CFO | GeorgMedia

December 9, 2021

Whoop CFO Tricia Gugler shares how the booming health-tech company uses capital to innovate

The CFO Project: Future of Finance (In Partnership with J.P. Morgan) — Kazi Awal/Insider

Tricia Gulger, CFO, Whoop — Tricia Gulger, Whoop’s chief financial officer
Whoop

Whoop, a human-performance company, closed a significant funding round this year.
CFO Tricia Gugler told Insider about how it’s staying disciplined when deploying capital.
This article is part of the “CFO Project: Future of Finance” series that drills down on what’s on the agendas of some of today’s most influential financial executives.

For a monthly fee, Whoop provides members a wearable fitness band that records health data such as heart rate, sleep quality, and respiratory rate and presents them with insights about their performance and recovery.

The wrist strap — designed for 24/7 monitoring — has been spotted on professional athletes including LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Tiger Woods, and Michael Phelps. Whoop is the “official fitness wearable” of the Women’s Tennis Association, the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, CrossFit, and the “officially licensed recovery wearable” of the NFL Players Association. The brand has also signed partnerships with Division I athletic departments at Howard University, the University of Southern California, and, most recently, Boston College, to name a few.

In August, Whoop closed a $200 million Series F round, valuing the health-tech giant at $3.6 billion. Whoop said the influx of capital elevated it to one of the most successful stand-alone human-performance companies in the world.

The company, founded in 2012, has raised more than $400 million in venture capital to date.

At the center of the successful funding round was Chief Financial Officer Tricia Gugler, who joined Whoop in 2020 after serving as the vice president of finance at ThirdLove. Before that, Gugler was the vice president of finance and treasury at Stitch Fix.

Innovating on new investments

In an email interview with Insider, Gugler said Whoop leveraged its data and science team to create sophisticated predictive models for investment outcomes.

One of the tested investments, Gugler said, is Whoop’s recent acquisition of Push, a tech startup in Toronto that says it provides enhanced data on weightlifting performance.

“We’ll always keep the majority of our investments grounded in product and engineering, enabling us to innovate and provide the most advanced technology and features to our members,” she said.

Gugler said that though Whoop is still in the early growth stages, it was leveraging the recent capital to invest in several new initiatives, such as international expansion, women’s performance, Whoop Live (a way to visualize incoming health data), and enterprise work across verticals like healthcare and government.

“Our opportunity is large, which means we need to be disciplined in how we deploy our capital to drive growth in both the short and long term, while balancing bottom-line results and returns,” she said.

One of Whoop’s ambitions is to scale up across the globe. Gugler said that 27% of the business is international and that Whoop now has a marketing team in Dublin solely focused on international expansion.

“We believe being in the market with relevant content will enable us to connect better with our members and drive even stronger growth,” she said.

Perhaps Whoop’s most robust growth initiative is its investments in female athletes. The company recently announced the creation of a Women’s Performance Collective which supports product development and research around women’s performance.

Whoop said that as part of the program it created a diverse coalition of top athletes from around the world to test new product features and lead sports science research on women’s athletics.

In addition, Whoop partnered with Voice in Sport to support young women and help them optimize their performance: The initiative plans to give 100 collegiate athletes both Whoop and Voice in Sport memberships.

Whoop also recently rolled out a Menstrual Cycle Coaching feature designed to provide performance and recovery recommendations that align with hormonal shifts.

Gugler said Whoop’s allocation of investments toward these initiatives would support its focus on expanding its membership base through product features, community, research, and more.

Preparing for a future capital structure

While Whoop isn’t publicly traded, Gugler said Whoop would be ready if it chose to go public.

“We are very happy being a private company, but do believe WHOOP can be a successful company in the public markets,” Gugler said. “Although we have no specific plans, we are building our capability to be public company ready, so if and when we choose to go, we can.”

Read the original article on Business Insider

September 18, 2021

Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg is unlikely to flip on his boss, despite pressure from prosecutors, reports say

donald trump allen weisselberg — Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg looks on as then-U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, U.S., May 31, 2016.
Carlo Allegri/Reuters/File Photo

Donald Trump’s longtime CFO is unlikely to flip on his former boss, Bloomberg reported.
Allen Weisselberg, 74, was charged with 15 felony counts along with the Trump Organization.
Weisselberg reportedly believes that he could get off lightly, even if he is convicted.
See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Despite pressure from prosecutors, Donald Trump’s longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg is unlikely to flip on his boss, Bloomberg reported.

