SAN FRANCISCO -- Pay By Touch CEO and founder John Rogers has filed for personal bankruptcy amid a gathering storm of legal challenges from nervous investors, employees and former executives, reported The San Francisco Business Times.
The 750-person San Francisco-based fingerprint scanning company, seen as one of the city's most promising young tech firms, faces claims from four employees who say they are owed at least $60,000 in back wages. The [image-nocss] employees filed a petition for involuntary bankruptcy against Solidus Networks, which does business as Pay By Touch, on October 31, the same day Rogers filed for Chapter 11 protection, according to the newspaper, citing both bankruptcy filings.
Rogers and the company also face two recent lawsuits from former executives and allegations from a major investor that Rogers improperly fired independent board members.
Pay By Touch vice president of marketing Shannon Riordan confirmed that an involuntary petition for bankruptcy had been filed against Solidus. She emphasized that "Pay By Touch is not in bankruptcy."
"Pay By Touch has 20 days to determine how we are going to respond to this petition," she told the paper. "We could oppose it. We could accept it. Or we could accept an alternative."
Earlier this month, Shell, with Pay By Touch, introduced biometric payment technology at its pumps and inside its convenience stores, debuting the service at 10 Chicago-area stations.
The technology verifies personal identity using biometrics, the measurement of unique physical and behavioral characteristics. In this case, a finger scan is used to pay for a fuel purchase from an existing financial account of the driver's choice: eCheck (a direct debit from a checking account), Shell Card or Shell MasterCard. San Francisco-based Pay By Touch provides biometric authentication, personalized marketing and payment solutions.
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