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Lying in investor update was merely the tip of the iceberg. There was lots more, fabricating customer traction pre-investment, paying oneself back-pay for months spent twiddling thumbs pre-investment (before I was involved), etc.

My lesson from the whole kerfuffle was that investors (at least the ones I’d dealt with) prefer hustle over integrity and execution abilities.

This makes sense because investors in startups just care that they aren't left holding the bag. As long as they aren't the final fool in the buy in chain, they don't care.

If I give you a dollar and you say it’s being spent wisely, Beyonce loves the product, you’re about to land Taylor Swift as pro bono public ambassador… yeah that’s fraud.

It's encouraging future investment on a false pretext. I'd say that's fraud.