SEC Charges Fintech Kalder and Founder Gökçe Güven Over Alleged $6.7M Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a partially settled civil action charging New York-based fintech startup Kalder Inc. and its founder and chief executive officer, Gökçe Güven, with defrauding investors out of nearly $6,705,000 ¹. According to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on October 2, 2026, the defendants made false and misleading statements regarding Kalder’s financial metrics during a capital raise conducted from approximately April 2024 through at least December 2024 ¹.

Federal regulators allege that Kalder actively maintained two sets of accounting records ¹. The first was an accurate set kept by an outside bookkeeper relying on third-party financial institution data, while the second contained inflated figures created and distributed to prospective backers under Güven's direction ¹. The SEC stated that Kalder’s actual monthly revenue fell far short of the consistent, substantial growth reported to investors ¹. In addition, the agency claimed Kalder counted users who had merely signed up for unpaid demo accounts or discounted short-term pilot trials as active revenue-generating contract clients ¹.

Bifurcated Settlement and Parallel Criminal Action

The SEC charged both Güven and Kalder with violating Section 17(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as well as Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5(b) ¹. Without admitting to the allegations, Güven consented to a bifurcated settlement subject to judicial approval ¹. The proposed judgment includes permanent injunctions against future securities law violations and a six-year ban preventing Güven from serving as an officer or director of a public issuer ¹.

Disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil monetary penalties against Güven will be decided by the court upon future motion by the SEC ¹. The litigation release noted that Güven had previously pleaded guilty to securities fraud in a parallel criminal action brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York ¹. The SEC’s continuing civil litigation is led by attorneys from its New York Regional Office, coordinated with the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service ¹.