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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[–] 53 points 2 hours ago* (2 children)

See, these assholes don’t even see this as thievery or fraud. This prick believes he is entitled to that money, and how dare you - or anyone - judge him for his actions!

Fuck this guy, and everyone like him who thinks that their whimsical and capricious wants and desires should take immediate priority over the basic needs of literally every other living thing in the universe.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 hours ago

    CEO almost always means terrible person apparently

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  • [–] 5 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

    Part of me loves this because it does mean the dystopia of the final product is delayed (kind of).

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  • [–] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 child)

    This kind of story just reassures me that any doombot they make will probably self destroy itself like all the evil robot in RoboCop. Only a real human brain will ever make these things compliant enough to take orders.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 hour ago

    Following his daddies footsteps in bankrupting companies. How cute.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 hours ago
    46 comments in c/news@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 128 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

    So, let me be clear...

    My employer will refuse even a salary advance (as in, getting it 2-3 days, maybe a week early), but the bossman can walk away with a "loan" of the company's entire liquidity?

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  • [–] 77 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

    Sounds like blatant fraud and corruption.

    How does a guy who "took loans" from his own company immediately before that company declares bankruptcy (defrauding its customers) somehow start another company that same year and acquire an existing company with active DoD contracts which presumably require security clearances?

    And on top of that, to then two years later take another "loan" from again his own company, rendering it unable to pay its employees?

    This country really needs to prosecute white-collar crime better. Holy hell.

    And these are the people who will own the killbots?

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  • [–] 20 points 19 hours ago (1 child)

    How does a guy who “took loans” from his own company immediately before that company declares bankruptcy (defrauding its customers) somehow start another company that same year and acquire an existing company with active DoD contracts which presumably require security clearances?

    He was sure to pay off the republicans in charge.

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  • [–] 41 points 22 hours ago* (4 children)

    Wow. It’s not the profound level of corruption that’s so shocking, it’s the profound level of incompetence. How did such stupid people get so far in life in the first place?

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  • [–] 73 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (4 children)

    That's fine. Seize and sell the home to pay the employees.

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  • [–] 11 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

    I'm guessing/hoping that you meant 'to pay the employees' not 'to pay the employers' lol! It's funny how such a tiny typo or autocorrect mishap made it mean kind of the opposite, since overpaying the employer is what got them into this mess.

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  • [–] 23 points 21 hours ago (1 child)

    Also I find it hazardous to just throw in the name Synapse given there's about two dozen companies of all sizes with that name...

    It's specifically Synapse Financial Services.

    But it's lovely to know that Pathak keeps stealing names from everywhere. Not an original idea in his body.

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  • [–] 16 points 21 hours ago

    They only do this shit because they know America doesn’t prosecute white collar crime seriously. The corruption won’t lessen till the perpetrators face real consequences.

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  • [–] 14 points 5 hours ago

    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.

    This is such passive language, it makes it sound like the Pentagon had no choice but to continue the contract.

    In federal contracting, there is something called a Novation Agreement when a company is bought or sold. The novation process has 3 parties, Original Company A, New Company B, and the Governmental Agency. During this process, its the responsibility of Company A to detail all of the contract terms to New Company B, its the responsibility of new company B to attest that they can fulfill the terms of the contract, it's the responsibility of Governmental Agency to vet New Company B and assure that what they are attesting to is accurate.

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  • [–] 12 points 10 hours ago (4 children)

    Advocates bootlickers for trickledown pissdown economics say that tax cuts in theory for businesses are meant to lessen cost, which means more margin and thus raise wages of employees. But I always point out only handful of businesses raise wages of their employees and most businesses, especially large corporations, only use the increased margin for stock buybacks to enrich themselves and shareholders.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

    conservatives dont think that far.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 hours ago

    Conservatives don't think, don't empathe, and don't moralize. The entire ideology is about externalizing those mental activities to the power structure. Conservatism is the ant colony approach to the world. It's a viable strategy for slowly changing environments. It is horrible for uncertain and rapidly changing environments like today's world. They are sensing colony collapse and that has sent them into a frenzy. This is what we are experiencing. That won't stop their collapse. The coming new societies will have to be aware of this trait in the human nature and make sure it is suppressed.

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  • [–] 11 points 6 hours ago (2 children)
  • [–] 4 points 2 hours ago* (1 child)

    Kakistocracy, too.

    They are exactly like every shitty warlord dictator that pillages their home country and then runs away to some other country with all the money they stole.

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  • [–] 11 points 6 hours ago

    When asked for a comment Eric Trump said..."My father...(blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda)".

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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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  • [–] 9 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 child)

    robot soldier

    Is that even realistic?

    edit: refering to the humanoid thingy in the thumbnail - depending on one's definition of robot these have been around for a very long time.

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  • [–] 9 points 15 hours ago

    that was not a loan.

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  • [–] 8 points 18 hours ago
    [–] 7 points 15 hours ago

    This is fascism. The elite will bleed the rest of us dry.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 hour ago* (2 children)

    I don't feel bad for anybody who willingly works for a murder-bot startup. I hope they never get a single paycheck.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 hours ago*

    In Foundation lore, didn't the robots ultimately get wiped out, except one, who was held prisoner for thousands of years before ultimately turned into a slave?

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  • [–] 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

    I know not everyone has lots of choices for jobs. But the people working in that field should. And they need to vote with their feet. Don't work for shitty companies if you have a choice. Once it got bought, it was time to leave.

    Edit: It is possible the employees had golden handcuffs after the purchase. If so, I don't blame them. I know a guy who worked at a startup that got bought. For a few years he was making 3x his salary. Staying was actually sucking money away from the company as there was no way he was producing enough to be worth that pay. So he stayed until that ran it's course and then left.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 hours ago

    Murikkkans, lolololololololololololol!

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  • [–] 2 points 21 hours ago

    Reminds me of the Kickstarter for the peachy printer.

    AFAIK the co-founder didn't face any consequences or pay anything back in that case.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 hour ago

    A, bankrupting companies just like his daddy. Like father, like son.

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  • [+] 1 point 1 hour ago