LOS ANGELES, June 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Department of
Justice confirmed on June 24, 2024,
that it would drop criminal charges against Tenley Law client Victor
Belonogoff, 49, of Burlingame,
California, the former CEO of digital media start-up Render
Media, Inc., a business once dubbed the second fastest growing
digital media company in the world by Inc. 5000. While prosecutors
had preliminarily dismissed an indictment against Mr. Belonogoff in
February 2023, this week's decision
by the DOJ puts an end to a nearly six-year criminal
investigation.
"Victor has steadfastly maintained that he is innocent of all
allegations against him and that the evidence would prove he did
not defraud Render, but instead saved it," says Belonogoff's
attorney Scott D. Tenley, a former
federal prosecutor and founder of Tenley
Law. "While this process has been lengthy and
difficult for my client, we are grateful to the prosecutors who
thoughtfully and objectively reexamined the evidence to reach the
right decision in this case."
In April 2022, the United States Attorney's Office for the
Central District of California
charged Mr. Belonogoff with wire fraud and conspiracy
to commit wire fraud for forming several companies
that provided advertising and paid traffic services to
Render. The indictment alleged that Belonogoff's
companies did not provide legitimate services to Render and
wrongfully concealed Belonogoff's ownership interest in those
companies. Belonogoff's companies, however, generated revenue
of over $7 million for Render on
nearly one billion unique pageviews. The traffic and revenue
from Belonogoff's companies moved Render from the brink of failure
in 2013 to a valuation of $50 million
less than four years later.
In February 2023, just weeks
before the trial was scheduled to begin, the government dismissed
without prejudice the indictment against Mr. Belonogoff in order to
conduct further investigation into exculpatory evidence provided by
Mr. Belonogoff's attorneys that contradicted and undermined the
core allegations of wrongdoing. Over the next 14 months,
Belonogoff's team continued to provide evidence and information to
prosecutors confirming that he had always acted appropriately,
within the confines of his contractual agreements with the business
and its shareholders, and that Render had in fact benefited
substantially from the services Mr. Belonogoff's companies
provided. This ultimately led to this week's decision by the
Department of Justice to close its investigation of Belonogoff
without further criminal charges.
In conjunction with its decision about Mr. Belonogoff, the
Department of Justice also took the rare step of dismissing with
prejudice charges against Render employee Aryeh Kluger, who had been charged with
conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Mr. Kluger, 36,
of Dallas, Texas, had entered a
guilty plea and was scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District
Judge Steven V. Wilson on
December 2, 2024, where he faced up
to five years in federal prison. When the dismissal order is
entered by Judge Wilson, Mr. Kluger will also be cleared of all
allegations of wrongdoing.
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content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/department-of-justice-drops-criminal-investigation-of-tenley-law-client-302182445.html
SOURCE Tenley Law