In July, Manhattan prosecutors charged the Trump Organization and Weisselberg with 15 felony counts, including a scheme to defraud, conspiracy, and grand larceny.

Both the organization and Weisselberg pleaded not guilty.

The charges were the first to come out of a three-year investigation into the former president’s company and its financial dealings.

While Weisselberg technically faces up to 15 years in prison, lawyers told Bloomberg that the executive is more likely to get between one and two years in jail due to the amount of money involved and his lack of a criminal record.

It means that prosecutors working for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance have limited bargaining power.

For months, Vance’s office has been attempting to pressure Weisselberg into cooperating with them for their broader investigation into Donald Trump and his company.

Bloomberg reported that Weisselberg will be weighing up his options and has likely decided to take the gamble that his sentence will be short even if convicted.

The 74-year-old has worked for the Trumps for most of his adult life, the outlet said. As CFO, he earned $940,000 a year.

Turning on his former boss would mean losing a hefty paycheck and would potentially expose himself to lawsuits by Trump Organization creditors, Bloomberg reported.

Weissellberg has also been unflinchingly loyal to Trump over the years.

“They are like Batman and Robin,” Barry Weisselberg’s ex-wife, Jennifer, told The New York Times.

“They’re a team. They’re not best friends. They don’t spend all their time together, but the world became so insular for Allen that he did not know anything else.”

In the July indictment, prosecutors said that the Trump Organization and Weisselberg paid executives with perks such as housing and cars to help them avoid income taxes. Weisselberg personally did not pay taxes on $1.7 million of his income.

Although most of the perks went to Weisselberg, his wife Hilary also got a Mercedes, Bloomberg said.

His son Barry is also said to have been a beneficiary of a rent-free apartment.

Bloomberg reported that Weisselberg’s family could be a pressure point for Vance, who could promise not to bring tax fraud charges against his loved ones in exchange for cooperation.

Conversely, Weisselberg’s family would likely suffer financial harm if he admitted guilt, which might put him off making any deal, the outlet said.

Following the indictment, Weisselberg was removed as CFO of the Trump Organization but still works for the company.

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer who is serving a three-year prison sentence linked to his work for Trump, said that Weisselberg was naive, thinking the former president would support him.

“The notion that Donald Trump will take care of Allen or any member of the Weisselberg family is comical,” Cohen told Bloomberg.

“For him to go to prison, expecting that Donald or the company would reciprocate upon his release, and ensure that his family is financially secure, is pure fantasy. Allen, of all people, knows this better than anyone else.”

Weisselberg is due to appear in court on Monday for the first time since his arraignment, Bloomberg said.

Read the original article on Business Insider

July 16, 2021

Siemens USA’s CFO details 3 strategies for C-suite leaders who are shaping the future of finance

Innovation C-Suite Banner: Dell Technologies Sponsor — Insider

Marsha Smith says it’s imperative that finance leaders “understand technology enough to work across the organization” as they make collective company decisions.

Siemens

Marsha Smith, the CFO of Siemens USA, says modernizing financial technologies boosts efficiency.
Smith emphasized that the drive to advance digitalization must come from C-suite leaders.
The right organizational mindset toward finance modernization is crucial, Smith told Insider.
This article is part of the “Innovation C-Suite” series about business growth and technology shifts.

For more than 160 years, Siemens USA has developed innovative technologies that support America’s critical infrastructure and vital industries. These technologies include auto manufacturing, mining industry solutions, and smart hospitals.

But according to Marsha Smith, the chief financial officer of Siemens USA, modernizing internal financial technologies and processes – from accounting to payroll – is essential for every organization, no matter how old or young the company is.

“If you don’t advance digitalization in finance and find new ways to do old things more effectively and efficiently, it’s hard to attract talent,” she said. While automation is often perceived as a massive transformation over decades, Smith added that individuals at Siemens USA are implementing new tools and processes all the time. “You need to make it exciting to come to your company and come up with new ways to do the same work,” she said.

