A married Phoenix entrepreneur who introduced the first “child-safe” smartphone offering real-time monitoring for parents is now facing two federal wire fraud counts for allegedly embezzling at least $1.5 million from his company to buy a Lamborghini, a diamond ring and a 4-bed, 4-bath home in Miami for an escort he was seeing.
Cyber Dive co-founder Jeffrey Gottfurcht – the first rheumatoid arthritis sufferer to scale Mount Everest – was turned in to federal authorities by his wife Emily and business partner Derek Jackson, according to an FBI probable cause affidavit reviewed by The Independent.
Gottfurcht’s wife Emily, who shares three children with the 53-year-old former investment banker, is presently seeking a divorce, the affidavit states. Gottfurcht, for his part, “is currently in custody having been recently charged with various crimes related to assaulting Emily,” according to the affidavit, which was filed June 12 in Phoenix federal court.
A review of local arrest records shows Gottfurcht was arrested May 25 by Scottsdale police on felony domestic violence charges, and remains jailed on $250,000 bond.
Jackson, a former U.S. Army intelligence officer who served as Cyber Dive’s COO and has now taken over as interim CEO, also told the FBI that Gottfurcht used bogus sales data to fraudulently extract millions from investors, the affidavit goes on.
“Jackson learned that Gottfurcht told investors Cyber Dive sold approximately 20,000 phones,” the affidavit says. “Jackson advised your affiant that Cyber Dive only sold approximately 200 phones, since its inception.”
Further, the affidavit continues, Gottfurcht “made false statements to investors that Cyber Dive would be acquired by companies such as private equity firm BlackRock, AT&T, and ultimately Google.” But, it contends, Jackson told FBI agents that Cyber Dive had never been in talks with any of those companies, and said he had “no paperwork to support the claim” that Cyber Dive was ever an acquisition target.
In a phone call on Monday, Jackson told The Independent that the alleged scheme unraveled on February 13, when he stumbled upon a batch of allegedly forged financial documents, supposedly related to the nonexistent takeover plans, in Gottfurcht’s email.
“I have never felt more betrayed in my entire life,” Jackson said. “Over the past seven years, Jeff and I started a company together, we traveled together, sometimes we’d have conversations about how, when you’re in business together, it’s almost like being married. The business is your child, and you basically have the child together. I trusted him.”
Jackson said Gottfurcht “drained the company down to zero,” and that Cyber Dive is now on life support.
“When we found this out, employees weren’t paid for like, three weeks,” Jackson explained. “All the company charges were bouncing. And while we’re awaiting restitution, which could take a very long time, we’re in the process of trying to raise emergency funding so we can continue operating. We have nine weeks until we’ll have to close our doors, so it’s a blitz right now, trying to survive.”
Gottfurcht does not yet have an attorney listed in court filings, and was unable to be reached.
Before he made headlines over fraud accusations, Jeffrey Gottfurcht was in the news for somewhat more inspiring reasons.
In 2011, following a failed summit attempt the prior year, Gottfurcht, then residing in California, successfully reached the peak of the world’s tallest mountain.
“Californian Jeffrey Gottfurcht Is First Person With Rheumatoid Arthritis to Conquer Everest,” an ABC News headline read.
Roughly a decade later, Gottfurcht was again spotlighted for another first.
“New phone allows parents to see everything their kids do online,” CBS News reported.
“The predator could be inside your house, and you don’t even know it,” Gottfurcht told the outlet of Cyber Dive’s Aqua One phone. “We really wanted to address that and make something that allowed parents [to] really not get stuck in the driveway.”
He was profiled in April 2021 by Arizona Foothills as a “Trendsetter to Know,” telling the magazine in a Q&A that he was “born to win,” that his life was “fun,” and that the one thing he could not “live without” was his family.
Today, however, Gottfurcht’s life has taken a turn, authorities said.
In the probable cause affidavit filed alongside a criminal complaint charging Gottfurcht with fraud by wire, radio or television, FBI Special Agent Marvin Fitchett begins by summarizing an interview with Gottfurcht’s wife.
“Emily told your affiant that Gottfurcht advised her in February 2026 that a woman identified as Dayetsi D. Lopez Garcia… was an escort that Gottfurcht claimed he was dating,” the affidavit states. “Emily further told your affiant that Gottfurcht admitted to her that he bought Garcia a diamond ring, an expensive Lamborghini, and other luxury goods from multiple shopping trips.”
It says that Emily Gottfurcht had “knowledge of the family’s finances and bank accounts,” and that she told agents that “the source of the funds for these purchases must have come from the company [her husband] founded in 2019 known as Cyber Dive.”
On February 13, as Jackson told The Independent, Gottfurcht “was removed as CEO” from Cyber Dive, according to the affidavit, which does not provide additional details of Gottfurcht’s exit.
The affidavit says Jackson described Gottfurcht’s alleged tall tales to investors, and said that Gottfurcht had listed himself as the lone signatory on the company’s bank accounts when they opened them in February 2019. It wasn’t until February that Jackson discovered Gottfurcht had “sole control” of the accounts, the affidavit states.
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