Highland Capital Partners, which is already an investor in Leap Motion, has committed another $25 million to back the young startup. To do so, it?s established the Leap Fund, which is designed to find and put money into innovative startups who are building new applications that take advantage of its 3-D gesture control.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ZzDOCtgqXpk/
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By Bernard Vaughan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former fund manager John Mattera was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Friday, after pleading guilty of defrauding investors of $13 million with a story that he put their money in Facebook Inc and Groupon Inc shares before the companies went public.
U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan said the sentence, at the high end of what prosecutors requested, was warranted because Mattera devastated his clients' savings, and also because of four prior convictions related to fraud and theft. Mattera had requested a sentence of less than four years.
"You hurt a lot of people in a very serious way," Sullivan said, after delivering the sentence. "You've left a lot of wreckage in your path."
Mattera, 51, former chairman of the advisory board for mutual fund Praetorian Global Fund Ltd, pleaded guilty in October to charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud in connection with the scheme.
He admitted transferring $11 million from investors into an escrow account instead of safeguarding it ahead of the highly anticipated initial public offerings.
He also admitted taking $2 million more from investors who thought he was investing in Facebook and Groupon while they were still private. Instead, prosecutors said Mattera spent nearly $4 million of it on luxury cars, jewelry, personal taxes and a lawsuit settlement.
Mattera had two Rolls Royces and a Ferrari when he was arrested, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene Ingoglia said.
"It's just blatant fraud," Ingoglia said.
As part of his plea, Mattera agreed to pay restitution to the defrauded investors and forfeit $11.8 million.
One investor, Marisa Light Cain, 51, lashed out at Mattera in court on Friday. She said she lost $100,000 in the scheme after going through a difficult divorce, and Mattera's sophisticated deception included a fake audit letter from KPMG and a full prospectus.
"I want to let Mr. Mattera know that I lost my life savings," Cain said. "I want you to know that I have a son out there who will not be educated in college as he should be" because of the fraud.
Cain said Mattera's 11-year sentence was of little solace. "I don't think it's long enough, personally," she said after the hearing.
"I'm very sorry to all the victims," Mattera told Sullivan before the judge sentenced him. "I'm very sorry to my family."
The sentence was substantially larger than several insider trading-related sentencings Sullivan has handed down in recent months. He sentenced two former hedge fund managers, Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson, for example, to 4-1/2 and 6-1/2 years in prison, respectively.
Sullivan said Mattera got the longer sentence because of his lengthy criminal background. Mattera failed to seize multiple opportunities to turn his life around, Sullivan said.
"These crimes are just so selfish," Sullivan said. "This is money that people took years and years to save, and it was squandered."
The case is USA v John Mattera, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 12-00127.
(Reporting by Bernard Vaughan; Editing by David Gregorio)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fund-manager-gets-11-years-facebook-groupon-shares-174631964.html
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Do you think that you threw yourself into athletics as a way to compensate for some of your academic struggles?
Most definitely. I wanted to show the world. I wanted to show them that I was somebody. You make bad grades, and then suddenly they?re putting you in the newspaper for breaking the high-school national record and the junior world record, stuff like that. People would say, ?Wow!? I went from being that troubled kid who was fighting because he was picked on to being in the newspaper every week for doing something extraordinary.
Speaking of extraordinary, in researching this article, we found out about your Uncle Chudd, who almost sounds as if he were a character from a tall tale that you might write about. Can you tell us what he was like?
He was me in a different time. He was my grandmother?s favorite cousin, and he would board at her house while he worked in the woods. I come from a logging area in East Texas called Silsbee, and he lived in between Jasper and Silsbee. I?d hear Paul Bunyan-like stories of him hooking chains to logs and pulling them out of the mud?just all of this crazy stuff. He never wore shoes. He always had on moccasins because they couldn?t find any shoes to fit him. Listening to my grandmother tell these stories was just amazing to me, and I think it helped give me a respect for strength. I reveled in the fact that one day I could be strong like that.
You?re now in your 17th year with WWE as a Superstar. What?s the secret to your longevity?
Focus?and being a businessman. And I look at this as a business. It?s not just entertainment; it?s about being able to market yourself and stay relevant, and I?ve been able to do that. And also, I have the luxury of being the strongest man in the world. There are still things I can do that these young guys can?t do. I may not be able to do it as much as I used to, but I can do it once!
During the past two decades, what?s one thing that hasn?t changed about Mark Henry?
That I?ve always been helpful. I?ve helped out a lot of people. The Rock, John Cena, Big Show, Randy Orton, the NXT guys, The Prime Time Players, Zack Ryder?the list goes on. I take a lot of pride in giving people advice and helping them out backstage. I?ve had a lot of help myself, so I figure it?s only right to give it back. Here?s another thing that hasn?t changed?my car. I still have the Hummer I won at the Arnold Classic! I drive it every time that I?m home. I got it in 2002, and it only has 89,000 miles on it. Of course, I?m on the road a lot, so I don?t drive it too often, but when I?m home, it?s still my car. I?ve taken really good care of it over the years, so it?s in great shape. That?s how I am with anything. Once I?m in, I?m in!