The drive to advance digitalization in finance, however, must be a top-down initiative. “If it’s not a message that’s constantly being communicated to the organization, people won’t see it as a real need,” she said. The ideas, however, need to come from the bottom up: “Leaders have to open the door for their people to share ideas.”

Smith offered three tips for how C-Suite leadership can help shape a modern, automated future in finance:

1. Change the mindset around how people work

“People need to be willing to change how they work in order to work smarter,” Smith said. That means CFOs must focus on a different type of finance talent that works very closely with the IT department and already has knowledge of digital tools and processes. “One important thing I’ve learned along the way is that just because you implement a robot to do certain tasks for an individual that doesn’t mean the headcount is necessarily less,” she said. “It’s about hiring thinkers that can work across the company to transform finance as much as the rest of the company.”

2. Take one step at a time

Advancing finance digitalization doesn’t need to be (and can’t be) a massive one-and-done program, Smith said. Start with small projects, she explained, and take it one step at a time: “I think the low-hanging fruits, such as optimizing invoicing, purchase orders, or other workflows, are the most exciting ones,” she said. Even with a small starting point, she added, “people get excited when their tasks that used to take them two hours to do only take them 30 minutes to do right, and then they buy into it.” Slowly but surely, a whole group of employees will believe in what the CFO is pitching. “They see the impact on their daily work,” she said.

3. Understand the new CFO role

Finance leaders no longer fit a typical old-school profile. “We all need to understand technology enough to work across the organization to make good collective decisions,” Smith said. “What I’ve tried to do is at least open up the conversation to say, let’s find the automated tools and processes that are scalable, even though it’s a challenge since I’m not an expert on all the tools out there.” To that end, the CFO needs to employ team members with different skill sets. “They may have in-depth knowledge of accounting and finance, but we also need people who can improve on how we implement new automation technologies,” she said.

Overall, the amount of automation in finance has increased over time and continues to improve, which is crucial for the modern financial organization of the future, Smith said. As the CFO at Siemens USA, it’s important to lead with an eye toward getting people in different departments to learn from each other, and then scale those efforts, she explained.

“This comes from the top down, with our global CFO driving automation initiatives,” she said. “Then, it’s exciting for me to get to know the people in our company and how they are automated processes every day, whether it’s in accounting or in some other department.”

It all goes back to a C-Suite leadership that is willing to embrace change to stay competitive in a modern, automated world of finance. “Siemens is on its way to becoming more of a solution-oriented, ecosystem-oriented company and not just a conglomerate that sells hardware, so the whole company is changing,” Smith said. “The finance organization has to change with it.”

Read the original article on Business Insider

July 9, 2021

The CFO of Siemens USA explains how finance digitalization presents challenges and opportunities

Marsha Smith, the CFO of Siemens USA, hopes to transform the company by eventually implementing a cloud-based ERP.

Siemens

Marsha Smith, the CFO of Siemens USA and Siemens Mobility North America, is modernizing the company.
This year, Smith and the global CIO worked to improve financial processes through automation.
Scaling automation efforts presents both challenges and opportunities, Smith told Insider.
This article is part of the “Innovation C-Suite” series about business growth and technology shifts.

A great deal has changed at Siemens since Marsha Smith first joined the global technology and manufacturing company over two decades ago. In particular, Smith, who became the chief financial officer of Siemens USA and Siemens Mobility North America in January 2020, has witnessed changes regarding the company’s digitalization in finance.

“We still used typewriters back then to type POs,” she told Insider. She recalled how even just 10 years ago, the finance organization’s month-end close was entirely manual. “We would all sit around on the first of the month until 2 a.m., waiting for things to upload and making sure the numbers were right,” she said.

Now, most of Siemens’ financial processes – everything from financial planning and analysis to general accounting operations – are highly automated, with little to no manual work in Excel or on-premise ERP systems required. The organization has implemented chatbots, Robotic Process Automation, cloud computing, AI, and machine learning – even Blockchain and advanced analytics and forecasting – to modernize various areas within finance.

Challenges and opportunities in transforming financial processes

There’s still a long way to go to transform the finance organization in ways that free up capacity, reduce manual tasks, and enable mobile and 24/7 control. For example, implementing a cloud-based ERP across the global Siemens organization remains an unmet goal.

