Financial Software - Monday, October 29, 2007
Judge Denies $10M Bribe To CEO
Versus Financial is a pretty shady story that casts an ugly light on both its CEO and its VCs. Here are the facts.
+ Verus Financial Management sold to a British company for $325M in 2005.
+ CEO Richardson M. Roberts said in a lawsuit that he only agreed to the deal because he had been promised a $10M from Verus' backers San Francisco-based Financial Technology Ventures.
+ "Under his own admissions, (Roberts) extracted a payment from another shareholder in exchange for supporting, as CEO, an action that he otherwise did not think was in the best interest of the shareholders," wrote presiding Judge AletaTrauger who denied Roberts his claim to be paid $10M from Financial Technology Ventures.
+ Roberts argued that he needed the $10M to help finance his divorce from his wife, however, he stood to make $50M+ from the sale of Verus.
Read - AP story
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