Tech start-up founder heads for prison

By Hum
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Grand Master

Hum

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Thirteen years ago, things looked brighter for Jennifer Sultan.

Then, Sultan was a recent New York University graduate who sold a tech startup, Live Online, for $70 million. That summer she rented a summer house in the Hamptons and purchased a penthouse in Manhattan's Union Square.

Unfortunately, gaining so much wealth at the young age of 25 seemed to be a curse. After several failed attempts at a few more tech ventures, Sultan began to dabble in holistic health and eventually, became addicted to pain killers. Last Friday, Sultan, now 38, pled guilty to selling painkillers and for trying to sell a firearm, The New York Times reports. She'll be spending four years in prison, which isn't bad considering her sentence was initially five times that.

From NYT:

Early last year, a city narcotics investigator discovered an advertisement Ms. Sultan had placed on Craigslist offering prescription painkillers for sale. She and Mr. Cohen were still living in the penthouse loft near Union Square that they bought after the sale of Live Online.

Five times from February through June, she sold pills to an undercover officer, according to her indictment. One sale took place at the Starbucks on Union Square. In another, she sold 183 oxycodone tablets to the officer for $4,400 at a Starbucks in the Flatiron district near the school where she was studying acupuncture.

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Grand Master

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If I got $70 million, I'd just spend $5000 on a gaming PC, quit my job, and not worry about "startups" or popping pills. If anyone asked me for money, I'd tell them I already spent it all on DLC.

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SharpGreen

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If I got $70 million, I'd just spend $5000 on a gaming PC, quit my job, and not worry about "startups" or popping pills. If anyone asked me for money, I'd tell them I already spent it all on DLC.

Ha..yep. That's would I'd do.

Grand Master

Nagisan

Posted
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If I got $70 million, I'd just spend $5000 on a gaming PC, quit my job, and not worry about "startups" or popping pills. If anyone asked me for money, I'd tell them I already spent it all on DLC.

I would set myself up with a nice house (not nice as in gigantic mansion....just average in size and price...don't need a fancy house), a decent computer/etc......pay off my immediate families debts and/or buy them a house as well, put 5 million in a savings account (if my math is right, at only 3% interest, that's roughly $150,000 over the first year, and increasing from that) which would be more than enough to live a great life on the interest alone.

Assuming I spent no more than $2 million on 5 houses and paying off all debts, $5 million in the bank, that would leave me with over $60 million that I wouldn't know what to do with. Probably put enough back for my nephews to go to college then put half of the leftovers in savings and the other half in checking.

Would never have to worry about affording a house (and neither would any of my immediate family) or having enough money to buy things that I want.....at $150,000 interest a year, that works out to $12,500 a month, and with no house payment that would be tons of spending money a month without even touching checking or savings.

Or at least, I hope I would be able to manage everything that well if I was given that amount of money....it's all based on how I live right now, and I don't feel like that needs to change much (I've never been disappointed with how I've lived), but given that kind of money will likely change how anyone lives to some extent (as well as their view of "normal" living).

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