“It’s a large project with a pretty massive cost, so we have a global team and steering committee determining what we want in an ERP system,” Smith said. “Right now, we do all our procurement, project-controlling, and order management in the ERP, but do we need a ‘lean’ ERP? If so, how lean is lean?”

However, Smith and her team have also made significant strides to identify the most suitable automation opportunities, working regularly across the C-suite to help redesign financial processes with digitalization while retaining flexibility and decision-making.

For example, in January, Smith raised her hand and agreed to have the US finance organization serve as a Siemens digitalization pilot, working closely with the global chief information officer to implement process improvements through automation. “I knew that we were a big enough organization to provide useful results,” she said.

One of the pilot’s first projects was to automate a finance spreadsheet process. Traditionally, the process required employees to spend nearly two days at the end of each month manually entering data and collecting commentary from multiple businesses.

“The global IT team took five months to recreate and automate the entire process in a cloud-based tool,” Smith said. Now, it’s automatically available on the cloud and anyone can have access to it 24/7. “There is one set of financials with no quality issues and no manipulation allowed, which makes it easy to quickly create a report,” she explained.

The advantage of process automation

The beauty of these new automated processes, she emphasized, is their ability to scale. “The pilot project is now going to be rolled out to any country that wants to use it,” she said. “The global IT department worked with us for five months and now it’s just a matter of using the process elsewhere, whether it is Singapore or India.”

The need to scale automation in finance, she added, remains one of the organization’s biggest digitalization challenges.

“Everyone is trying to optimize and automate and reduce manual steps, but you may not realize that someone in another department has already figured it out,” she said. “So we have to figure out how to get people to learn from one another, to do something right and then scale it across the organization.”

That can become a tall mountain to climb, however, when the number of possible digital tools seems endless. “In the past, we had an ERP system and Excel, those were the tools, and everybody knew how to use them,” she explained. “Now, if someone is automating invoice processes, why did he choose one tool and not another? It can be hard to know what is the best one to implement.”

Digitalization skills are now considered core competencies when it comes to recruiting within the finance organization, Smith said. “The idea is to find people who already know how to use these tools so they can improve what we do,” she explained. “The goal for us is to learn as much from our new hires as they learn from us.”

Read the original article on Business Insider

June 17, 2021

The CFO of Dun & Bradstreet explains how the company transitioned its core systems to the cloud and pulled off one of the pandemic’s biggest tech IPOs

Bryan Hipsher helped Dun & Bradstreet update the company’s ERP and billing systems after accomplishing a successful IPO.

Dun & Bradstreet

Bryan Hipsher, the chief financial officer of Dun & Bradstreet, joined the company in February 2019.
In 2020, the company pulled off a remarkable tech IPO while implementing a new cloud ERP.
Hipsher said it’s critical for the modern CFO to be a strategic partner in technology innovation.
This article is part of our “Innovation C-Suite” series about business growth and technology shifts.

Bryan Hipsher, the CFO at the commercial data, analytics, and insights company Dun & Bradstreet, joined the company in February 2019 – shortly after an investor consortium took the company private after five decades on the New York Stock Exchange, with plans to transform and reemerge with an IPO in 2020.

A year later, of course, came the COVID-19 pandemic.

The IPO process quickly went virtual. Surprisingly, it turned out to be efficient even while teams worked remotely, said Hipsher.

“We didn’t have to spend time doing a traditional roadshow in multiple cities. We could have back-to-back video meetings, ” he said. “The ability to adapt and leverage technology was incredible, and both sides embraced using a virtual platform.”

The result, in July 2020, was one of the year’s biggest technology IPOs: Dun & Bradstreet raised $1.7 billion, 31% more than anticipated.

“We knew we had a core, mission-critical asset with a great brand and history,” Hipsher said. “It was a great experience for me, as the CFO, to help drive the outcome of the success of the business.”

The CFO as a driving force is equally as important for technology innovation as it is for shepherding the company through an IPO process, Hipsher said. It’s critical for the CFO to serve as a strategic partner within the organization, rather than as someone “who simply stands up and reads off results in an earnings call.”

That became crystal clear in 2020, when Hipsher realized that Dun & Bradstreet needed to transition from its “ancient” enterprise-resource-planning system to a modern software-as-a-service cloud platform.

“An IPO wasn’t enough for us last year,” Hipsher said. “So we spent nine months going through this fundamental technology transformation – soup to nuts.”

