Ex-VC Faces 28 Years in Prison

Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be a venture capitalist. Well, at least not a crooked one.

Moses Joseph, onetime manager of the $15 million Anila Fund and subsequent Anila.org technology incubator, was convicted last week of 22 felony counts, including securities fraud, forgery, theft and evidence fabrication.

In short, a Santa Clara County jury found that he stole more than $20 million from 13 victims, mostly under the ruse of raising capital for a successor to Anila Fund and a telecom startup called PowerWAN. For example, he was found to have exaggerated his own wealth, forged signatures and created a variety of counterfeit documents.

Among Joseph’s victims were Aerofund Financial, Bank One, Bridge Bank, Eastman Kodak Co., Itochu Corp., PowerWAN, Remington Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. He will be ordered to pay restitution during his October 24 sentencing. He also faces up to 28 years in prison.