“ I definitely consider that a large part of it [ is ] as a space partizan . ” That ’s what Matthew Browntold CNBCon March 23 , when take why he was regard a $ 200 million investment funds into Virgin Orbit , a most belly-up rocket company .
A week later , that muckle collapse , and Virgin Orbit , which had begun to bring employees back to work in expectation of new funding , is facing the end . The caller has stop functioning and will lay off some 675 employees , CEO Dan Hartsaid in a meetingreported on later by CNBC .
lark a regal Texas Christian University hat and shift uncomfortably in his chairman , Brown claimed on TV to have investments in 13 outer space companies and argued that Virgin could compete base on its speedy launch capability . Several investors who were watching tell Quartz they set aside the business display case to wonder : Who is this guy ?
Photo: Associated Press (AP)
“ plainly put : I am a simple guy from Fort Worth / Dallas who made a few good bets ( and a fortune of regretful ones ) and drop my time trying to advance the UN ’s Goals , ” Brown distinguish Quartz via e-mail . “ ALL my $ $ will finish up in philanthropy to support those efforts . I occur to live on a unsubdivided and minimalistic life and love to be at peace surfing on the shores of Hawaii while — financially — stick out those much smarter than myself . ”
But Quartz could not substantiate many of the claim he has made about his business sector experience . Presented with a detailed description of the variance we found , Brown said they were “ factually wrong ” but declined to explicate how .
Matthew Brown claims associations with Mark Zuckerberg and T. Boone Pickens
Tyson Halsey , a South Carolina - base investment advisor , was suppose to introduce Brown ata conferencefor kinsfolk office in Miami last twelvemonth .
Halsey say Brown tell him he pop out his career as a adolescent tech entrepreneur working with Mark Zuckerberg and the Winklevoss brothers before sell a company to Salesforce . Then , while a 19 - year - previous enrolled at TCU , Brown won an executive post and , shortly thereafter , the top occupation at a Texas phratry office managing $ 6 billion in plus . He advised the Obama White House and the famed investor T. Boone Pickens on renewable energy . From there , he bulge out several investing funds , and his own speculation investment fomite , the Matthew Brown Companies .
TCU officials confirmed that Brown was enroll at the school , but said he did not earn a academic degree there . Meanwhile , Quartz found no evidence that the Woods Family Office , where he claimed to work , exists beyond its web site . Brown withdrew his next company ’s registration as an investment advisor with the Securities & Exchange Commission in 2019 , and has never filed 13F report required by money managers with more than $ 100 million in public securities . According to Pitchbook , a private investment database , Brown has invested in three space company — SpaceX , by buying shares in the lowly market , and in speculation rounds with Rocket Lab and Astra . Rocket Lab told Quartz that Brown never enter in any secret speculation rung ; Astra , now public , is presently in a quiet period of time .
As for that conference in Miami , conveniently timed to coincide with Art Basel , Brown never showed up . According to Halsey , Brown told him that “ you should have get a note from my assistant . I was in a eggbeater accident and I ’m in the hospital . ”
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board have no records of any whirlybird accident come in Hawaii during the month before the conference . Brown differentiate Quartz he was spite when he fail to put on a seat whang during a rough landing place after his chopper suffer a mechanical nonstarter during a flight to Oahu , but does n’t remember when the incident occurred .
A financial wunderkind?
Other stories that Brown told Halsey are equally impressive , admit that he collaborated with Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and Mark Zuckerberg through a web company he constitute before selling it to Salesforce — an interesting report given the famousfeud between the Winklevii and Zuckerberg , all of whom declined via spokespeople to comment . Quartz obtained a list of six companies acquired by Salesforce before 2008 — Instranet , Slideaware , Koral , Crispy News , Kieden , and Sendia . None was based in Texas or led by Brown , although in 2006 the Dallas Morning News reported that a Matthew Brown was a finalist for a youth entrepreneurship award for his entanglement companionship “ Provost Enterprises / Provost pattern . ”
Brown told Halsey his next number start in 2008 , when he became an administrator at Woods Family Investments , do one of the families that inherit shares of the General American Oil Company , which was sold to another business firm in 1983 .
According to Halsey , Brown began working on renewable vigor , and as the fiscal crisis and commodities tear have down on the oil - concenter fund , he pitched a strategic overhaul to family patriarch Eric Woods in a 30 - page memoranda . Halsey says Brown differentiate him he was put up the job as CEO of the crime syndicate federal agency the next solar day , carry off $ 6 billion in asset , when according to public records Brown would have been 19 years old . According to Halsey , Brown made returns of 11 % to 17 % investment in wind instrument and solar .
Brown has also indicated , on LinkedIn and elsewhere , that while at the Woods Family Office , he spent twelvemonth counsel famed Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens on renewable energy investment , and that he launched a joint venture with Pickens ’ Mesa Power .
Jay Rosser , who served as Pickens ’ chief of staff and spokesperson from 2002 until Pickens ’ death in 2019 , told Quartz that he and colleagues had n’t heard of Brown . “ I was very faithful with T. Boone Pickens , ” Brown says . At the University of California , Berkeley , where Brown claimed to be an advisor to a renewable energy laboratory , the science laboratory told Quartz he had no official character . But its director , professor Daniel Kammen , said he did acknowledge Brown from unresolved meetings at the lab .
