If I had a dollar for every time a Forbes 30 Under 30 alum is accused of fraud, I would have $5. That’s not much, but it’s weird that it happened five times.
By now, Forbes’ “curse” is well documented, from Charlie Javice’s JPMorgan fiasco (who made the Under 30 list in 2019) to crypto poster boy Sam Bankman-Fried committing one of the biggest financial frauds in history (he appeared on the list in 2021). This week, another honoree has been hit with federal charges.
Gökçe Güven, the 26-year-old founder and CEO of fintech startup Kalder, faces 52 years in prison after being charged with fraudaccused of defrauding millions of investors. Güven was also featured in Forbes last year 30 Under 30 list in the Marketing and Advertising category.
The US Department of Justice claims this during Kalder’s seed round in April 2024, Güven raised $7 million from more than a dozen investors, presenting a pitch deck that misrepresented the number of brands working with the startup, inflating revenues.
The 30 under 30 to prison pipeline has not gone unnoticed online.
“Getting on the Forbes 30 Under 30 is weird: 2% chance that you will become a billionaire, 35% chance that your company will fail, 63% chance that you will end up in white-collar prison because you stole money trying to become a billionaire, and then your company will fail” tech entrepreneur Chris Bakke noted at X on Monday.
“Someone needs to write about what it says about today’s capitalism that SO MANY of the Forbes 30 under 30 list are fraudsters!” another X user wrote. “They should make a 30 under 30 if people are doing legal things,” another suggested.
Güven joins other notorious alleged fraudsters, many of whom presented Forbes themselves at their inauguration Hall of shame for “Less than 30 choices we wish we could take back” in November 2023.
“Sorry, we’ve had a few,” the publication wrote at the time.
Among them is Bankman-Fried, founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and trading firm Alameda Research, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay an $11 billion forfeiture after defrauding his clients of more than $8 billion.
Bankman-Fried’s sometimes girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who ran his crypto trading operation Alameda Research, also followed in his footsteps and made the 30 Under 30 list the following year. In December 2022, Ellison pleaded guilty to seven criminal charges, including bank fraud and money laundering.
In September 2025, Charlie Javice was sentenced to more than seven years for defrauding JPMorgan Chase of $175 million to push sales of her student financial aid app, Frank.
In 2023, real estate investor and 2016 30 Under 30 honoree Nate Paul was charged with several counts of bank fraud. Five years after making the list, ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud in 2018 after raising the price of a life-saving HIV drug by 4,000%.
Many more 30 under 30 alumni, while avoiding misdemeanor charges, have faced accusations ranging from sexual harassment to fostering a toxic workplace culture.
While it’s easy to condemn Forbes for damning these bright young people by inviting them into an exclusive club with a not-so-inconspicuous number of scammers and fraudsters, the real culprit here is, like Arwa Mahdawi wrote for The Guardian in 2023is “the fetishization of youth”.
“30 Under 30 isn’t just a list, it’s a mindset: a push to achieve great things before youth slips away,” she wrote. “The pressure can cause certain ambitious people to take shortcuts.”
For those hoping to make it to the Class of 2026, know that the Securities Exchange Commission is watching.
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