Turkish entrepreneur Gokce Guven, who is the founder and CEO of the fintech startup Kalder, has been accused of several counts of fraud.

The Forbes 30 Under 30 list has witnessed multiple alumni confront fraud allegations, such as Sam Bankman-Fried, Charlie Javice, and Martin Shkreli. Currently, yet another individual from the list has been charged at the federal level.

As reported by TechCrunch, Gokce Guven, a 26-year-old Turkish citizen and the founder of the New York-based fintech startup, Kalder, has been indicted in the United States on several counts of purported fraud.

According to US prosecutors, Guven was charged last week with securities fraud, wire fraud, visa fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The US Department of Justice announced these charges, stating that the allegations pertain to Kalder’s seed funding round in April 2024.

Kalder, founded in 2022, announced that it assists businesses in developing and monetizing customer rewards programs through affiliate partnerships.

Guven was recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2025, which noted that her clientele included the chocolatier Godiva and the International Air Transport Association.

The Department of Justice reported that Ms. Guven secured approximately $7 million from over a dozen investors by providing misleading information in her company’s pitch deck.

Prosecutors indicated that the pitch materials asserted that 26 brands were utilizing Kalder, and an additional 53 were in a “live freemium” stage, whereas, in reality, many were merely in pilot programs or had no agreements whatsoever.

The government also claimed that the pitch deck inaccurately represented that Kalder’s revenue had consistently increased, reaching $1.2 million in annual recurring revenue by March 2024.

Prosecutors additionally claimed that Ms. Guven maintained two separate sets of financial records, one of which contained exaggerated figures presented to investors, in order to hide the actual financial status of the company.

The Department of Justice further stated that Ms. Guven adopted fraudulent assertions and counterfeit documents to secure a US visa for persons deemed to have “extraordinary ability”.

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