eLance founder indicted on fraud charges

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers-backed eLance, a Web-based marketplace for freelancers, is keeping mum following the indictment of its founder and general manager on securities fraud charges.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday said it had charged Srinivas Anumolu--known to coworkers as Srini--with accepting kickbacks during his pre-eLance tenure as a securities trader for New York Life Insurance.

"I can only tell you at this point that we have no statement in the matter," said Maria Miller, vice president of marketing for eLance, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. "We can't comment on the situation for legal reasons."

Since its launch in 1999, eLance has raised more than $66 million in institutional funding, including a $50 million round led by Kleiner Perkins in February 2000. Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr sits on the company's board of directors.

The SEC charged Anumolu and his New York Life co-worker Anthony Dong-Yin Shen with taking kickbacks and other "improper gifts and gratuities" from other brokerages.

The SEC said that Ronald Pinto, then at Nomura Securities, had paid the pair a total of more than $450,000 in kickbacks. Others were charged with giving Shen lesser amounts.

In return, Anumolu and Shen funneled transactions to the brokers at prices disadvantageous to New York Life, the SEC alleged.

Anumolu the other traders face criminal charges as well as the SEC's civil suit. Anumolu is in prison awaiting a hearing Tuesday, according to a Reuters report.

One associate of Anumolu, who declined to be identified, expressed concerns that Anumolu, who is not a citizen, could face deportation if found guilty.

[webarts]

Elance Fraud?

i started as a service provider on elance in 2002. within my first year i was asked to refund $500 i was paid to complete a project, caliming a stolen credit card was used to pay. i have read on elance that a credit card is confirmed by chargning two minimal amounts and once the owner confirm those. a credit card that is stolen can never do this. but i was still given this reason. i was also told that FBI was investigating the issue. anyways the point is i was asked refund of $500... i paid $250 that i recieved from another client on elance... after that i asked elance support to provide me with any emailing/reports they have related to the fbi investigations... i never recieved those and funny thing is nobody asked me for the remaining $250 also... strange... if FBI had solved the case.. at least i should have recieved my money back...

recently, i am asked to refund $3500 that i was paid to complete a project and for which i had made the delivery of the software together with its source code... and for which i have a 5star rating from the client... elance claims the client has asked for a chargeback... for the first time when i got this email. i immediately told elance that i have given the source code to the client and there is no way this can be reversed and so we will not refund any money... and i had shown proof of delivery and my conversation with client on elance itself... the matter was resolved or thats what i thought... it happened on 7th of October 2005.

on 4th of March i recieved the same email again asking for a chargeback... and my account also inactivitated... i have sent the same reply... but have not heard from them yet. and my account still inactivated i wonder if they can/should be doing it?

i have been thinking about this for a very long time... since we are not given any proof if some buyer has really used a stolen credit card or asked for chargeback... might it be possible that its elance workers themselves who create such claims? i strongly believe in this when they donot provided me with any information of such claims... my reason to post it here is to figure out if i am the only one or there are others too who have been asked such refunds?

[classicbean]

I don't have one good thing to say about Elance. The management team is made up of incompetent idiots who don't value service providers at all. There is a stark difference between Guru.com and Elance.com. They both operate the same way, but Guru.com actually seems to value their service providers and they give you the impression that they need you in order for the site to be successful. With Elance, they act like they're doing you a favor by letting you be a member on their site (which costs money, btw).

A couple of years ago, they decided to triple their membership fees for writers while reducing the number of bids each member gets. I voiced my opinion of the madness on their forum and I said that the competition was looking much more attractive because they had cheaper rates and actually seem to value their writers.

Elance didn't like that. Instead of just censoring my post, they deactivated my account and refused a refund for the membership I had paid in full for. After pleading with them (and reminding them that I had generated a fair chunk of change in both membership fees and commission over the last year (they take just under 10% of each project) they reinstated my account. However, they refused to give me access to the message boards.

I complained to management again, informing them that if I was paying 100% of my membership fees, I shouldn't be given 75% of the services offered to everyone else. They didn't agree.

I decided to walk, taking my money to Guru.com where providers are actually valued. I also figured my money was better spent on Google PPC advertising. I've generated far more work that way than I did with Elance.

To be fair, since leaving, Elance has come to their senses and changed the number of bids they offer providers. I think their idiotic business decision led a lot of talented providers to walk. They new offer 10 free bids for basic members. I will continue to use my free bids to steal clients from Elance and bring them to Guru.

In a nutshell, if you're thinking about using Elance, don't bother. They are beyond horrible.

[sarah128989]

I paid $350 into Escrow re a project for 60 SEO Links from a provider that failed to provide reports and project outcomes within specified period. Due to unforseen personal circumstances it was over the 6 month deadline period that I was able to pursue the provider further - unfortunately they no longer exist on Elance.



The project is not completed to satisfaction and a year later $350 sits in Escrow and I'm unable to return it to my paypal account.



I've tried on a couple of occasions to contact Elance - but all I receive is set of instructions including forms to fill in that specify a 6 month deadline less a set number of days - over which the Escrow money appears to roll up to the Bank of Elance.



As I say, project was not completed to time or satisfaction, I was over the 6 month deadline re claiming with supplier - but they no longer exist - and I seem unable to get my $350 back.



Please assist.



Sarah

[sarah128989]

Elance is nothing but a scam. They post false buyer jobs to improve their numbers. They do not adhere to any of their policies. They allow buyers to post multiple non-awarded jobs which service providers pay to bid on. They LIE and say buyers are automatically stopped from posting jobs if they award less than 20% of those jobs - however anyone can see that there are tons of buyers who've posted 10, 20 and more jobs that are never awarded.



Elance offers an escrow service but this is a scam as well. If you are a buyer who puts money into escrow it will ALWAYS be paid to the service provider NO MATTER WHAT. If you hire someone to setup a website and they upload a chicken soup recipe, Elance WILL release ALL of your Escrow money and say, "we can't be responsible for the quality of work".



Elance does not tolerate dissent. They never answer their phone, rarely return emails and their website is full of bugs. Many service providers and buyers who have complained on their forums have had their accounts banned.



I could write pages on the schenanigons going on over there. I learned my lesson the hard way (after they stole my money).



Elance has to be the worst scam out there.

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[as2319]

eLance - Oh let me count the ways this place is fraudulent. Look, where there's smoke, there's fire - oh yeah, the founder was indicted on fraud charges, if you look-up scam + eLance you get a boat load of users stating a variety of issues. I have personally dealt with this double-talking corporation. They cost US Workers Jobs. Period. They assist in funneling work out of this country, and make US Contractors on the site adhere to their policies, yet DO NOT HOLD Service Providers in Pakistan, India, and the like to the same. Contact information sharing, direct payment outside of eLance, the works - they allow it for their people, but screw over U.S. based Contractors.

BTW - have you seen the pricing on the work? If you live in a cardboard box, and like Walmart level clientele, go have at it. Absolute garbage clientele with matching in most cases contractors.

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