US regulators nab Kickstarter cheat

"The settlement bars Mr Chevalier from misrepresenting any crowdfunding campaign he is involved with and from withholding refunds. It also imposes a repayment order of $111,793.71 that has been suspended because Mr Chevalier does not have enough money to repay it."

So basically, no punishment whatsoever. (I doubt there's any pending criminal charges)

> At the time he also pledged to refund backers

If that wasn't said he would have been free as a bird.

Not nesc. if you fail to deliver and fail to spend money on developing the product, you'd still likely be screwed.

However, if he spent $85k on himself [salary+expenses which were essentially just his money] and $35k on development, he'd have been fine.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9699721