Sorry guys for the spam. I have some fat fingers this morning it seems.

Andrew

Love the acid joke from Amsterdam. See you at the smart shop

If john needs more money for Zidware and is so confident, why not take a second mortgage on his house and use his personal assets? I can answer that, because he thinks of all the people who sent him money as suckers and not people and that he is entitled to the money because he is a creative genius pinball inventor. He thinks the money was a contribution or a gift, not an agreement to purchase something. I just want to stay healthy enough to outlive him so I can piss on his grave.

Hopefully he will eventually personally call and apologize to every single person involved. Though doubtful, if he at least admitted to the truth, (whatever it is) people could begin to forgive, (if possible) but not forget.

I feel robbed of someone I admired, I wish I could say only that about the real victims.

Totally right look at his old posts...he called the customers "fans". He feels the fans were supporting his vision, basically patrons. What a weirdo view.

ADMIN NOTE: This is not a quote from John Popaduik. This is the poster's opinion on what he thinks John would write.

From John Popadiuk -

Zidware marches on! Most people don't know what I know , and what I know is people buy million dollar paintings every day. And my deal costs way less! So why wouldn't a millionaire angel investor just walk in and take over? It could happen today. Pintasia may not see the light , but there are smarter, better business men out there (please stop in for tea and pinball whispering anytime if interested). All we need is one of those millionaire painting buyers to walk in and carry the ball. We are 95% done anyways. Lawsuit shmawsuit ... We will have another investo-sucka in here before you can say Zane Smith! - paraphrase from the mad hatter down the hole.

Sad...but that's where he is now .

Yep that's his attitude. It's insane

hold on, is that his quote or is that changed? Was the first part him?

How is it not a crime, in fact both a local and a federal crime to take peoples money for a product, and not deliver the product? And take money across state and international boundaries using various networks like USPS and the Internet? Isn't that wire fraud?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_and_wire_fraud

Mail

18 U.S.C. § 1341 provides:

Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, or to sell, dispose of, loan, exchange, alter, give away, distribute, supply, or furnish or procure for unlawful use any counterfeit or spurious coin, obligation, security, or other article, or anything represented to be or intimated or held out to be such counterfeit or spurious article, for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice or attempting so to do, places in any post office or authorized depository for mail matter, any matter or thing whatever to be sent or delivered by the Postal Service, or deposits or causes to be deposited any matter or thing whatever to be sent or delivered by any private or commercial interstate carrier, or takes or receives therefrom, any such matter or thing, or knowingly causes to be delivered by mail or such carrier according to the direction thereon, or at the place at which it is directed to be delivered by the person to whom it is addressed, any such matter or thing, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

Wire

18 U.S.C. § 1343 provides:

Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.

Honest services

18 U.S.C. § 1346 provides:

For the purposes of this chapter, the term “scheme or artifice to defraud” includes a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.[3]

Elements

There are three elements to mail and wire fraud:

Intent;
A "scheme or artifice to defraud" or the obtaining of property by fraud; and,
A mail or wire communication.[4]

To be fraudulent, a misrepresentation must be material.

Mail fraud applies only to United States domestic mailings and use of interstate carriers (UPS, FedEx) which must originate in one state, and successfully terminate pursuant to the address label inside another state, a transportation that is termed "interstate" (over which Congress has power to regulate) and does require that the mailing cross at least one state line into another state; wire fraud has been expanded by Congress to include foreign wire communication or interstate connections via (e.g.) an e-mail server or telephone switch or radio communication.

You weren't paying for a product. You were investing in a startup, with the hope of receiving a product out of it. Startups fail all the time. People lose money. No one goes to jail.

Seriously, this notion that John is going to jail, or even will be convicted of any kind of fraud, is just not happening. The lawsuit may or may not recover any money, and it will most certainly cause bankruptcy, but that's going to be the extent of it in all likelihood.

It's called a failed business.

Last I checked, failing at business is not a crime.

Sad, but true.

John likely isn't going to jail because he did not have criminal intent when this thing started and it will be hard to prove when he knew it would fail and that his intent then became fraudulent. However, our contracts were for purchases of specific games, not investments in a start for what little difference that makes.

A whole lotta painful lessons are being learned here.

He'd plead not guilty by reason of insanity.

Because he is a total space cadet nutjob.

He has committed crimes, make a criminal complaint that he breached his fiduciary duty to zidware customers and let law enforcement worry about whether he is going to jail or not. Do not listen to the people who have a jaded opinion and think there is no hope. Victims do this all the time. If it appears crimes have been committed, report them.

He may go to jail and he may not. But not reporting this as a crime is a mistake. Every single customer should fill out a criminal complaint, it doesn't take much effort.

OMG!!! ...he's more than delusional.

I was just paraphrasing. John has continued to focus on himself and continues to ignore refund requests or any other requests for that matter. To him , this is just another small bump in the road.

Now...how does that jibe with the email he sent out where he said he was done?

