Former KidoZen CEO gets 2 years in prison for wire fraud, owes $5.5 million
Summary
Jesus Rodriguez, cofounder and former CEO of mobile backend as a service (MBaaS) company KidoZen, has been sentenced to two years in federal prison on one count of wire fraud after admitting earlier this year that a hedge fund transferred $5 million to the company based on false information, according to a court document filed earlier this month. In addition to the prison time, Rodriguez, who pled guilty in February following a grand jury indictment, owes more than $5.5 million in restitution. Rodriguez had claimed that KidoZen had more than 58 customers, was consistently profitable, had more than $1.2 million in reserve, and had received a letter from a major tech company conveying the company’s intent to buy KidoZen for around $50 million, according to the indictment filed in September. KidoZen faced many competitors, including Parse, which Facebook acquired in 2013 and will discontinue next year. Hat tip to the South Florida Business Journal for reporting today on the sentencing.