While the transformation was a heavy lift for multiple teams, Hipsher considered it essential to bring foundational ERP and billing systems up to date to optimize the company’s efforts.

“If you can measure it, you can improve it, so we needed the ability to shine a light on the organization’s performance through measuring financial outcomes,” he said. “I can’t ask my team to be a modern finance organization without modern tools.”

Fostering a collaborative dynamic with technology partners

Hipsher had experienced a similar technology implementation during his previous role as the senior vice president of finance at fintech Black Knight.

“That helped me understand how to work with my team to make them understand the benefits of a new ERP,” he said. “That is, how much more efficient it would be, with less time spent on rote manual processes and more focus on higher-end tasks.”

As the CFO, having a base understanding of technology infrastructure and development is essential to operate in a modern environment. “Just like finance is ubiquitous across all organizations, so is technology and so is data and analytics,” Hipsher said. “You need to have a disciplined project plan, the right cadence, and testing.”

Hipsher was able to work closely with Dun & Bradstreet’s systems and technology teams, keenly aware that he was ultimately accountable for the outcome of the new cloud ERP implementation, which included less customization than the old systems and more out-of-the-box features and functionality.

“If the technology side fails, I can’t say it’s the CTO’s fault,” he said. “So you have to have that working relationship with your technology partners to make sure you’re all rowing in the same direction.”

But technology is not a panacea or cure-all for any part of the company, including the finance organization. “We have to have the proper processes and procedures, and use technology to make it repeatable, consistent, and more efficient,” he said. “So we did a lot of work in the first year to revamp, which was a big transition for a tenured team and organization.”

Now that Dun & Bradstreet has been a publicly traded company again for over a year, Hipsher said he is excited that the transition to the new cloud ERP is complete.

“From the CFO perspective, one of the biggest changes since the IPO is the focus on investor interaction and quarterly earnings, so I’m excited to be at the stage of helping accelerate the new assets and data sets we are bringing to market for our clients,” Hipsher said. “That’s what really drives growth in an organization.”

Read the original article on Business Insider

June 14, 2021

Lordstown Motors slumps 15% on announcement of CEO and CFO resignation

FILE PHOTO: A view of the entrance to the West Plant at the General Motors Lordstown Complex, assembly plant in Warren, Ohio, U.S., November 26, 2018. REUTERS/Alan Freed — FILE PHOTO: A view of the entrance to the West Plant of the General Motors Lordstown Complex assembly plant in Warren. Reuters
Reuters

Lordstown Motors shares fell 15% Monday after the company announced the CEO and CFO resigned.
The resignations are effective immediately, according to a press release.
Shares of the electric-vehicle startup have now lost about half their value this year.
See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Lordstown Motors slumped 15% early Monday after two top executives announced their immediate resignation just days after the company said it may run out of cash.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Burns resigned from his position as CEO and board member, and Chief Financial Officer Julio Rodriguez resigned from his post, according to a company press release. Both are effective immediately.

The company appointed Lead Independent Director Angela Strand as the executive chairwoman to oversee the CEO transition until a permanent leader is identified, the company said. Becky Roof will serve as the interim Chief Financial Officer.

“As we transition to the commercial stage of our business – with planned commencement of limited production in late-September – we have to put in place a seasoned management team with deep experience leading and operating publicly-listed OEM companies,” the company said in its release.

Shares of the Lordstown, Ohio-based electric vehicle startup fell below $10 Thursday, meaning the stock has lost about half its value so far this year.

In 2019, the company purchased a former General Motors plant in Ohio to start producing the Endurance electric pickup this fall. But last week, the company told shareholders it might not have enough cash to start commercial production of its pickup this year, and it had “sufficient doubts” as to whether it would be able to meet its financial obligations.

In March, Lordstown was the target of short-seller Hindenburg Research, which accused the company of pumping up preorder numbers to generate investor interest.

Lordstown Motors went public in October via a special purpose acquisition company. It is among a string of electric-vehicle makers that saw their share price peak in February and have since declined.

