Paramus, NJ
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(Topic ID: 203700)
Linked Games
Alice in Wonderland
Zidware Pinball USA, 2013-
Celts
Haggis, 2021
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Magic Girl
Zidware Pinball USA, 2017
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Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland
Zidware Pinball USA, 2012
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Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland (Arcade Edition)
Deeproot, 2020
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Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland (Xtra Edition)
Deeproot, 2020
Topic Gallery
Quoted from benheck:"Your honor, you should see how beautiful these games are. So much purple. Too purple to fail!"
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwVid5WoQR_/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Quoted from benheck:Jpop had plenty of chances to redeem himself and blew it every time. He's also very lazy and I doubt that's improved with the onset of 10 more years.
Stark contrast to Dutch who realized they screwed up and made things right, by hook or crook.
Hey Ben
Theres a pretty good series on Netflix called, Suits. You should check it out.
Its about a brilliant guy practicing law without a license.
Quoted from Mr68:Hey Ben
Theres a pretty good series on Netflix called, Suits. You should check it out.
Its about a brilliant guy practicing law without a license.
Haha you don't have to be brilliant to spot a Ponzi scheme. As soon as he did that double or nothing offer I knew it was a scam. A lot of people thought Robert was a scam but they kept quiet because he's also very litigious... Oh the irony!
Quoted from Rarehero:Robert should just walk into prison & shut the door behind him.
If Robert had been in our central district CA, he would have been charged and indicted as well as charged in the civil SEC case. It is unusual to take so long to indict. There could be legit reasons. The future indictment might contain multiple people. The US Attorney in this district being replaced in Dec 2022 might have set it back. Other cases in this district might have priority. Funding in the district might be an issue. Any of these scenarios or a combination might explain why its taking so long.
In our district, an attorney from Orange County stole over 8 million from clients from Jan 2022 to Jan 2023. She has already been indicted. She saw the writing on the wall and has pleaded guilty. She will be sentenced early next year. Generally federal defendants will ask and get a few extensions to really go thru the discovery process. Then when you understand the evidence against you and how they plan to use it, a guilty plea is the most often result. This defendant is playing with house money so far. It still won't eventually end well for him.
Quoted from jamesmc:This defendant is playing with house money so far.
Except it never was his house.
Quoted from benheck:Watching YouTube on my TV, this ad comes up for buying out geezers life insurance. Dude's last name also Mueller! WtF?
"Payoff depends on several factors like how long the person is expected to live" this shit would make Saul Goodman blush.
[quoted image]
I received an email from Amazon the other day, stating I'm a member of a class action lawsuit due to a spice grinder I bought last year.
The funny part is (it is a legit email) it directed me to a website for more information and my options. The website?
www.MuellerSettlement.com
Quoted from Emkay79:I received an email from Amazon the other day, stating I'm a member of a class action lawsuit due to a spice grinder I bought last year.
The funny part is (it is a legit email) it directed me to a website for more information and my options. The website?
www.MuellerSettlement.com
Spice Grinder was the deeproot game following Food Truck, as I recall.
Quoted from ZNET:Spice Grinder was to be the deeproot game following Food Truck.
I thought it was a lap dance you got from Posh Spice or Sporty Spice ?
Quoted from ZNET:Spice Grinder was the deeproot game following Food Truck, as I recall.
Triple fucking upvote button needed.
2 weeks later
Attorneys for the defense file 500+ pages in 1) a response to the motion for summary judgment and 2) an objection.
Too much to read through, so I'll post docs for crowdsourced excerpting.
Starting with the response to summary judgment motion (Against). Defense asserts Robert not only did nothing wrong, but that he was actually a good businessperson, and that everything deeproot was looking up until the SEC filed its complaint, torpedoing the company with demonstrably false ponzi accusations.
SEC-108-2023.09.18.pdfI think this goes to jury... and all the jury will hear about is how retirees lost their money because of Bob. That wont end well for him, methinks.
Quoted from JodyG:LOL...what an absolute fantasy land this clown was living in.[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
Mueller was going to sell 4,000 machines his first year, and it would only cost him $4,200 per machine to make his pins that he would sell for $7,000 each… making him 11 million in the first year.
