Key Points

  • Robot startup Foundation has failed to pay employees since missing its Oct. 30 payroll, angering some workers after its CEO borrowed $4.6 million from the firm last year to buy a luxury home, according to people familiar with the matter.
  • CEO and co-founder Sankaet Pathak is Foundation's sole board member, raising governance concerns among prospective investors.
  • Foundation's widely reported $24 million in Pentagon contracts actually stems from its 2024 acquisition of Boardwalk Robotics, which held some existing government research contracts, the people said.
  • Pathak's previous company, Synapse, collapsed in 2024, leaving thousands of customers without access to deposits. Pathak reportedly took loans from Synapse as it neared bankruptcy.
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[–] 11 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

In today's news: Man who wants to make machines of war and oppression turns out to be a major dick.

And welcome to the US where this guy can still raise billions from investors:

Synapse was a behind-the-scenes player until its collapse left more than 100,000 Americans with a combined $265 million in deposits locked out of their FDIC-backed accounts.

While some customers received partial payments during Synapse’s bankruptcy proceedings, thousands remain without access to their money after more than two years. A bankruptcy trustee, the former FDIC chair Jelena McWilliams, said as much as $96 million in customer funds went missing.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 hours ago

    The article says the accounts are FDIC insured.

    FDIC insurance covers 250 thousand dollars in the account.

    265 million divided by 100,000 is only $2650 per account on average.

    Why don’t those people have their money back after over 2 years? Whats the fucking point of agreeing to FDIC insurance if the government can’t even cover 3 grand on average per account?

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  • [–] 0 points 1 hour ago

    Synapse was a non-bank company, so it didn't provide FDIC protection against its own bankruptcy. FDIC insurance only pays out when a bank fails, and none of Synapse's partner banks failed, so the FDIC couldn't step in or pay the affected customers. Some customers were told otherwise, and a Synapse contract said funds were FDIC insured up to $250,000

    From LLM

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