SEC Charges Former Chairman and CEO of Tech Co. Kubient With Fraud and Lying to Auditors

The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed charges against Paul D. Roberts, the former Chair, CEO, and president of Kubient Inc.; Joshua A. Weiss, the company’s former chief financial officer; and Grainne M. Coen, the company’s former audit committee chair, for their roles in a scheme in which Kubient overstated and misrepresented its revenue in connection with two public stock offerings. According to the SEC’s complaint against Roberts, shortly before Kubient’s initial public offering, Roberts fabricated reports that Kubient had successfully tested a software program that detects real-time fraud during digital advertising auctions, allowing Kubient to recognize $1.3 million in revenue, which was nearly all of its revenue leading up to the offering.