Let me start by saying that this post contains nothing but facts. There is no intent to slander - just a warning and an abbreviated summary of my specific experiences. I have an extensive text history from which I got the following quotes, dates and texts. I also have emails from the others from whom he has stolen money that I refer to in this post. I have invoices that document each transaction that I have had with Jonathan aka ASOA.
I will not share any of this information with anyone at this time because I am filing a lawsuit against Jonathan, ASOA and the other business that he owns. Others that I have communicated with are considering suing him and his companies as well.

Jonathan Demare has stolen $15,100 from me, and from those with whom I’ve communicated he has stolen over $165,000 - probably more from others that I don’t know about - within the last year and a half.
The reason I gave him so much money and trusted him was because he had sold me a couple of pinball machines at a good discount prior to his convincing me to pay him in full for an Alien Remake, for which I paid him on 4/17/2019, and a Big Lebowski for which I paid him on 10/10/2019. I told him that I was concerned about giving him money for a TBL because of Dutch Pinballs history of taking money for pins and then not delivering, but he told me that the money would go into escrow and if there were any problems I would get a refund. In March he told me that he had a couple of Alien remakes in his “warehouse” and that he was involved with the testing and development phase of the pin. In April he told me that Alien would be shipped within 30 to 60 days so I sent him the money.

Soon I began to realize that Jonathan was a scammer and on February 25 2020 I asked for a refund of my TBL money, which he had told me was in escrow. When I asked for a refund he told me that he “there is no such thing as escrow. You bought a game now you want to cancel and get a refund. Not an escrow. I will accommodate.” and then said that he “would try to get it done in the next 30 days.”. Keep in mind - February 25 was before COVID had started affecting businesses. On that day there were only 60 known cases in the United States on that day and no lockdowns anywhere. If he intended to refund my money he could have at this time regardless of the developing COVID situation.

He then stalled me by telling me that he was sick with “influenza and H1N1” (Feb 25) and then his next stall was that his “wife in hospital now having CT scan of heart . . “ (March 2) and then continued to give other various excuses whenever I would ask for my money back for the next 10 months. Most recently he said that he would satisfy me by January 31. Again I waited for a month with no communications. I texted him on February 1 to tell him that I was proceeding with the lawsuit. Of course he was having emergency oral surgery that day and couldn’t talk.
Two days later (2/3/21) I texted him and he said that he would “contact you later this afternoon”. Of course he didn’t. I was able to contact him by phone two days later. He told me that he had a payment plan that he was drawing up documentation for and that I would get it in an email “today or tomorrow”.
Now it’s over a week later and of course I’ve received nothing.

There have been so many excuses and lies over time that I won’t bother to list them here. If you’ve dealt with Jonathan I’m sure that you know what I’m talking about.

He has said all along that ASOA is a company with many employees. However, the address for ASOA is a P.O. Box, and there is no filing information for ASOA available and no listing of employees. I have asked Jonathan for contact information for other employees of ASOA such as “his financial person” that he refers to so I can attempt to get my money back from the company. He refuses to give me contact info for anyone else in ASOA.

For years he has used a local delivery person for deliveries in Florida to deliver games that I or other Florida buyers have bought. The gentleman who does the deliveries is a well respected and honest person in the industry. Whenever he has picked up pins from Jonathan he has never picked them up at “ASOA’s warehouse” (doesn’t exist) or even at Jonathan’s house (he has never told anyone his address - but I recently was able to find it). Jonathan has always had the delivery person meet him in a shopping center parking lot to pick up the pins.

As far as I know I am the only person other than the delivery gentleman who has actually met Jonathan - I ran into him at Freeplay Florida about 5 years ago. Everyone else who he has stolen money from has only dealt with him via texts or phone calls.

About 6 months ago I asked Jonathan to start a payment plan of $1000 a month, which he agreed to do but never actually did.
In September I told him that if he paid me $12,000 within 30 days , I would forgive the rest of the debt - forgiving him for $4100. To this day I have not gotten one penny of what he owes me. And to the best of my knowledge nobody else has seen any money returned either.

Jonathan Demare is very charismatic and could sell ice to eskimos, but make no mistake - This man is not your friend. He is a thief.
If Jonathan has stolen any money from you and we have not yet communicated, please feel free to PM me.

Thank you.

Thanks.
The listed address is his P.O. Box.

Along with the lawsuit I’m pursuing criminal charges.

He was involved in some way with the company that was creating the remake. There is another “speculation” thread on Pinside about that.
Before he scammed us he sold me several pins at great prices, and I had no reason to doubt him when he told me that Alien rights had been taken over by Pinball Brothers and that it was being remade. Apparently he was right and had inside information that he was willing to exploit to steal our money.

No pressure or threats. Just asked me to not say anything.

Yeah Jonathan was really slick. I’m going to the D.O.J. Stay tuned . . .

And please do not hound Dexter or any other poster on this thread. We are all good people and have had different experiences and taken different paths to get to be who we are today. This is a wonderful hobby full of great people. Let’s keep it so.
Thank you.

He may never change who he is. But I will never allow him to change who I am.

It’s a good start.

Update:
I have been on the phone with Jonathan discussing this situation since this thread came to a boil. He has admitted that his actions were wrong. I believe that his intent all along has been to make each of us whole, but COVID forced him to lose some of his locations and most of his income, and actually cost him a great deal of money. That said, his focus has been on keeping himself afloat and rebuilding his business, and not on those of us to whom he owes money.

With him in a panic to save his own business, I don’t think that he had much time to think about the potential repercussions his actions may have had for each of us, including possible monetary and familial strife.

After our discussion and his actions of today, I truly believe that he will be focusing on paying each of us back.
When all was said and done, Jonathan repaid me a portion of the money he owes me today via PayPal, and has written a document outlining a payment plan for the remainder of the amount owed.

He also said that this week he will be contacting each of you to whom he owes money and create a similar document and begin paying us all until we are made whole again. In some cases he may also offer machines as an option, to those who are willing to accept them. He also offered me a machine/money mix, but I decided that I would prefer the money.

This has been a difficult journey for each of us, but I truly believe that we are going to all get back our money.

Please be patient and work with Jonathan and let’s see what happens. And if he fails to contact you to work things out, please feel free to contact me via PM.
Thanks to all who were civil in their contributions to this thread.

Now lets go play some pinball!

Bill Clement.

I have already gotten texts from others who he owes, saying that Jonathan has just reached out to them and is arranging restitution. Today.

I agree with you, leopards never change their spots. However the reason Jonathan paid me, sent me a “contract” and is reaching out to others is that he understands that if he doesn’t fulfill his agreements that I will proceed with filing criminal charges and have him arrested and put in jail.
This is why I have asked those who he owes money to to PM me if he doesn’t follow through. He knows that I’m not done with this until each of us have been made whole.

Believe me, I know about being scammed. I’m in this to get us all back what we are owed. Let’s have a little bit of patience and faith and see how this plays out.

The reason I agreed to a portion of what is owed me is because he owes many people and I want to give us all a chance to start getting paid. It’s not all about me.

I won’t give an exact amount, but it was significant. I needed to know that he meant to do what he said this time.

(Quoted from above)
“what's a "contract" from a scammer worth? Sorry if I'm posting over and over.... just getting caught up on this interesting thread.”

It’s a document that can be taken to court or shown to the D.O.J. If you want to have him arrested. Most of Jonathan’s deals were word of mouth. It’s also showing intent to pay. A huge move forward from what we have seen before.

.