Former Motionloft CEO Jon Mills Arrested By The FBI
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
The original stock certificates I received from Jon in 2011 have turned out to be completely fraud. Can you please elaborate on how anyone besides Jon Mills embezzled funds from the company? Also who is this anyhow? You can just say your name.
I don't think it's a good idea for you to make these sort of statements either.
I don't see what benefit sending this guy to jail provides other than a simple avenue for enacting vengeance on someone who behaved poorly. Worst case, he should have to repay all of his debts and money he swindled. He'll take whatever lessons from his mistakes that he may.
I've known people like this, luckily that didn't get backed, and it can get incredibly messy. Things like maxing credit cards, identity changes, disappearing to foreign countries. It's better for everyone in the long run that this gets sorted properly as he'll just emerge from prison desperate to get back and will do something worse.
On the face of it, it sounds like a much more blatant fraud than Dennis Kozlowski, the former Tyco CEO who served about 8 years in prison, or Bernie Ebbers (what is it with guys named "Bernie"?), who is still serving a 25 year sentence for defrauding WorldCom investors.
People stealing money and behaving erratically when it collapses around them isn't evidence of mental illness. Maybe he's nuttier than a squirrel hole, but right now, I don't see any reason to assume he's not just a criminal.
One main difference is Madoff wasn't alone. He needed the help of a group in on the conspiracy over a long period of time. Combined with the overall magnitude and the regulatory failures I'm much more persuaded Madoff had criminal intent. This case sounds a lot like he was lying to absolutely everyone all the time (and especially to those closest to him), not that he was trying to orchestrate some group conspiracy to fleece outsiders of their cash. The whole story isn't out yet, so maybe there is more, but it sounds to me like he's one of those people that genuinely believes that if you act rich you become it.
There are a lot more interesting things to come with this case, this is only the beginning. His doctor isn't the only one he has scammed.
Mills was a first-time entrepreneur, but he had received backing from high-profile investors like Mark Cuban, and according to the Motionloft website, the company had secured clients like CVS, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Cushman & Wakefield.
Several former friends say Mills was also fun to be around and generous about inviting them to party with him at various music festivals and in places like Las Vegas.
All of which is why, when Mills started asking friends if they wanted to invest in his company, a few of them jumped at the opportunity.
They say Mills cashed checks that altogether were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, promising them a small percentage of the company. Later, when he told them an acquisition was imminent, they felt confident they had made the right decision.
Mills is no longer part of Motionloft (Joyce Rietman is the CEO, effective December 1), and the validity of the investments his friends made while he was there is being called into question by earlier investors. As a result, after months of waiting, those friends now believe that not only was there no acquisition, but that it is possible they won’t get any of their money back. ...
... Sources say the private performance by Miguel, which cost $100,000, was never paid for. That was also true of the private jet charters, which included three separate flights into Vegas and four flights out, and cost nearly $100,000 altogether.
Justin Sullivan is the CEO of Private FLITE, the private jet service Mills used to charter the flights in November. He told me that Mills promised several days in a row he would pay for those flights by wire and later told Sullivan he would FedEx a check. Neither came.
After multiple attempts to reach Mills on the phone, Sullivan confronted Mills at his house to demand payment. Mills then wrote two checks for a total of nearly $294,000, but both bounced, Sullivan told me.
tl;dr – Guy gets credit from private aircraft company because of his connection to super rich baller. Aircraft company boss feels stupid and angry so puts up a protest site.
Verdict:
Guy is guilty of fraud if he had zero intention to pay. Which seems a bit of a stupid move. Having said that he seemed in self destruction mode from what I’ve read.
The Aircraft leasing employee who gave him credit is incompetent for issuing credit to that degree on his say so. His greed overtook his commercial sense.
Opinion only.
Textbook sociopath.
They often are, so it's not much of a bet that you've won here.
How did the "laws against fraud" worked in the 2008 financial crisis? I heard a trillion dollar bailout was awarded, because those greedy scamsters were "too big to fail".
One could also argue that "technically the didn't break the law". Which just proves the original argument. When you can abuse a system to get billions for your company, and then have the state get you out of trouble with public money unscratched (and you get to keep all your earnings), and that's not considered a fraud, then it's clear that "laws against fraud" ARE a tool of the rich, and have been designed so that their kind of crimes go unpunished.
Truly a caricature of an HN comment.
As for the actual topic, of course I did not actually claim, or even imply, that the FBI is "merely a tool of the rich", but if you think the FBI has not many times served as a tool of the rich and powerful you are beyond ignorant.
But, as you are probably aware, the extravagant behavior could be a cold deliberate move, an attempt to get people to give him money. "Look, I'm a rising star, I'm rich, hook yourself up to me." Lots of con artists flash money to get people to trust them.
It's sad that gullible people invested blindly/stupidly. It's sad that this guy clearly has(at the very least) sociopathic tendencies that weren't discovered by his peers until the damage was done. And in a way it's sad that he probably won't receive the help that would best facilitate his rehabilitation.
Do I feel worse for the people who lost their money than the guy who lied/stole/cheated them out of it? Of course. Fuck him. But I still think his situation is a sad one in the same way I would think a heroin dealers situation was.
The comments have quite a few of his investors discussing the allegations, which make for interesting reading.
He will have a chance to redeem himself in the not-so-distant future. Hopefully he will capitalize on it.
18-36 months, in addition to the fact that he will have a felony on his record for probably the rest of his life, in addition to the fact that his public online reputation is destroyed forever, is appropriate.
He's R&B singer Miguel, who I guess you kids are listening to these days.
It's good to see justice to help keep the investment environment clean.
More likely, someone with half a brain on the BOD or within the co. realized everyone was going to be super-screwed really soon, and better to be in front of the wave doing the right thing. Sure, Cuban's involvement may have accelerated the process (people are human, fame has an impact) but I suspect something like this would have happened regardless (might not be featured on YC news with a cast of nobodys)
How do these people think they can get away with this sort of thing? Are they just completely delusional, or does this kind of outright fraud sometimes work out for them?