Days After Magic Leap Raised $502 Million, An Employee Was Accused of Stealing $1 Million
Just days after raising $502 million, Magic Leap reportedly filed a police report alleging an employee had stolen $1 million, according to a report by Business Insider.
The call to the police came in October, right after the Series D funding round was announced, and involved an employee in the Human Resources Department and a recruiting company, according to the police report reviewed by Business Insider.
The report alleged that the company’s senior manager for talent acquisition, Cheryl Martin, had worked with an independent recruiting firm, the Hampton Group, on invoices totaling $1 million for hiring fees on 39 employees, even though the group was not involved in those hirings. The start-up alleged that these mechanisms had been in place for 15 months, from August 2015 to July 2017.
Martin did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment, and Ann Smith of the Hampton Group told the outlet initially that she could not recall the events because she was taking medication, but then declined to comment. Fortune has also reached out to both Magic Leap and Hampton Group for comment.
Magic Leap, which launched in 2011, develops augmented reality technology, and has been lauded for its ability to raise money. The secretive company has raised more than $1.9 billion in at least four funding rounds, according to Crunchbase, making it one of the best-funded startups in its sphere. But it has yet to release a product. The Magic Leap One: Creator Edition is slated for to come out in early 2018.
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