The Fall Of Overstock’s Mad King
Forbes, 30 September 2019
Recently, Patrick Byrne, The Founder And Longtime Ceo Of Former E-tailing Giant Overstock.com, Made Headlines By Resigning, Saying His Involvement As A Federal Informant In The Investigation Of Accused Russian Spy Maria Butina Made Performing His Duties Impossible. That’s Not The Whole Story. This Is.
It’s early May, and Patrick Byrne has just gotten off the phone with hip-hop artist Akon and is roaming barefoot in his elegant three-room suite on the top floor of The Jefferson hotel, a stone’s throw from Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. He grabs a Diet Coke, a pack of gummy bears and some M&Ms from a minibar hidden in a tasteful armoire, settles on a plush cream-colored sofa and begins to boast about the circumstances around which the Senegalese-American celebrity sought him out. “I hear he’s a musician. We share ambitions for Africa,” says Byrne, popping a gummy bear into his mouth.
