Bitwise Industries

The text messages were presented in a federal courtroom just before Jake Soberal and Irma Olguin, Jr. were sentenced to a combined 20 years in prison. Former employees told KVPR the sentencing hearing left them feeling raw and emotionally conflicted.

The co-founders of Bitwise Industries, a failed Fresno-based tech startup that went bankrupt and led to the forced layoff of 900 workers across the country, were sentenced Tuesday by a federal judge in Fresno.

Former Bitwise employee Anthony Haddad speaks with KVPR's Elizabeth Arakelian. Haddad recently published an op-ed sharing his experience at the company and his reaction to the co-founders' guilty plea.

In a statement released to the social media account for Irma Olguin Jr. on the platform X, an apology addresses former “teammates, investors, lenders and their respective families.”

Jake Soberal and Irma Olguin Jr. initially pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges when they surrendered in November, but recently reached a plea deal.

When Bitwise Industries collapsed, it took down hundreds of workers from across the nation with it.

Soon, the dream the company was selling began to unravel.

Bitwise Industries seemed to be a blooming hub for innovation in Fresno and the Central Valley. When the company crashed earlier this year, it left a void in the community. Former employees are taking the future of the industry in the Valley into their own hands.

At its inception, Bitwise Industries aimed to remove barriers into the technology space. It went after underserved cities, hired hundreds of people and promised to create thousands of jobs. But the company gambled on its dreams and quickly ran out of time.

“They used lie after lie," prosecutors argued as the co-founders were set to appear in court.