I'm also familiar with licensing deals (although I'm a newbie with regard to Kevin and the pinball industry in general) and I know that companies do a significant amount of due diligence BEFORE licensing their IP/brand. They go into ANY deal with skepticism at best as they can't afford to devalue the property. If you were an executive at FOX and had to make a yes/no decision on what Kevin wants re Predator in a pinball machine, how could you possibly ever approve the deal after reading this thread???

For those of you that are still in the pot, get out while you can... IMHO...

My guess is that Kevin is right now dealing with some legal issues and at the advice of counsel, won't be saying much. Could possibly also have run into some tax issues given some of what I've seen and heard. Certainly possible criminal charges might apply if there's anything he's done with the money that is not in the best interests of the business and customers. Given the amount of people and money involved, no doubt this has been called-in to the authorities by someone and that police at the State level at least are investigating. I hope I'm wrong of course and that the next posts on this site are that people have started getting their money back. If I were Kevin, I'd borrow whatever I needed and immediately return everyone's money because the prospects of otherwise dealing with a federal criminal fraud investigations are REAL.

Deleted

If I had sent Kevin money and was involved in this fiasco directly, this would be one of the websites I'd want to visit:

http://co.midland.mi.us/Courts/75thDistrictCourt/CivilDepartment/GeneralCivil.aspx

Followed probably by this one...

http://co.midland.mi.us/ProsecutingAttorney.aspx

Waiting for some screwball to email me...??? That strategy doesn't work for me...

From the man himself... I believe these are the last words he's posted on this board...a couple of months ago...under the business SKITB account anyway...

"I'm not doing anything for money here. Money sucks. It's a necessary evil that is required to do what we all love to do, and all I want is for what we do to be appreciated. I didn't wake up today thinking about how awesome my job is cuz I get to swim in money and drive a fancy car to a yacht club. I woke up today thinking how awesome my job is because I got to take the glass off of a Funhouse and show my daughters how Rudy's mechanisms work and teach them how to play pinball."

I was thinking earlier about what JJP leadership must be thinking about this and the impact it will have to their business model and future releases.

Kevin said that he had deals in place with suppliers. Pinball controllers, Marco, backalley creations and cointaker. Wonder if skit ever had any legal contacts in place with any of these suppliers or was he also throwing those guys under the bus in his original 'announcement' below...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-predator-info-thread

There won't be a bankruptcy filing if the Michigan AG prosecutes for fraud. Kevin LIED from day one as there was no license from FOX. BZZZZTTT.. Fraud (criminal) always trumps bankruptcy (civil).

"You have officially slumped to a new low.
Are you serious? Serious?
Because Stern, JJP, and every other manufacturer out there displays their titles online, for one. They don't hide their games. They also have a track record.
You have officially "lost it" WhySnow. Time to take a break until rational thought returns."

I'm having trouble understanding WHYSNOW's philosophical approach to this situation. But regardless, the SKITB site was scrubbed of Predator info back in the fall of 2013.

I wonder if the SKITB paypal account is still up and running? If there were any sense of financial shenanigans by paypal as reported to them from other paypal customers, I would think they would shut down the service on that account?

Those following the model of prepayment will need to modify their business approach to have some form of a license validation/certification process going forward. I think this is certainly bad for the industry. JJP wouldn't be there without the prepay model and while I like Stern very much, competition and innovation go hand-in-hand.

Kevin is looking at a rough week ahead.

The mailman is going to be busy at Kevin's house this week.

Certified Letter 1) Note of Infringement lawsuit filed on behalf of FOX/21rst Century
Certified Letter 2) Civil litigation filed on behalf of at least one of the investors (might be several of these)
Certified letter 3) IRS letter notifying of their auditing of his tax returns of the last few years
Certified letter 4) Michigan tax department, same as 3.
Certified letter 5) From Paypal, notification of a formal investigation by their auditors/compliance

not to mention

The County DA investigating fraud (source of funds for purchase of wife's house)
State AG's office investigation of FELONY* Fraud

I personally do think their is money left from the investment and ultimately most will be returned. Awful mess. Good luck to all the buyers.

Get your point...but Detroit might have been the better comparison city.

http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/18630

(who knew...?)

In all of these recent emails from Kevin, has he actually apologized to his customers for deceiving them??? Sounds like a lot of BS from a con man. All his email needs to say is:
"I apologize for my not being truthful about the license and your money will be refunded in 24 hours via xxxx."

Paypal is not the issue here. Start writing checks and mail them, fedex. The money is in a bank account that may have been tied to the PAYPAL account at one point. If it were me, I would have already transferred all the money to an escrow account that my lawyer has access to along with money borrowed from family, friends, my dog, whatever..just so it's all there.... and I'd have my lawyer sending checks via overnight mail with a letter stating that I am under unimaginable duress, that I apologize sincerely to everyone, and lastly that I would be filing bankruptcy in 5 days. No other way to handle it especially with criminal and civil actions forthcoming, and no llc to assist in protecting assets.

I think I'd go with Chuck for this one...

The idea of this site having a moderator's rule about notifying the board when they receive an anonymous tip of some sort will simply never work. Don't you all think it would quickly be abused by EVERYONE who has an agenda, or just wants to stir the pot. "At Stern... rumors of a major layoff coming", "At Heighway... they are about to have their contract with their landlord terminated for nonpayment", and on, and on... This is a tough situation of course with SKITB but a policy perpetuating private messages sent anonomously just isn't feasible.

Now, the idea of vetting manufacturers a bit more makes total sense. Other boards do require a tax id, insurance verification, etc before giving them their own 'presense' on the board which frankly is a defacto endersement.

This event will change the business. IMO, we're going to have three segments of manufacturers.

1) Corporate...with 100,000+ square foot facilities. Licensed products, no pre-orders. Staffed and organized as a typical manufaturing business with dealer and client support. Think Stern and hopefully JJP in the near future.
2) small and mid-tier operations. no licensed products, focus on development and design, outsourced manufacturing. Focus on controlling costs, innovation and great playfield design. Pricing will be based on deposits with complete payment on build.
3) hobbiest. do-it-all approach with in-house manufacturing, unique themes/design, inconsistent communication, pre-orders, small quantity.

It's all good.. we have enough creative, hard-working and HONEST people in this business to get through this screwy situation. However, as a purchaser, assess your risks accordingly. (I bought from Stern as my risk tolerance was rather low, but I did think about WOZ from JJP.)

Interesting... and if he had miraculously gotten the deal done for Kevin, would the buyers still go forward with the purchase? Essentially excusing Kevin's deceipt and writing it off as a 'business mistake'? I do think some of this thread is BS when people spout off about the ethical implications.

I bet here's how it went down. Someone like Aaron or perhaps Kevin himself (unlikely) reached out to Roger, explained the situation somewhat earnestly, and asked for his help with contacting Fox. Roger says "No thanks". The end.

If they did somehow get the license and became 'ready', would you really still want to work with a client that has so blatantly lied to so many others in the community?

http://www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/0,5885,7-339-71551_2945_42542_42543_42546_42551-220188--,00.html

Looks to be an 'interesting' town...according to Wikipedia...

Lakewood Township is a township in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census the township had a total population of 92,843, representing an increase of 32,491 from the 60,352 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 15,304 from the 45,048 counted in the 1990 Census. The township ranked as the seventh-most-populous municipality in the state in 2010 after having been ranked 22nd in 2000. The sharp increase in population from 2000 to 2010 was led by increases in the township's Orthodox Jewish and Latino communities.