Last month I received an anonymous email from a tipster warning me that there was “a scandal about to pop” about an Arizona credit protection startup called LifeLock. The email made a number of serious allegations around CEO Todd Davis, co-founder Robert Maynard and investor Howard Lindzon – basically accusing them all of fraud, perjury or other crimes. The email also suggested that investors Bessemer and Kleiner Perkins didn’t bother to check out the company’s founders before putting money in: “Did anyone there bother to even do a Google search on the founder’s name?”
The story was juicy. Maynard in particular has a history of questionable actions. In 1997 the FTC ordered him not to engage in any business related to credit improvement services after accusing him of fraud:
The Complaint seeks permanent injunctive relief against defendant Maynard for alleged unfair or deceptive acts or practices by the defendants in connection with the sale of credit improvement services advertised in an infomercial and the collection of fees by depositing drafts drawn on consumers’ checking accounts…Defendant Maynard, without admitting the allegations set forth in the Complaint, agrees to entry of this final Order under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act.
Given that his new business was consumer credit protection, the irony was ripe.
I haven’t shied away from writing stories about founders with checkered pasts – see my posts on Rivals and Statsaholic, for example.
But something wasn’t quite right with the email. It wasn’t just a tip. It had eight PDF attachments with carefuly organized background materials. A fifteen page “dossier” went into excruciating detail on the personal and business histories of Davis and Maynard. Facts were mixed with lots of speculation. This wasn’t a tip, it was a hit job.
