Anatomy of a lie: Unpacking deceit in the startup world

It is late 2016 when Tony*, a venture capitalist (VC), gets a meeting request from a fintech investor he’s never heard of. Over coffee, the investor and his wife subtly flaunt their wealth and offer to back Tony’s business. They name-drop connections ostensibly cultivated over private dinners – Singapore’s president, the Prime Minister, large real estate developers who are apparently also familial relations.

This network will help make their upcoming blockchain fund a success, the investor later tells Tony, while hinting at links to state investors Temasek and GIC. “I thought he was just a guy who exaggerates a bit,” Tony recounts to The Business Times (BT). But he began hearing accounts of young startup founders who never got money the investor promised. “That’s what got me concerned.” 

Tony dodged a bullet. Meanwhile the investor, Joe Cho Seunghyun, became a poster boy for Singapore fintech. His private investment group Marvelstone launched the “world’s largest fintech hub” Lattice80, started a female-focused roboadviser, and dabbled in artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.