I love how he's doing all this math to prove he had projections to be profitable (he wouldn't with his cash bleed), when at the end of the day the investors never voted (or were even aware of) that he was spending their money on a pinball company. Even when interviewed he lied and said it's his own money.
Fontaine
Quoted from JodyG:LOL...what an absolute fantasy land this clown was living in.
Ludicrous...
- An estimation of 12k new machines per year, and he will flood the market with 4k more ?
- In 6 months, able to produce more machine than Stern, 'coz you know, "Stern workers are untrained, we will have the best in-house" ?
- Pretend to make as high as 5-6k machines per year , but only sell 4k at best ?
- 13 titles in the works ?
They must be really confident to fool the judge with this kind of BS...
If someone is ever asking you for money, and uses the words "disruption/disruptor/etc," run the other way way.
He always was a clown who loved his bullshit buzzwords, and boy did some folks around here eat it up.
Lean and agile!
Quoted from CaptainCaverne:Ludicrous...
- An estimation of 12k new machines per year, and he will flood the market with 4k more ?
- In 6 months, able to produce more machine than Stern, 'coz you know, "Stern workers are untrained, we will have the best in-house" ?
- Pretend to make as high as 5-6k machines per year , but only sell 4k at best ?
- 13 titles in the works ?
They must be really confident to fool the judge with this kind of BS...
To clarify... they were not trying to sell the judge on this... they were trying to tell this to the advisors selling the "investment vehicles".
Even more damning... the information was, "FOR AGENT USE ONLY" (page 6 of exhibit A-11 linked above).
In other words... the numbers were such BS they should never be given to end investors.
Quoted from CrazyLevi:If someone is ever asking you for money, and uses the words "disruption/disruptor/etc," run the other way way.
He always was a clown who loved his bullshit buzzwords, and boy did some folks around here eat it up.
Lean and agile!
He was watching Silicon Valley on HBO and Theranos on CNBC and decided that pinball=TECH... boom! we have derproot
In the beginning of all this, I just thought he was stupid, then I realized he was a crook, now I see that he was actually a stupid crook.
Quoted from mbeardsley:In the beginning of all this, I just thought he was stupid, then I realized he was a crook, now I see that he was actually a stupid crook.
pasted_image (resized).jpegReading some of this stuff just confirms, once again, how little Robert actually understood about what it takes to get a pinball manufacturing company off the ground. He did not have on staff the expertise needed to achieve this. It takes a lot more than having a bunch of guys who know how to draw layouts. Of course his total lack of self-awareness and overly inflated ego likely means he believed a lot of this.
A year late?, if memory serves it was a hell of a lot longer than that.
The BOM, employee and output capabilities are pretty funny and I can tell you at least for AP, not even remotely close. But impressive for Spooky that with just five more people than AP they have twice the output and Stern needs 10X the number of people that jjp to put 4x the number of games.
"If Robert dies, well this would suck, but the great news . . .", the start-up tech companies I have been with, the VCs required large life insurance policies in case I or the CEO died to soften any potential hit to the companies operations or their investment in it. I guess Robert was not seen as key to the companies future as they felt there was no need for contingency plans. This "everything is good and on track" was clearly a delusional world they were all living in.
I have talked with a bunch of former deeproot people, and the reality is most of the them there did not understand Robert's plan, and the approach made little sense to them, but as long as the checks cashed . . . "
I love how there is zero mention of all the failed pinball companies, they make it sound like there is zero risk in jumping into this business.
"Good news, the designs are all done" -- yeah, based on what we saw with the auction, we all know that is not true. A cad diagram of a layout is not a completed design.
Clearly Robert's whole strategy is to delay, delay, delay in hopes that some deus ex machina event occurs and saves the day or at a minimum he can enjoy more time as a free man before he starts his next career in prison as someone's punching bag.
Quoted from rosh:I have talked with a bunch of former deeproot people, and the reality is most of the them there did not understand Robert's plan, and the approach made little sense to them, but as long as the checks cashed . . . "
g.
One of my favorite delusional pinside tropes was "Well, [washed up unemployed pinball designer] would NEVER sign up for Deep Root unless they had faith in the plan!"
