Former University of Kentucky student convicted in defrauding investors of $25 million
A former University of Kentucky student who founded a software company has been convicted of defrauding investors out of at least $25 million.
A jury convicted Christopher Kirchner, 36, last month on four charges of wire fraud and seven charges of engaging in financial transactions in property derived from illegal activity, or money laundering.
The trial was in federal court in Texas, where Kirchner lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
U.S. District Judge Mark T. Pittman ordered Kirchner be taken into custody immediately after the verdict because of the length of the potential prison sentence he faces.
The maximum sentence would be up to 80 years on the wire-fraud charges and 70 years on the other charges, U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton said in a news release.
Kirchner’s sentence will likely be significantly less than that because of how sentences are calculated under advisory guidelines, however.
He is scheduled to be sentenced July 11.
According to prior profiles and a LinkedIn page, Kirchner attended Tates Creek High School, majored in marketing and communications at UK but left in 2009 without a degree, and worked in Lexington between 2013 and 2017 before helping found Slync.io, which said it provided software to manage supply chains.
Slync raised $57 million from investors between March 2020 and May 2021, but federal authorities charged that Kirchner siphoned off a good bit of the money to finance a lavish lifestyle: buying a Gulfstream jet, a Rolls Royce and other expensive autos, a $495,000 suite at a professional sports venue and expensive jewelry, watches and wine.
Kirchner transferred money from one Slync account to another that only he had access to, or directly to his personal checking account, according to the charges.
The transfers left Slync unable to pay employees at times, according to the indictment.
Kirchner fired an employee who raised concerns about him and provided false documents to the company payroll manager and board to cover the thefts, but the board of directors ultimately fired him in August 2022, according to Simonton’s release.
An industry publication reported last year that Slync has started the process of winding down its operations.