We imagine that that kind of backstage help is valuable in the WWE locker room, where the wrong move can put you in some hot water.
You have to be respectful of the people you work with and, in some cases, the people you work against. If you have differences, you get behind closed doors and say, ?Hey man, we?ve got a problem. We need to work it out.? At times I?ve been kind of a legal presence, representing both sides: the impartial party making sure the action stays where it belongs?in the ring, not in the back.
To read more from this exclusive interview including Mark Henry?s run-in with Andre the Giant, pick up the all American issue?featuring John Cena now or SUBSCRIBE HERE?and save 70 percent off newsstand sale price.
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View CommentsSource: http://www.wwe.com/magazine/a-man-divided
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House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Vice President Joe Biden talk during ceremony to dedicate the statue of Frederick Douglass, Wednesday, June 19, 2013, in the Emancipation Hall of the United States Visitor Center on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Vice President Joe Biden talk during ceremony to dedicate the statue of Frederick Douglass, Wednesday, June 19, 2013, in the Emancipation Hall of the United States Visitor Center on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The immigration protesters advanced on the news conference, poking signs that read "Do Not Reward Criminals" and "No Amnesty!" over the heads of Republicans who had just finished speaking about finding a civilized tone in the year's most difficult debate.
As the politicians ducked out of camera range, one Hispanic pastor who had appeared with them, Becky Keenan, instead turned toward the protesters and took a photo. They began to yell at her. Keenan ignored them, quietly explaining why House Speaker John Boehner is bothering to pursue agreement on the headache that is immigration reform.
"If the Republican Party wants to regain the Hispanic vote, which they so miserably lost in the last election, they're going to have to let Latinos know they are wanted," Keenan, pastor of Gulf Meadows Church in Houston, said after the hubbub Wednesday had subsided. "They are going to have to deal with immigration reform."
Six months after Hispanics overwhelmingly helped return President Barack Obama to office and control of the Senate to Democrats, Boehner is helping lead the GOP effort to bite into that base of support ? or at least stop alienating a demographic that accounts for 17 percent of the nation. That means getting a new policy on immigration, perhaps the most delicate political dance of Boehner's career.
Immigration separates Republicans from one another as much if not more than it separates them from Democrats. They don't trust Boehner to hew to the so-called Hastert Rule, named after former GOP Speaker Dennis Hastert, though it was more a goal than a set rule. During the eight years he ran the House, he had a policy of allowing votes only on those bills that were supported by a majority of Republican members.
Boehner has already disregarded his predecessor's policy three times this year ? on the Violence Against Women Act, the "fiscal cliff" and aid to victims of Superstorm Sandy ? letting Democrats drive the outcome of legislation in the GOP-controlled House. One Republican, California Rep. Dana Roherbacher, said he'd pursue Boehner's ouster were the speaker to break the majority rule on immigration.
The speaker reassured his caucus on Tuesday that he won't bring an immigration bill to the floor for a vote unless it has support from a majority of House Republicans, or allow a bill that lacks the border security provisions conservatives are demanding.
Twenty-four hours later, Boehner pirouetted to what participants said was his first-ever meeting with the liberal-leaning Congressional Hispanic Caucus, where he belabored the obvious: Any such bill that passes the House is not likely to be the last word on immigration reform. The Senate was working through its own bill, and any finished product was likely to be written by a bipartisan committee of House members and senators.
Boehner won raves and caucus members emerged predicting the bill would win a majority of both parties and become law by the end of the year.
"The meeting was wonderful," exclaimed Democratic Rep. Luis Guiterrez of Illinois.
"We are ready," said Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif. "The speaker made it very clear that he'd like the House to be ready as well."
"It was a meeting that gives us a lot of hope," said Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, the Hispanic Caucus chairman.
Boehner's hand-holding reflects the serious political stakes for his party after it failed to regain the presidency last fall and suffered net losses in both the Senate and House. More than a year out from yet another election with all 435 House seats on the ballot, the dilemma that faces him on immigration reform reflects a party-wide conundrum: how to draw in new voters, especially Hispanics and women, without alienating conservatives who make up the GOP's base?
The answer, according to a report the Republican National Committee commissioned in the wake of the 2012 election, rests in large part on the GOP agreeing to an overhaul of immigration law that provides some mechanism for providing legal status to millions of immigrants who either crossed into the country illegally or overstayed their visas.
"We must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform," the report said. "If we do not, our party's appeal will continue to shrink."
Whatever the final legislation looks like remains the question tying up Congress. Obama has placed the issue at the top of his domestic agenda but has maintained a low profile so as not to become a lightning rod for opponents. Polling suggests most Hispanic registered voters have a more negative impression of the GOP than of the Democratic Party.
Illustrating the divide within Boehner's House majority, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, an immigration hard-liner, convened a six-hour news conference outside the Capitol to highlight opposition to an Obama-endorsed Senate bill that could come to a final vote next week. People in the crowd held signs opposing "illegal aliens" and criticizing Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a conservative author of the Senate bill, as "Obama's Idiot."
Keenan, who had attended the Republican news conference just across a driveway from the King event, shook her head at the protesters but didn't engage them.
"A lot if it is fear-based," she said.
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