The Varda Fraud: It's Time For A Criminal Investigation of Delian and Founders Fund

Delian Asparouhov is a con man and harming America’s space economy

Delian Asparouhov is a con man and harming America’s space economy

There aren’t many inventions in Silicon Valley these days but there are many constructs. Perhaps the best invention in Silicon Valley is the concocted story of so many founders themselves.

Even the term itself — founder — suggests something impressive, as if they might rival our own American founding. In some sense the founders, with their obsession with oligarchy, are a real threat to our own founders who understood the aristocratic duty that comes with power and position. Much of our contemporary political fights seem to boil down to this problem: with the Left, you have responsibilities without privileges and for the Right you have privileges without responsibilities. Neither quite works and neither works especially when the founder has no ties to the country he’s living in or exploiting. Without representation (and attendant accountability) taxation, whether in higher prices or by a government, is still tyranny.

Our thriving middle class means we can never really be eclipsed. The genius of America is that we catch up fast — and then we exceed expectations. However behind we are the American experiment tends to dominate things. Space — which the Russians got to first — is no exception. This final frontier is extremely important to keeping America as one of the leading players in the world. If things break up in space — so-called space junk — it becomes a huge problem for our satellites and our ability to make critical decisions on Earth. Proponents of the Russian Federation have even called for targeting U.S. satellites and causing the Kessler syndrome which would make using space nearly impossible. We should be extremely skeptical of founders who launch satellites without caring about this public responsible. This is the functional equivalent to pissing in the public swimming pool.

Dominating space is like controlling the high seas. Every great power must have a space plan. So too must every great investor.

I want you to think about this when we consider the strange case of Delian Asparouhov, a Bulgarian-born fraudster who has raised $150m from venture funds backed largely by public pension funds. Delian is engaged in one of the largest frauds by a founder since Sam Bankman-Fried or Elizabeth Holmes.

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One of the things we have a hard time talking about is the degree to which a lot of venture capital firms are fronts for foreign intelligence and how we might clean many of them up.

Who Does Founders Fund Partner Keith Rabois Really Work For?

We’ve discussed at length the criminal fraud going on at Founders Fund, especially as relates to Keith Rabois whose sexual harassment led to his firing at Square, the tech company credibly accused of money laundering and whose former CTO was murdered in extremely suspicious circumstances.

Fraud isn’t a victimless crime. As we learned from the Sam Bankman-Fried scandal many pension funds are invested in venture capital firms and so when either entrepreneurs or venture capital firms lie or commit fraud they are affecting the kinds of retirements our public servants have.

And that’s before we talk about the FTC investigating Rabois’s Open Door which has increased housing costs wherever it has operated. Increased housing costs have real affects on younger generations and indeed on the much vaunted birthrate.

As with any mafia there are capos and made men and godfathers and lieutenants. There’s an omertà about talking about this network. There are favorites of it. There are white lists and there are blacklists. I am on a blacklist because I am an American — son of the American Revolution on both sides! — who speaks his mind. And yes, I have the emails to prove it.

Delian Asparouhov is a favorite of Keith Rabois and Delian, who is Bulgarian-born, has raised at least $150 million for his space startup despite no real demonstration of success.

Why Delian’s even been made a partner at Founders Fund despite his role with Eaze and drug money. (Say, was this disclosed?)

Eaze, Founders Fund and the Wirecard Fallout

Things have not gone well for Varda Space. The firm has been denied entry into U.S. airspace due to safety concerns and is now being forced to land in Australia.

Naturally Delian is now lying about what happened with the FAA and the US Air Force.

In September it was reported the Air Force rejected the reentry based on the safety and analysis.

In October Delian is saying the opposite.

Well, which is it?

Joe Morrison of Umbra notes the deceit and rather than admit to it Delian engages with it and mocks Morrison. Shades of Theranos behavior? Or is it FTX?

This is a pattern of lying which explains a lot about Delian and how he came into prominence.

Delian keeps changing his story about dropping out.

He is a very bad liar.

Here Delian says that he quit before he got the fellowship.

Here Delian says he quit after.

Here it is afterwards again.

The way I see this timeline is this.

1.) Delian sends the email in March 2013 and gets in big trouble, especially as there had been a number of school shootings.

2.) April 2013 Delian is still groveling to stay.

3.) By May Delian sees the gig is up and contacts Rabois to ensure he wins the Fellowship.

4.) June it comes through so Delian cuts and runs before getting booted from MIT.

Of course because this is how it went down Delian keeps tripping over his lies.

What you notice relatively quickly is that this sort of thing is seen as a virtue and not a liability.

As Founders Fund partner Peter Thiel recounts in his book, Zero to One, four of the six founding team members of PayPal built bombs in high school

This is antisocial behavior by design. But have investors been made aware? Have limited partners?

Delian Asparouhov is a con man and harming America’s space economy. It’s time the Five Eyes countries end his grift.