SEC Charges Former CEO of Tech Startup SKAEL with $30 Million Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against Baba Nadimpalli, the co-founder and former CEO of SKAEL Inc., a San Francisco-based private technology company that developed business automation software. According to the SEC’s complaint, from January 2021 through February 2022, Nadimpalli raised more than $30 million from investors by falsely claiming that SKAEL had millions of dollars in annually recurring revenue, which was more than 10 times the true amount. The complaint also alleges that Nadimpalli falsely suggested to investors that SKAEL’s customers included a number of well-known companies, and, further, that Nadimpalli forged bank statements to show nonexistent payments from customers. Nadimpalli also allegedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of SKAEL’s money on his own personal expenses, including payments on his house and car.