Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Builder.ai’s former chief financial officer was subpoenaed by US prosecutors, as authorities investigate the circumstances around the collapse of the Microsoft-backed start-up.
The subpoena, seen by the Financial Times, requested that Andres Elizondo appear before a grand jury in a Manhattan court for questioning in September.
Elizondo oversaw the London-based company’s global finances from 2021 to 2023. He was stopped by the FBI in August on a flight stopover in Dallas, according to people familiar with the matter.
Those people said agents handed Elizondo a subpoena signed by Jay Clayton, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Elizondo was not a suspect or target of any investigation and had willingly co-operated, according to a person briefed on the matter. He declined to comment.
Builder.ai, co-founded by the group’s former chief executive and self-declared “chief wizard” Sachin Dev Duggal, grew to be one of the UK’s biggest technology start-ups based on its promise revolutionise the development of apps and websites with artificial intelligence.
Once valued at more than $1bn, Builder.ai collapsed into insolvency in May after an internal investigation found evidence of potentially bogus sales and it revised down revenues to just a quarter of prior estimates.
In June the FT revealed that Builder.ai was suspected of using a broader range of methods to inflate some of its revenues, including improperly booked discounts, tiny upfront deposits and seemingly circular transactions with key customers.
Duggal’s lawyers disputed the accuracy of the allegations. A previous set of lawyers that he and Builder.ai hired last year said that neither Duggal nor the company had misreported sales figures.
Before its unravelling, the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York requested that Builder.ai hand over documents relating to its financial reporting, accounting practices and customer relationships.
The subpoena served to Elizondo in August requested that he provide communications from January 2018 to the present with multiple people connected with the business, including current, former and potential creditors.
The notice also asked him to provide any financial records or documents or communications “regarding the accuracy or completeness of Builder.ai/Engineer.ai’s financial disclosures to external recipients” and the accuracy or completeness of the company’s “reporting of bookings, sales or revenue”.
Engineer.ai was the former name of the Builder.ai group.
According to one of the people familiar with the matter, FBI agents were downloading emails and documents from Builder.ai’s Google cloud system as recently as last week.
Elizondo served as Builder.ai’s group CFO from February 2021 to May 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile, although lawyers for Builder.ai previously told the FT he left in late July that year. The company was still searching for a formal replacement when it collapsed earlier this year.
Builder.ai declined to comment. The US Southern District of New York could not immediately be reached for comment. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
Read the full article here