Yeah, I'm sure a guy who hadn't received a pinball paycheck in decades was going to be super picky about his next gig in the pinball industry.
Quoted from CrazyLevi:If someone is ever asking you for money, and uses the words "disruption/disruptor/etc," run the other way way.
He always was a clown who loved his bullshit buzzwords, and boy did some folks around here eat it up.
Lean and agile!
Don't forget 'synergy'.
Quoted from CrazyLevi:One of my favorite delusional pinside tropes was "Well, [washed up unemployed pinball designer] would NEVER sign up for Deep Root unless they had faith in the plan!"
Yeah, I'm sure a guy who hadn't received a pinball paycheck in decades was going to be super picky about his next gig in the pinball industry.
Suspect for many of the folks who worked there it was . . .
The guy running the business says he has a vision and a plan, I don't get how the numbers work, but what do I know. The checks clear, I'm doing a job I want to be doing, thing are progressing slowly, and the boss seems happy.
None of them knew what the real story was with the money, why would they not go to work there? Their presence there was never a validation of Robert's plan, it was a validation of their desire to make a living in pinball.
This is the "flood the zone with shit" defense mentioned by Steve Bannon. You don't have to tell the truth. Just tell so many plausible-sounding but false statements that its impossible to debunk them all, and create doubt as to whether the actual truth can be known at all. All Robert is trying to do is sucker the judge with enough plausible sounding info that he dismisses the case.
Judge: "Being found guilty by a jury of your peers, I will now pronounce sentence."
Robert: "...but I was just trying to disrupt the industry with the synergy of octo-manufacturing..."
Quoted from CrazyLevi:Did we ever learn what Octo-Manufacturing was actually supposed to be?
Yes, one harbor freight workbench with 4 workers standing around it assembling a playfield.. that was literally it. No rotisserie to flip the playfield, just a bench. You can see photos from the auction.
Quoted from CrazyLevi:Did we ever learn what Octo-Manufacturing was actually supposed to be?
Nadya Suleman
Quoted from CrazyLevi:Did we ever learn what Octo-Manufacturing was actually supposed to be?
I think it is very similar to this:
Quoted from CrazyLevi:Did we ever learn what Octo-Manufacturing was actually supposed to be?
Eight $99 Harbor Freight workbenches.
972503_325ff5fe625c4ab280f69a9fc47857a3~mv2 (resized).jpgQuoted from Emkay79:Eight $99 Harbor Freight workbenches.
[quoted image]
I have the same bench, but it's single and used for single stuff only. It's bummed.
Quoted from Emkay79:Eight $99 Harbor Freight workbenches.
[quoted image]
Correct. Quad manufacturing was four.
Quoted from rosh:Reading some of this stuff just confirms, once again, how little Robert actually understood about what it takes to get a pinball manufacturing company off the ground. He did not have on staff the expertise needed to achieve this. It takes a lot more than having a bunch of guys who know how to draw layouts. Of course his total lack of self-awareness and overly inflated ego likely means he believed a lot of this.
A year late?, if memory serves it was a hell of a lot longer than that.
The BOM, employee and output capabilities are pretty funny and I can tell you at least for AP, not even remotely close. But impressive for Spooky that with just five more people than AP they have twice the output and Stern needs 10X the number of people that jjp to put 4x the number of games.
Still so much to post before I really dive into excerpting. However, I will highlight the following from the defense exhibit (attached) designating proposed expert witnesses. One of whom is the defendant himself!
Screenshot 2023-09-19 at 11.58.29 AM (resized).png
SEC-108-16-2023.09.18.pdfRemaining defense exhibits, excepting any that appear to include non-business addresses
SEC-108-10-2023.09.18.pdfSEC-108-11-2023.09.18.pdfSEC-108-13-2023.09.18.pdfSEC-108-14-2023.09.18.pdfSEC-108-15-2023.09.18.pdfSEC-108-19-2023.09.18.pdfSEC-108-6-2023.09.18.pdfSEC-108-7-2023.09.18.pdfSEC-108-8-2023.09.18.pdfSEC-108-9-2023.09.18.pdfPromoted items from Pinside Marketplace and Pinside Shops!
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