NS8 co-founder pleads guilty to defrauding investors of over $123 million

The co-founder and former chief executive of the cyberfraud prevention company NS8 today pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court of using fraudulent financial data to obtain tens of millions of dollars in investments.

Adam Rogas, who also served as the Las Vegas-based firm’s chief financial officer and board member, was accused of altering bank statements to show tens of millions of dollars in fictitious customer revenue and bank balances. In 2019, somewhere between 40% and 95% of the company’s balance sheet assets did not exist, according to prosecutors.

NS8, which sold technology to help online vendors assess fraud risks of customer transactions, used these made-up numbers to raise approximately $123 million in Series A funding. Part of that investment was later used to conduct a tender offer, allowing Rogas to pocket $17.5 million in proceeds. 

“Today, Adam Rogas admitted to being the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. “While claiming to be in the fraud prevention business, Rogas himself defrauded investors in his company of over $100 million. Now Rogas will be held accountable for his fraudulent scheme.”

In addition to falsifying numbers, Rogas was accused of providing the fraudulent bank records to auditors who were conducting due diligence on behalf of the investors. According to a legal complaint, the resulting due diligence report led multiple investment firms into investing tens of millions of dollars into NS8.

Following Rogas’ arrest, NS8 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2020. The company’s website now redirects to IgniteTech, an enterprise software firm that acquired the brand from Avolin in October 2021, according to a press release. 

Rogas, 44, currently faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for securities fraud.