Read the original article on Business Insider

May 7, 2021

The CFO of the world’s largest hedge fund is joining crypto firm NYDIG

2021 04 18T142112Z_354823741_RC2EYM94RGAK_RTRMADP_3_CRYPTO CURRENCY BITCOIN.JPG — The exchange rates and logos of bitcoin, ether, litecoin, and monero are seen on the display of a cryptocurrency ATM of blockchain payment service provider Bity at the House of Satochi bitcoin and blockchain shop in Zurich, Switzerland, March 4, 2021.
REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

John Dalby, CFO of Bridgewater Associates, is joining crypto firm NYDIG as CFO.
The executive is the latest high-profile executive move within the cryptocurrency space.
Dalby joins as NYDIG expands its operations, in step with the crypto market’s rapid rise.
Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.

John Dalby, CFO of Bridgewater Associates, is joining NYDIG, according to a statement Friday.

At NYDIG, a provider of investment and technology solutions for bitcoin, Dalby will serve as CFO.

Bridgewater told Bloomberg that Dalby will stay until the second quarter.

Dalby is the latest high-profile executive move in the cryptocurrency space.

Christopher Giancarlo, former chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, also known in the industry as “crypto dad,” joined BlockFi, a cryptocurrency financial services company, in April.

Brian Brooks, a former Coinbase executive who previously was the Acting Comptroller of the Currency under the Trump administration, took the helm as Binance US CEO in May. Brooks was dubbed as the “first fintech Comptroller” and “CryptoComptroller.”

Prior to joining Bridgewater, Dalby was CFO and COO at D.E. Shaw Renewables Investments. Before that, he enjoyed a 20-year career at UBS where he held the role of CFO at UBS Americas.

The appointment of Dalby comes during a period of rapid growth for NYDIG.

“The growth of NYDIG has been incredible,” he said in a statement. “I share NYDIG’s vision for Bitcoin’s ability to propel economic empowerment for all.”

The firm recently raised more than $300 million from a group of strategic partners including Stone Ridge Holdings Group, Morgan Stanley, New York Life, MassMutual, Liberty Mutual, Starr Companies, and FIS.

Earlier in May, NYDIG teamed up with fintech company Fidelity National Information Services to enable banks across the US to offer the cryptocurrency in coming months, CNBC first reported.

Banks are requesting bitcoin because they are seeing customers sending money to cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase, according to Yan Zhao, president of NYDIG.

The rally in cryptocurrencies soared in 2021 – with bitcoin rising 95% year to date, ether up 380%, and dogecoin surging 13,000%.

Read the original article on Business Insider

May 7, 2021

A former shoe company CFO admitted to siphoning $30 million to pay for diamonds and flights to tropical vacations

money — Boonchai Wedmakawand/Getty Images

The former CFO of a Massachusetts shoe company pleaded guilty to a $30 million embezzlement scheme.
64-year-old Richard Hajjar bought private flights to the Caribbean and diamonds with the money.
The company, Alden Shoe Co., terminated Hajjar in October 2019.
See more stories on Insider’s business page.

The former chief financial officer of a Massachusetts shoe company pleaded guilty to embezzling $30 million from the business over the course of several years, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

When 64-year-old Richard Hajjar was the CFO for Alden Shoe Co., he wrote checks to himself from the company and transferred business funds to his personal accounts, the DOJ said.

He used the money to “enrich himself” by buying “gifts and luxury travel for others close to him, including private flights to the Caribbean and diamond jewelry,” the Wednesday statement said.

In a civil lawsuit from Alden, the company said Hajjar spent some of the money on Bianca de la Garza, a Boston-based news anchor whom he’d developed a romantic relationship with at the time.

“They vacationed together often. And Mr. Hajjar purchased gifts for Ms. de la Garza worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,” the lawsuit filed in Suffolk County Superior Court read.

In total, Hajjar transferred about half, or $15 million, of the embezzled funds to de la Garza, and at one point purchased her a million-dollar co-op in New York City.

The scheme lasted from about 2011 to October 2019, when the company terminated him. Alden, a 137-year-old family-owned luxury men’s shoe-maker, did not respond to Insider’s request for comment on the story.

Before being terminated, Hajjar was Alden’s vice president and corporate secretary, a member of the board of directors, and the CFO.

According to the civil lawsuit, Hajjar worked at Alden for 30 years and became “a trusted advisor to the Tarlow family and a key employee at Alden.”

