It claims a conspiracy to "steal AIP's proprietary stock loan product" (EQUITAP™, [which] helps investors achieve their financial goals by structuring non-recourse loans using the securities in their portfolio as collateral) and "virtually API's entire business from API and its founder, Mark Robbins" (Pelican claim to own the relevant rights). It then goes on to explain the whole sorry story of a techie (Robbins) investing four years and apparently all of his money into development of a product, being approached by seasoned businessmen (Brazell and McBride) as potential partners, the subsequent formation of a new business (Talos) and theft of everything from AIP's products to website to employees (Ramachandran) with the help of AIP's own lawyers (Bryan Cave LLP) who ultimately blew the whistle with an "astonishing" conflict of interest waiver.
The truly mindblowing part of the whole story though is the Skyline Cowboy site they claim is run by McBride and Brazell: "Finally, in a heinous effort to obliterate AIP's business and deflect their misdeeds [they] have over approximately the last 60 days littered the Internet with scurrilous postings on www.skylinecowboy.com, a website they used primarily for that purpose, and on Yahoo, Twitter and other message boards."
If that's true it's like coming back to stab the guy in the carpark after you've robbed him of everything he owns. Not only have they posted a video of the guy's wife being served what they claim is a $109,627 check fraud judgment following a $1,000 bounty as well as a $20,000 reward for arrest and $1,000,000 reward for "full restitution" (save that both appear to be impossible - and likely a result of the claimed highway robbery), but now they've offered $30,000 for the true identity of GrokLaw's Pamela Jones (PJ) who they claim is a "Secret IBM Shill Blogger". Let's not be too quick to forget the relationship to SCO Group and their apparently Microsoft funded attacks on IBM, Novell and Linux in general.
Anyway you can see the juicy details for yourself in the filings and if you're a GrokLaw member, the article and associated discussion (the article has since been updated "Now that I've read it, I've made the article Members Only for now." and unfortunately "creation of new accounts has been temporarily disabled"). I have but one question: Who the %!#$ do these cowboys think they are? It's amazing to think that our society routinely jails people for petty theft while leaving [what appear to be] career conmen free to enrich themselves at others' expense. Anyway at least Bernie Madoff got his comeuppance... you've heard my opinion - what's yours?
Update: An anonymous commenter just stated that they "know for a fact" that Rob Brazell went to Skyline High School. Sure enough a Google search for skyline and salt lake city (where all the action is) brings the school up first (so the origin of the name fits) and another for brazell and skyline high school returns over 100 results (so some members of the Brazell family(s) went there). If that's true then it seems the lawsuit is "on the money" (so to speak).
16 comments:
Speechless...
Didn't we already cover this RE Maureen O'Gara and the SYS-CON hatchet job on PJ lo these many years ago?
round and round the mulberry bush...
Seems to me like you have gotten some information form Mark Robbins. Your details are completely incorrect. It appears that you failed to mention that Mark Robbins has a warrant out for his arrest in Utah for Fraud. You are actually believing a guy like this? Skyline Cowboy is bringing to light a guy that has scammed people for years, so that people won't continue to get scammed by Mark and lose their money! Go Skyline Cowboy! It is about time someone publicly shares what this guy has done. Hopefully this will prevent people from getting screwed by him in the future!
@Carl: Yeah, it's amazing what some people will do...
@GirlBand: As I said above, from a casual bystander like myself the whole Skyline Cowboy debacle looks a lot like 'coming back to stab the guy in the carpark after you've robbed him of everything he owns'. I guess the courts will get to the bottom of it in due course, but even if they don't those who are at fault know the truth.
And from a casual bystander, like myself, it looks like a very small slice of justice!
And what business did these guys steal from Mark?? The only deal that Mark put togetherat AIP was with Fairstar. Maybe you should speak to a few of Mark's former employees, they could fill you in. He took almost 3 million from Fairstart, for a stock loan and never returned the money, let alone the upside that he promised, therefore the Australian based Fairstar, has sued him and has a warrant for his arrest in Utah. Wow! Sounds to me like he is the guy doing the robbing!
I guess that's why the entire family had to pick up and move to California overnight and reside in a residence that has 24 hour security so they could start the scam someplace else. The courts appear to have NO mercy on this guy, especially since he hasn't appeared for ONE of his court appearances. HE is the only guy hiding AND the only guy with any reason to be hiding! Your article makes NO sense, but Mark has a long history of paying people off to do things that can't ethically be done on their own merits. So, I get it!
@GirlBand: So you figure that this Mark guy paid me off to write this article? And that sounds even remotely reasonable to you? Anyway I don't really care who robbed who - it's a complete and utter dog's breakfast however you look at it.
Your article just doesn't make any sense, thus the reason for the payoff? It is rumored that Robbins paid off the AG in Utah, Mark Shurtleff. Robbins says himself that he has a free get out of jail pass because of his contributions to Shurtleff. The Bernie Madoff,in this case, is Robbins, not whoever is behind Skyline Cowboy. It seems as a journalist you would work a little harder to get the truth.
Wow, you certainly seem to be intimately aware of the details - I'm just sharing my interpretation as an outsider based on what limited information is available. I may well be completely wrong but that's the fun part of free speech... so long as I don't claim it as fact (as you have above) I can say whatever I like.
Yes , you can! And the good news is that you aren't afraid to post opposing views. Thanks!
I know for a fact that Rob Brazell went to Skyline High School in Utah.
Darl McBride is the person posting as Skyline Cowboy. I looked up the domain a while back (before it was converted to a private registration).
If the facts in the Pelican law suit are accurate, Darl McBride, Stephen Norris and Rob Brazell are very bad guys and should be convicted of criminal charges for doing what they've done. I just read the amended complaint filed in the Pelican law suit in NY and have been following groklaw's reporting and its amazing what they have done. Darl McBride was a CEO of a public company , while making dirty bribe payments outside of the BK courts. As far as I'm concerned, he should be in prison. And by the way, is it any question that Darl Mcbride or one of the individuals mentioned above is the person posting comments to you Sam - they know way too much. IBM and this Robbins guy should go to the local authorities regarding Skyline Cowboy and press charges, isn't it illegal to post phony bounty's on people? What if somebody took that seriously and harmed Robbins or an IBM employee?
I read that Darl McBride and Stephen Norris had criminal complaints filed against them in Utah for the dirty payments that were paid outside of the BK courts. Does anybody know if this is true?
Yes! I just confirmed that Darl McBride owns skylinecowboy.com - he isnt smart enough to have fresh purchased the domain as private.
So, that site is no longer creditable!!
It's worth noting also that he was recently "terminated".
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