A Paradise Valley CEO faces allegations of fraudulently raising $4.3 million from investors and spending at least $1.2 million of that on lavish personal expenses, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint.
The SEC is demanding a jury trialin the case against Gary Pryor, 60, founder and CEO of Scottsdale-based ZipRemit Inc. and sister entity Lendaily Inc., according to the complaint filed Sept. 14 in the U.S. District Court of Arizona.
The complaint alleges Pryor's companies were a sham and that he fraudulently raised more than $4.3 million by selling stock and convertible promissory notes to investors. More than $2.9 million of that was raised since May 2015 alone, according to the complaint.
Pryor, however, said he succeeded in his quest to build, acquire and operate a revolving credit lending platform.
"Success mitigates concerns," Pryor told The Business Journal. "I am proud to say that with the collaborative effort of our ZipRemit and Lendaily shareholders, new management and NewOak Finance, we closed in July 2020 on the acquisition of FuturePay Inc., a provider of consumer revolving credit products for e-commerce merchants."
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