I can't figure it out. Seems ... Almost ... Schizoid. Or just death throes? The struggle and flailing at the end?

I mean how do you send out that email and then turn around and say Zidware is going to continue? Nothing to see here I will figure something out?

I predict he won't even hire a lawyer.

I think a lawyer has to,d him to say it. Look at Kevin: "no one has lost money, the project is continuing". So long as there is not an admission of collapse he may be able to con law enforcement.

By the way, we live an era of prosecutorial discretion. If a prosecutor is interested in pursuing something, there are plenty of laws on the books JPop broke. It is getting the interest that is tough.

I am continuously amazed at the public discussions and comments here, by people actively engaged in litigation (or at least pursuing claims that will likely result in litigation) toward a party defendant. If I was John, I would be printing every page of this thread and storing them.

Heres a thought. Why doesn't this idiot sell the rights plans and everything else to a company that can produce these games and use that cash to refund at least some of the money to the people who invested in him. Lets just pretend JP has some kind of ethics.

I Wanna Rock N Roll All Night & *Insert Funny Joke Here*!

You get a gift card to a restaurant, you are basically giving them money for food at a later date. The restaurant goest out of business. You are out your money, it is not a criminal act.

Obviously with jpop it is a lot more money, but at the end of the day, not a crime. Even if you wanted to argue that him taking money in the last few months, when it is clear he is going to fail, you would probably have to prove that he knew that was the case, and too easy for him to argue 'I was talking to investors'. Most, not all, of the folks here do not believe he went into this planning to commit fraud. He is just a bad businessman with a bad business plan.

When I have been involved in start-ups, there is the 'big boy clause', where you are acknowledging the high risk nature of the investment. I'm sure that was not in the documents with John, but the concept certainly applied. I'd like to believe anyone with the 16K to give to john is a 'big boy' and understood there was significant risk with this.

This same thing applies to PPS, DP, Skit-B, etc. if you are giving money to a brand new company, you have to understand there are significant risks. It is pretty universally known that most new businesses fail, failing does not make it criminal.

Didn't he try to do this last week?

Nobody is stupid enough to continue this folly. It's over.

John still has his Linkeden account active, I don't know what that is, but someone should leave a memo on his activity in case he tries to use his past accomphments to get more paid jobs or to get more people to invest in his mad genius.

i don't think anyone is on John's side here. And surely anything that appears to be rooting for John vs the victims is just a misunderstanding.

I don't know anything about my case specifically except what everyone has read here posted publicly. Well , I know more names have been added but that's it. Later I'm sure I will know more but at the moment there are no secrets. The lawsuit is public record.

This is the key. If enough people complain, they will pursue criminal charges. This is how it works these days. Including the FBI.

In fact, if any individual people wanted their money back, chances are if they were making a big enough stink, JPop would probably pay them off to stop. This happens all the time. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Is that really what the contract people signed said? Maybe someone should post the original agreement and we can see if that's actually the case?

Full-disclosure - I don't have any skin in this game... just an observer...

Re: Jpop actions criminal? Sorry, I just don't see it. Basically, he would have knowingly had to be attempting to commit fraud. As much as a few on here want this to be true, the legal test for this is pretty steep. Proving this would be nearly impossible. Is he an idiot? Yes. Is that a crime? No. If it was, half this country would be in jail.

Re: Jpop actions and civil liability (ie: lawsuits)? I did some looking recently and this one is quite interesting. Given that John is a horrible businessman (I don't see anyone able to debunk this one), I'm having trouble find any true legal business documentation. In order to protect his personal assets from civil liability, he would have to either be a corporation, LLC, etc. He calls his company Zidware Inc but I see there is already an unrelated Zidware Inc in IL. So, did he REALLY incorporate? If so, where? I couldn't find any reference. Maybe you guys who signed the NDAs and have other legal documentation may have more details there. But, if he doesn't have his ducks in a row from a business management side (this is unrelated to keeping good books), he can be held personally liable for the debt that Zidware incurred.

If he does turn out to be incorporated, then the only civil liability I can see that he might be responsible for would be if someone can prove he was negligent in the operation of the company. This will be much harder to prove and even harder to actually collect on (if proven).

I wish all you guys that have skin in this game the best of luck!
Jaz

This might not be a popular opinion, but I don't want John to go to jail. It's not really a worry for me, because frankly I think it's utterly unlikely.

I'm totally not victim blaming here, at all! But you guys took a risk sending money to someone who never actually made pinball machines by himself. Turns out he was an artist flake, he dicked around for years, and you lost your cash. Totally sucks.

But you're all adults who should have known the risks going in. Do I think you have the right to sue him and make sure he makes right what he can and doesn't "get away" with anything? Hell yes.

