The Execs Behind the MoviePass Debacle Are Now Facing Criminal Charges (theverge.com) 19
Mitch Lowe and Ted Farnsworth already settled with the FTC over fraudulent activity affecting MoviePass customers, but now the former heads of MoviePass and its parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY), are facing criminal allegations of securities fraud and wire fraud. The Verge reports: The Department of Justice announced the charges today, saying false statements made by both men defrauded investors in HMNY when the execs pretended like the company's money-losing $9.95 "unlimited" moviegoing plan had any hope of profitability. HMNY's own auditor cast doubt on the company's viability in a report in 2018, but at the time, Farnsworth downplayed the advisory, telling Insider that "pretty much most" companies running at a loss would have a similar warning.
But the big problem is his claims that HMNY's analytics prowess could somehow monetize data generated from MoviePass simply didn't hold up: prosecutors now allege "Farnsworth and Lowe knew HMNY did not possess these technologies or capabilities to monetize MoviePass's subscriber data or incorporate these technologies into the MoviePass application." [...] The DOJ says each man is facing one count of securities fraud and three counts of wire fraud over the lies they allegedly told in "press releases, SEC filings, interviews on podcasts and on television, and in print and online media."
But the big problem is his claims that HMNY's analytics prowess could somehow monetize data generated from MoviePass simply didn't hold up: prosecutors now allege "Farnsworth and Lowe knew HMNY did not possess these technologies or capabilities to monetize MoviePass's subscriber data or incorporate these technologies into the MoviePass application." [...] The DOJ says each man is facing one count of securities fraud and three counts of wire fraud over the lies they allegedly told in "press releases, SEC filings, interviews on podcasts and on television, and in print and online media."
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But, once again, it is a scam that was only able to exist because of people who are greedy and stupid. Anyone with half a brain could easily see that this couldn't possibly work. It couldn't possibly be anything other than a complete scam. If you gave them money, you are an idiot and you deserve to lose every penny you gave them.
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Sure. And I can't help but say that if they get jailed, for the first time in a long time everyone involved got what they deserved.
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If there is a god, only Uwe Boll movies. And they MUST watch them.
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So, like a typical Elon Musk venture.
Musk (Score:1, Offtopic)
He plays fast a loose. A case like this could put him in jail as well.
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Other than "Musk man bad." tell us what "the company" means and why reorganizing it along profitable lines of business is a bad thing. Right now I see tons of allegations flying because of "Musk man bad" Frankly if you're talking about Twitter IMO he shouldn't have gone down this path because of all the negative, toxic bullshit associated with that platform. He pissed the little babies off so they'll cry for a while but you have to at least fucking laugh when the WH had to delete a tweet that was actually F
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he has done well with Tesla and he co-founded that.
False. Musk was not involved in founding the company in any way. The two co-founders started the ball rolling 2003 [timesnownews.com]. He didn't appear until 2004.
why reorganizing it along profitable lines of business is a bad thing.
It has nothing to do with profitability. It's only an ego thing with him. Corporations are already pausing their advertising dollars [cbsnews.com] with Twitter after the explosion of racist [thehill.com] and related comments since Musk bought the company. He's losing m
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The golden rule: He who has the gold, makes the rules. [tesla.com]
As the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon leads all product design, engineering, and global manufacturing of the company's electric vehicles, battery products, and solar energy products.
I know the other story, it's like who founded McDonald's. It was all settled in a lawsuit, so Elon and everybody else can say he co-founded Tesla and he can legally claim that. Don't forget he provided the lion's share of funding that took the prototype to the roadster, he owned over 85% of Tesla and all that comes with it early in 2004.
It has nothing to do with profitability. It's only an ego thing with him. Corporations are already pausing their advertising dollars [cbsnews.com] with Twitter after the explosion of racist [thehill.com] and related comments since Musk bought the company. He's losing millions of dollars every day, and it's just beginning.
Here it goes.. "He's allowing racism! he's not doing what we want!" The lefties are all in meltdown mode, "He can't ch
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Let's toss out one more thing he's done [imgur.com]. Mind you, this may or may not be true, but considering something else I saw where these same programmers were told to print out all the code they'd written in the last 3 - 6 months to show to him, this acquaints well.
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The golden rule: He who has the gold, makes the rules. [tesla.com]
As the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon leads all product design, engineering, and global manufacturing of the company's electric vehicles, battery products, and solar energy products.
I know the other story, it's like who founded McDonald's. It was all settled in a lawsuit, so Elon and everybody else can say he co-founded Tesla and he can legally claim that.
Being able to legally claim something is not quite the same as having actually done that thing.
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Also, that $8 (or whatever amount) to get the blue checkmark for "verification", turns out there wouldn't be any verification whatsoever. You could buy your checkmark and become anyone you wanted to.
Even if every one of Twitter's human users signed up for it, and paid for it for years, he would still be many billions in the hole... even if the costs were $0. So clearly they can't spend any money on verification.
Maybe they should view alot of prison movies (Score:2)
Maybe they should view alot of prison movies so they can get ready.
Get the popcorn - literally (Score:2)
Mmmm popcorn.
So you start a business, you get investors and you give them the whole elevator speech about vision, market, and how you'll make money. That's what any company does. Now if you know that your business model is fraudulent, it would be up to the DOJ to have proof of this, a few e-mails or witnesses perhaps. Oh well, let's see what happens.
TANSTAAFL (Score:2)
There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
Not only has this been known, it has even been a public meme for a hundred years or so https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_ain't_no_such_thing_as_a_free_lunch [wikipedia.org]. Robert Heinlein made it a staple of stories in his science fiction writing.
The fact that people are promising a free lunch is sometimes obscured by some handwaving about how the costs will be made up on the backend, or how losses will be recouped by increasing sales volumes, or (today's version) data analy