Michael Liberty

Michael Liberty, the founder of Mozido, was sentenced to four months in prison and a $100,000 fine by a federal judge. Liberty pleaded guilty in November 2016 to making illegal campaign contributions. Liberty, who played a prominent role in Mozido’s fundraising and dealmaking, continues to battle the Securities & Exchange Commission in a separate matter. The SEC alleges that Liberty worked with his wife, attorney, cousin and his cousin’s friend to convince people to invest in unregistered shell companies that they said had transferrable interest in Mozido. The SEC says those business entities couldn’t transfer interest in Mozido. In total, the SEC alleges the group stole around $48 million from investors. With that, the SEC says they funded an extravagant lifestyle with private jet flights, fancy cars, multi-million dollar homes and movie production ventures. Backed by Wellington Management, hedge fund billionaire Julian Robertson and Google billionaire Eric Schmidt’s venture fund, Mozido was one of the most richly funded mobile payments start-ups and at one point sported a valuation of $5.6 billion.