Meanwhile , there are few records of the Woods Family Office or the Woods Family Investments , where Brown ’s LinkedIn profile indicate he function for 14 old age . The Woods Family Foundation observe on the family spot website has never filed the IRS ’s 990 form for tax - exempt establishment . The company ’s internet site claims that it control Hogshead Spouter Co. , a Hong Kong - based investment manager also referenced onBrown ’s LinkedIn profile , but no such house is register with Hong Kong ’s securities governor . Brown refuse to introduce Quartz to any members of the Woods family , or employee of the family office .
Woods is purportedly a descendent of Henry W. Peters , one of the father of the General American Oil Company . Abrief historyof the company by the Texas Historical Society andnews reportsof its sales event make no mention of Woods or Peters . cardinal facts in the kinsfolk history on the Woods web site come out to be faulty ; notably , companionship founder Algur Meadows pass away several eld before he was supposedly involved in the sale of the firm .
The folk of Algur Meadows still operates a eleemosynary foundation today . When contacted about Woods , a Meadows Foundation spokesperson could not substantiate the Woods authority ’s creation . However , she did note that the Meadows Foundation had discovereda websiteclaiming to be associate to the Great American Oil Company ; it is similar to theWoods Family Officewebsite . The Meadows are not tie in to the internet site and are endeavor to set its owner .
A tangled financial web
Brown has been involve in other financial company , according to his LinkedIn profile , Pitchbook , and SEC criminal record .
One Brown vehicle , Tamara - Tacoma Capital Partners ( TTCP ) , is distinguish on Brown ’s LinkedIn as an investment subdivision for category agency deserving “ $ 5b+ . ” There are no record of the troupe or its funds at the SEC , but Pitchbook enjoin the investment trust has $ 150 million under management .
The caller was involved in at least one business deal , buy a upset wind farm in Colorado . That deal became embroiled in litigation in 2016 after TTCP put the fellowship in receivership and declined to ante up $ 8.5 million owed to the US subsidiary of Sany , a Chinese firm that fork over the fart turbine .
In royal court , TTCP fence that the force plant importantly underperformed , but Sany alleged in a tourist court filing that TTCP had transferred $ 910,000 from the company to insiders at TTCP , let in Brown , his partner , and his mate ’s American Express wag . TTCP ’s attorney from the fast Eversheds retreat from the case ; in a discussion with the court , the attorneys said let on the reasons why would be prejudicial to their node . TTCP and Brown obtained new lawyers and the party settled the guinea pig on unrevealed terms in 2019 .
Brown was also a establish partner of Energent , an private equity fund concentrate on renewable and alternative energy . That fund filedpaperworkwith the SEC to raise $ 150 million in 2017 , but Brown and his partner Shane Starrwithdrew their registrationas investment advisors in 2019 and it ’s not percipient if any money was ever arouse . Ben Nelson , an lawyer who dish out as the Chief Executive of the store , told Quartz that Energent never made any deals before shutting down .
Brown evidence Quartz his investing are made through special - purpose vehicles that do not touch off SEC reporting demand . Private investors do oft use trusts , shell company , and seaward financial centers to structure their dealings for privacy and competitive reasons . However , that labor grows more difficult as the asset under direction increase .
PPP loans, social media posts
While Brown ’s speculation investments have prove hard to reassert — he sound out each one includes a non - disclosure concord — his investment company ( employees : one ) did receivetwoloanstotaling nearly $ 42,000 from the US politics ’s Paycheck Protection Program in 2020 . Those loans , like many of the emergency PPP loans extended during the covid-19 pandemic , were forgive .
Brown ’s societal medium , meanwhile , is stock with images documenting the lifespan of a high - range enterpriser who pass sentence in Hawaii and travels by private squirt to gossip factories build eminent - altitude Colonel Blimp and satellite launchers .
Brown may be a SpaceX shareholder , but his goal of own a space companionship instantaneously has burst under examination , with Virgin Orbit ’s leadership unable to regulate if he had the money to save their company . According to a Virgin Orbit employee not authorized to talk publically , the squad at the rocket engine - Lord was first intoxicate by news of a potential rescuer , then appal by more of what they watch about Brown as the deal collapse .
Brown told Quartz he had the financing quick but wanted more assurances from Virgin .
Curious edits on the Virgin Orbit Wikipedia page
Four days before Reutersbroke the newsthat Brown was negotiating with Virgin Orbit , an anon. IP destination in Dallasupdatedthe company ’s Wikipedia page with news that Matthew Brown was planning to buy the ship’s company ; the day before the news broke , that drug user addedmore particular .
The same IP address also is responsible for adding Brown ’s name as an investor inOpenAIandBoom Aerospace , andas an executivewith the Houston Texans football game squad . The same history alsosaidthat Brown and Eric Woods were early investor in SpaceX. Most of those change were reverted by Wikipedia editors for lacking outside citations ; none of the companies has responded to inquiries from Quartz .
One matter is for sure : The hereafter of Virgin Orbit and its employees no longer hangs in the hands of a 33 year - old investor — if it ever did .
This clause originally come along atQuartz .
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