Start-ups, ‘lies’ and hell in a cell for SA founder
Details of a US case involving SA man read like a film script
Heated arguments on a Cape Town yacht, a $42.5m (R632m) initial coin offering, a deal cut in a Camps Bay dining room and a prison dorm in New York's infamous Rikers Island. It might read like an excerpt from Martin Scorsese's 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street, but these are the details that have emerged in a court case in the US involving a South African businessman. Former Springleap CEO Eran Eyal was last month charged with fraud in New York over allegations that he misrepresented details of his former start-up to steal $600,000 from investors. If convicted he faces up to 15 years in prison. Eyal was released from Rikers Island on Tuesday, three weeks after he was arrested, after posting bail of $250,000. Springleap — which Eyal founded in 2008 with entrepreneur Eric Edelstein, who split from the company in 2012 — was a global crowdsourcing company that offered marketing, digital media and platform design services, until Eyal shut it in early 2016. Eyal this week proclaimed his in...
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