But going to jail? Come on. That's just a horrible thing to wish on someone. And I get that people are mad at him. But he didn't take your money and go to a tropical island. He did what some of us thought he'd always do, he farted around with pinball ideas for years, and never finished shit. As lame as it might be, he did work on pinball this whole time. He did spend your money on custom parts and development. It wasn't a scam, or a ponzi scheme, it was just a failed business from a dreamer who didn't handle the reality of getting things done.

It wouldn't feel like a victory to me, but rather a really dark mark on the hobby if he actually did jail time for that.

The bizarre thing is that technically Zidware is still up and running.

Sure he hasn't delivered a game, and the deal with Bill is dead, and right now there is no real prospect of anything. But until legal action proceeds, he can continue to roll along in this delusion.

He can keep doodling, keep taking money, keep looking for a white knight, he could even dream up the next game he's going to sell. The only way the madness can end is if he is pushed by some court action.

And one asset most have forgotten about is Zidware's Pinball Wizard! game which is still on iTunes.

WTH?

What did I miss?

Something appears to have happened that I've completely missed, and I thought I was caught up on the thread. Where has JPop indicated that Zidware is going to continue? Where was this said/posted?? Where is the exact quote??

I think you are right about the outcome. But if he didn't separate the funds there could be trouble. People invested in 3 different products each with separate contracts and NDAs. If he used RAZA funds to play with MG, AIW and even KISS there could be some trouble. His paranoia about disclosures could be his own undoing since you didn't invest in the company itself. But end result will be bankruptcy for Zidware and he was probably smart enough to separate that from his personal assets.

And he goes down in the history of pinball as a tool. I wonder if he's delusional enough to not even have a damaged ego.

This is not correct.

Can we get the actual quote?

Im not a lawyer,but I did go through a similar scenario just recently.

I was told there was no money.
I received a letter,actually several letters, asking me not to sue and there will be nothing left if you do.
Meetings btwn their lawyer and mine,4 way conferences with me and the other party.They kept saying,sorry,there is no assets.
I felt the victim.I felt like just waking away.For my own mental health.

Then my lawyer filed a motion to see the books.We hired an Forensic account to look at the books.The other side stalled and almost got fined,and after almost 2 years of BS,all of sudden they want to settle,all of sudden there was assets.

I got a settlement.

I don't know if that happens here,but I sure HOPE SO!!!!!!!!

Rob, you should know if you get away from you computer for a minute, there's about 50 new posts in this thread.

All these incidents of people getting hosed makes it very clear to me that MMR will be the last game I pre-order ever. If that means I only buy Stern and Spooky pins from here new, that is fine with me.

I truly feel bad for anyone who has gotten hosed on any of these recent failures in the pin world.

Rest assured, in his bubble world he's the victim and places like Pinside are the reason he was "forced" to give up on Magic Girl. He is 100% completely convinced he is not to blame in any way for this outcome.

That's the infuriating part. He's not even sorry for wasting a million dollars of people's money.

i think you need to clarify this post- some are taking this as a literal quote from jpop....

Interesting take.

Bonus points for managing to make it without invoking the term "skin in the game."

Much of what you say is true but what about responsibility and accountability. John went out of his way to lie to people while at the same time being completely irresponsible with their money. It's one thing to be a "artist flake" and it's another to be a chronic liar while your throwing people's money down the toilet and just saying "oh well, I tried". A drunk driver doesn't intend to kill someone when he gets behind the wheel drunk, but he is held responsible for the death regardless of his intentions. While I agree that he won't do jail time, I would love to see him punished in a big way. Personally I would love to see him do a little time.

So...back from being ejected from this loser tread for the second time..awesome...thanks! supercool people over here

I am so done here,goodbye everybody,goodbye money,goodbye pinball...

I will contnue with my life now.

What he did last week is not really what I meant. I meant, to try to make up for pretty much screwing all these people out of their money, selling or even giving outright with him being totally out of the picture everything he has so far to Stern, JJP, Spooky or someone that can make the game. That way the game might end up, at least getting made. The money is gone and nothing will change that but at least the game might see the light of day.

I think somebody hacked Aurich's account.

Personally I couldn't care less what happens to John. He deserves whatever is coming to him even though I don't feel he is totally responsible for this mess. I know in America today everyone is the victim and its never 'their' fault… always the fault of someone else but like was said above anyone that sent him money bears some of the responsibility like it or not. Sending large sums of cash to a guy with no products and no manufacturing company with just a pipe dream on paper…

That is true unless we were the ones serving up the alcohol… we served up John a ton of alcohol!

None of that really matters right now… John is responsible AT THIS POINT to either refund the buyers or get them their games.

...I'm sure his lawyer will be quoting from this...

He didn't take the money and go to a tropical island but he isn't trying to give anyone any of their money back either. He is keeping it and living off of it. That is a crime. The way it was don't may not actually get him thrown in the joint but he does deserve to go there. Either that or the wacky farm.

Well thank God it's not up to us lol. There are clear laws covering what he has done and if he crossed a line I certainly hope he gets the full penalty recommended by the courts. If that includes jail time I hope he serves every day.