After Selling A Startup For $70 Million At Age 25, Founder Blows Through Fortune And Heads To Prison
Mar 3, 2013, 23:03 IST
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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. NYT says she's blown through her fortune too. 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. Sultan isn't the only entrepreneur guilty of blowing a fortune. Andrew Fashion made $2.5 million before age 21 and blew it all by 22 on porn and gambling.