Ex-CEO of social media startup admits duping investors by claiming company had ‘Shark Tank’ backing
Lukas I. Alpert, 22 July 2021
The former chief executive of a social media startup that pitched itself as a Facebook for small businesses has pleaded guilty to swindling investors using forged documents claiming a “Shark Tank” investor was a backer and that e-commerce platform Shopify wanted to buy the company.
Glen Zinszer, 51, of Liverpool, N.Y., also admitted he had instructed employees of his now-defunct company, Brazzlebox, to create fake user accounts, including for several high-profile people, to make it look to investors like the platform was performing better than it was, federal prosecutors said.
Zinszer founded the company in Syracuse in 2012 and over the next four years raised nearly $2.8 million from around 50 debt and equity investors — many of them small business owners around the city, according to court documents.
Investors said Zinszer made increasingly hard-to-believe claims about the company’s performance, including providing documents that purportedly showed the site had signed a lucrative ad deal with UPS, had enlisted FUBU founder and ABC-TV’s “Shark Tank” regular Daymond John as an investor and advisor, and had received a buyout offer from Shopify for $42 million, according to court documents.
