Nothing like fighting over scraps of a dead company.
Buzzfeed reports that a former bookkeeper at the augmented reality company Skully is suing the company, alleging that founders Marcus and Mitch Weller misappropriated corporate money for their personal use. Isabelle Faithhhauer says the Wellers forced her into practices that defrauded investors.
Those investors are pretty much wiped out. Skully, an Indiegogo star two years ago and the recipient of something like $11 million in venture funding, shut down last month in the midst of top management upheaval and a funding round that did not close. It’s not clear how many of the thousands of orders were ever fulfilled, but most estimates put it in the double digits.
Faithhauer’s suit was filed July 27 in Superior Court of California in San Francisco. (The case number is CGC16553270.) Among other bad HR practices, Faithhauer says she was demoted, replaced, and eventually dismissed because she complained about the spending practices; that she was asked to sign a severance agreement under terms that would have kept her from speaking out about those practices; and, that when she refused, was badmouthed to her next employer, causing her to lose that job. She’s asking for back pay and undefined damages.
One possible reading of the suit is that, as the company’s bookkeeper, Faithhauer could well find herself on the hook for any fiscal shenanigans that a bankruptcy (or subsequent lawsuits) may reveal. By pre-emptively suing, claiming she was forced into malfeasance, Faithhauer may be trying to get ahead of any unpleasantness coming her way.
