Meade Lewis once told investors that mIQroTech was generating millions of dollars in revenue. Federal court records now say the Tampa energy-tech company had less than $100,000 in actual revenue in 2020, even as a pitch deck represented $8.7 million.
Lewis, the company’s founder and CEO and a 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud in federal court. His change-of-plea hearing is scheduled for Oct. 13 in Tampa. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, though any sentence would be determined later by a judge.
The deal brings Lewis a long way from the image he spent years building around mIQroTech. Founded in 2017, the company said it was developing artificial intelligence and Internet of Things technology that could predict and prevent leaks in oil and gas pipelines. Lewis spoke publicly about using technology to reduce environmental damage and save energy companies money. His Forbes profile listed Chevron Technology Ventures, through its Catalyst Program, and Cathexis Ventures among the company’s investors.
Behind the pitch, prosecutors say, the numbers were another story.
Lewis was indicted in May on five counts of wire fraud. Prosecutors accused him of raising more than $7 million by making false statements about mIQroTech’s finances, customers and product. The indictment also alleged that some of the money was used for his personal enrichment.
Lewis initially denied the allegations, but the plea agreement changes that posture. According to a copy described by the Business Observer, Lewis agreed to plead guilty to one wire-fraud count tied to investor fundraising. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss the other four counts.
One of the clearest examples in the agreement concerns a pitch deck Lewis sent to a Texas venture capital firm in early 2021. The presentation said mIQroTech was billing $6.8 million in annual recurring revenue and had generated $8.7 million in actual revenue the year before. According to the agreement, mIQroTech had no annual recurring revenue and less than $100,000 in actual revenue in 2020.
The Texas firm invested $3.25 million. Another company received the same presentation and later invested $1 million. The plea agreement says 12 investors put a total of $7.91 million into mIQroTech and received no return.
The dispute over mIQroTech did not begin with the criminal case. Investors sued Lewis and the company in 2021, accusing him of filling fundraising materials with false claims about revenue, customers and the state of the product.
Among the allegations in that lawsuit were claims that mIQroTech counted major energy companies as customers when it did not, and that Lewis told an investor Chevron had agreed to put $4 million into the company. The civil complaint also said mIQroTech claimed to be gathering millions of data points across thousands of miles of pipeline despite not having deployed the product as represented.
The lawsuit contained an unusually blunt detail. Before a planned meeting with investors in November 2021, Lewis texted one of them that the message would be “tough” and apologized for what he was about to share. When the investor asked what he meant, the complaint says Lewis replied: “Meade f–ked up.”
The investors later reached a settlement with Lewis, but the case was reopened after they said he failed to pay. A judge eventually ordered him to pay roughly $7.1 million plus interest. During the fight over his finances, Lewis was found in civil contempt and jailed in early 2025 before producing records.
The criminal case followed the next year.
There are several dollar figures attached to the case, and they describe different things. The Justice Department said in May that it intended to seek forfeiture of at least $7,096,458, which prosecutors alleged represented proceeds from the offenses. Reporting on the later plea agreement put the total amount invested by 12 investors at $7.91 million.
Lewis has not yet been sentenced, and the maximum 20-year penalty should not be confused with an expected sentence. His Oct. 13 hearing comes first.
What is already in the plea agreement is damaging enough without a nickname or a cheap shot: investors were shown revenue figures in the millions for a company that, according to the agreement, had less than $100,000 in actual revenue in 2020. Some of them wrote seven-figure checks based on those presentations.
For years, mIQroTech was sold as a company that could spot problems in pipelines before they became disasters. Its investors did not get the same warning about the numbers.