His lead attorney, Daniel Conley, of the Boston law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, PC, said Hajjar had more than just an employee-employer relationship with the company.

“He’s remorseful, very remorseful, and has accepted full responsibility for his actions,” Conley said to Insider Friday.

In the criminal case against him, Hajjar pleaded guilty to wire fraud, unlawful monetary transactions, and filing a false tax return, in which he didn’t claim the income from the embezzled funds. The charges come with 20-, 10-, and 3-year prison sentences, respectively, along with fines, according to the Justice Department statement.

The court, however, has conditionally accepted a range of 48 to 72 months in federal prison, which the judge will consider at the sentencing hearing on Sept. 15.

Conley said he’s hopeful that in sentencing the judge “considers the fact that Mr. Hajjar accepted full responsibility, is very sorry for his actions, and has returned millions of dollars,” totaling $4.5 million.

Read the original article on Business Insider

April 25, 2021

The Trump Organization’s longtime CFO reportedly said he keeps his distance from the ‘legal side’ of its financial matters

donald ivanka jr trump — Allen Weisselberg stands behind Donald Trump Jr., former President Donald Trump, and Ivanka Trump in 2017.
Evan Vucci/AP Photo

The Trump Organization CFO reportedly distanced himself from “legal” aspects of its money matters.
“That’s not my thing,” Allen Weisselberg said in a deposition, the New York Daily News reported.
The 2015 deposition hadn’t previously been reported, according to the Daily News.
See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Allen Weisselberg, former President Donald Trump’s longtime financial guru, said he maintains distance from the “legal side” of the family business’ finances, according to reports.

“That’s not my thing,” Weisselberg said in a 2015 deposition over Trump University, which was unearthed by the New York Daily News for a Sunday cover story.

Weisselberg, CFO of The Trump Organization, has served the Trump family since the 1973. During Trump’s time in office, Weisselberg was the only person outside the family to oversee his trust.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which was scrutinizing the company’s finances, reportedly attempted to “flip” Weisselberg as part of its investigation.

During the 2015 deposition, Weisselberg answered questions about how much he knew about potential wrongdoing the company, the Daily News reported. He was “eavesdropping” on some legal-related conversations but backed away, the report said.

He reportedly said: “Throughout all of our entities, people do know it’s important to involve me when it comes to financial matters because later on if things don’t prove out to be where they should be, they’ll have to deal with me on answering the question as to why.”

Insider has reached out to The Trump Organization for comment.

Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen told the House Intelligence Committee in 2019 that Weisselberg could shed light on the payments made to Stormy Daniels and others.

Weisselberg “knows of every dime that leaves the building,” former Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski wrote in a co-authored book, according to Politico.

Weisselberg’s eldest son, Barry Weisselberg, was also associated with the Trump Organization.

Weisselberg’s ex-daughter-in-law, Jennifer Weisselberg, earlier this year was cooperating with the investigation by the Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr.

After her divorce from Barry Weisselberg, Jennifer Weisselberg reportedly gave prosecutors seven boxes of Trump Organization documents.

Read the original article on Business Insider

February 25, 2021

GameStop spikes 104% in late-day surge as buying frenzy resumes

GameStop shares jumped 104% in the final hour of trading on Wednesday.
The sudden surge was met with multiple trading halts due to volatility.
GameStop was back in focus with news about the chief financial officer’s resignation.
Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

GameStop’s share price more than doubled in the final 30 minutes of trading on Wednesday as the buying frenzy that sent the stock skyrocketing in late January found renewed life.

The stock closed 104% higher, at $91.71, following a period in which trading was halted multiple times because of volatility.

GameStop was in focus following the news on Tuesday of Jim Bell’s resignation as the chief financial officer. Sources told Insider on Wednesday that Bell was forced to resign by the company’s board as part of a push by the activist investor and new board member Ryan Cohen to reshape the ailing retailer.

Wednesday’s wild final 30 minutes were reminiscent of the Reddit-driven buying spree that engulfed the stock in late January, pushing it to a dizzying all-time high of $483, up 2,464% year-to-date.

The day traders on Reddit had made it their express mission to squeeze short positions on GameStop stock, and their success resulted in massive losses for hedge funds and a congressional hearing.

Screen Shot 2021 02 24 at 3.23.52 PM — Markets Insider

Read the original article on Business Insider