the executives' knowledge or consent. Though she was granted the visa in 2025, it was revoked.