CEO’s mansion purchase leaves robot-soldier startup broke and staff unpaid

Foundation Future Industries, a military humanoid robot startup backed by Eric Trump, failed to pay its employees in October as cash ran dry. The San Francisco company, which boasts of developing weapons-ready robots for the U.S. military and border patrol, missed payroll while its CEO and co-founder, Sankaet Pathak, had previously borrowed $4.6 million from the company to buy a luxury home in Sausalito with sweeping bay views.

Employees are now unpaid while Pathak seeks to raise hundreds of millions at a $3 billion valuation and claims the company is on the verge of unveiling the world's strongest humanoid robot. This follows the collapse of Pathak's previous fintech startup, Synapse, which locked thousands of Americans out of their savings. The takeaway: a flashy PowerPoint about battling China doesn't pay the bills when the CEO treats the company treasury as a personal piggy bank for waterfront property.