Bitcoin Forum

Thomas has finally sent his refund through a wire transfer.

It took 2 weeks to arrive, and there was a total lack of communication. Thomas didn't give me any evidence about the bank order, and I was thinking he lied. But I just checked on the account and it has arrived.

In his last email (3 february, I never received any other) he was stating that he is going to refund everyone, that he hasn't any bitcoin, but he was trying to buy them at the best price, and that it would have taken some time. These were his words, and at this time I could say he's really trying to refund everyone.

Don't lose your hope, probably Tom is not that bad guy that he tries to appear.

Quoted, in case mods or admins decide to delete it. I will now go and jack off, for I believe the above is a FUCKIN' LIE!

Don't sugar coat it PG...tell us how you feel bud. :)

Bastard! I wasn't done jacking off yet.

agath is either a troll or Thomas Van Riper the money launderer.

I am not a troll, and I am not Thomas. I am writing the truth, and who knows me can say it (#btcfpga on freenode). I don't need to prove it to you PG, you probably weren't even his customer.

Come on, be serious.

You spent 115K on mining gear and you've only just registered here in the last couple of weeks?

http://www.sherv.net/cm/emoticons/shit/steaming-turd-smiley-emoticon.gif

My vote's on the latter.

Lies. Post email correspondence. Fuck your lies. Your nothing but a propaganda tool. Need proof, don't think your doing Thomas any favors.

EDIT: i digress, Agath my apologies.

I am serious. And I wasn't a customer. And for sake of argument, let's say you don't have to prove it me, but you may have to prove it those who are still out a considerable amount of money. The reason being is that with your so called recent refund, you are giving those who are still waiting hope. The last guy who gave people hope when a scam was in progress received a scammer tag, for his hope package was in the form of a bet, and supposedly people honestly believe that because of that bet Pirate may pay. Agreements may have been altered due to that bet.

Likewise, with what you have presented, yet without proof, you are offering up the same hope.

You've stated you are in the EU. That would put you late in the evening when you posted the following:


Almost three hours later, and even later in the evening in EU, you posted:


You penned the above shortly after you received the email notification, but prior to going to sleep. Yet almost an hour later you're still awake reacting to my reply.

Secondly, you went the extra step to starting a new thread to post your refund, when probably the refund thread would have sufficed.

Given the above, coupled with your other mundane posts, wouldn't all this look suspicious to you? And I won't be the last person who'll call you out on this. I'm just the first.

One more thing. You have the misfortune of signing up exactly one day after Tom's account was proven to be compromised. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=138206.0

agath's been on IRC a while.

Tom, you son of a motherless goat. ....

I hope you care about Amy... its not gonna end well for you

Sometimes people get excited about stuff? If I got a 115k refund late in the evening, I know I'd be wide awake for quite a while.

Ahahaha bad timing, bro.

http://bitcoinstats.com/irc/bitcoin-dev/logs/2013/02/01


My bad! Didn't realize he's not a Bitcoin novice.

Dave should know whether there were any $115,000 wire payments awaiting refund.

Concur! If Dave confirms, than I owe agath an apology, for I've read several Pastebin posts since Luke brought it to my attention.

hi all,

I communicated with agath yesterday evening via #btcfpga IRC channel and email, he sent me his signed contract with Tom and we agreed on coordinated complaint to Tom's bank (Woodforest TX). Right now I have found an email from him that he received a full refund yesterday evening.

I'm going to try contact Tom again, hope he will respond. If not, I will contact his bank and try everything possible to get my money back.

I do not think Tom is a scammer, but the way how he communicate with his customers is definitely bad.

Tom - if you read this, please do a simple thing - just communicate! Anyone can get into trouble and I personally can understand that and agree on how to resolve the situation.

Agath - congratulations a I hope everyone will have such luck as you :)

regards,

benco

Print the document. Black out your name & bank details. Leave all of Tom's origin information. Scan the document. Upload and post the wire transfer to be seen in this thread.

||bit

As someone who has been monitoring #btcfpga since October, I would be absolutely shocked if Agath was Tom. He's been active in the channel the whole time and they talk nothing alike.

I have no proof that Agath isn't Tom, but for the two to be the same would require Tom be incredibly capable, disciplined and forward looking. Since Tom doesn't appear to be any of those things, I don't think he could keep up a deception like that for months for no real benefit. More likely Tom is still lurking in his channel and has been watching as people are planning their legal action.

The real question is..... What make you sure Agath here is the same Agath on btcfpga?

 ::)

Oh i must have forgotten , his name is trademarked~

I'm not making a positive claim that agath is Tom. But just countering the need that such a possibility would require a super Tom.  8)

Name:   cablepair [a.k.a. Tom]
Posts:   2308
Position:   VIP
Date Registered:   April 30, 2011, 11:40:41 PM
Last Active:   January 23, 2013, 04:16:33 AM


Name:   agath
Posts:   11
Position:   Jr. Member
Date Registered:   January 24, 2013, 10:00:12 AM
Last Active:   Today at 06:15:34 AM


||bit

Assuming this agath is the same I know from IRC, the numbers posted would be perfectly reasonable. He goes under a different and well-respected nick at bitcointalk and knowing his business, ordering 100 bASICs from Tom and getting them refunded now is plausible.

It is time for this community to leave the trauma behind and come down to a healthy trust level where not everyone entering new is immediately accused of being a liar or scammer.

In response to: "that he hasn't any bitcoin, but he was trying to buy them at the best price".

That seems ridiculous.  If you have the money to refund someone, the best exchange price to transfer the value will always be the present exchange price. There is no waiting for a "better price".

There are only two obvious reason that I can think of to want to look for a "better price":

(1) You lost the customers money, and want to buy low and distribute refunds when it is higher price.
(2) You want to try to profit off of other people's money on cycles or bull trends while you have it.

||bit

I can respect that notion. I personally don't suspect that agath is Tom. But seeing a little more proof of an actual refund would be nice, considering Tom's complete silence on the matter.

My post to MrTeal was simply to suggest that the possibility of agath being Tom was not improbable on the basis that it would require Tom to have high levels of cunning, discipline etc..

||bit

I know Agath from nearly a year back. He runs a massive cluster of hundreds of Ztex Quads and was planning to upgrade it to ASIC. So to me this seems 100% legit report.

Maybe the mods can confirm the CIDR IP block ranges where both these guys are connecting from then...

If Tom's smart he knows he needs to be refunding the wire transfers... government authorities are going to get involved in a financial fraud of this scale and he's going to get in trouble.  Wire transfers are more risky than CC transactions but neither are anywhere near btc transfers and he may very well not have the intention to or ability to return those funds.

I also believe they are trying the best to refund, but it is bad that they are not open about their situation

I guess some of the funds are lost due to whatever reason, but if they communicate with their customer like Greece did with the debtors, they might be able to let the investors share the loss, and return those lost fund at a later time. At least that could reduce the impact on any single customer

I'm sensing a "Team Tommy" resurgence... pathetic..

I'm lucky enough to get my refund, but I was fully prepared for losing all the investment, since at that time, no one knows if all these ASIC things are scam or not, it was a high risk investment, until Avalon officially published their prototype, you can not rule out that possibility

I'm not so sure about that. If Tom was making a best effort to refund he would at least pop his head up and discuss it at least with the largest creditors. Even though Agath got his fiat refund there's been no indication that any BTC is going to go out yet. It's possible he might pay all the BTC back some day, but I'd say that's pretty unlikely at this point.

have an admin check IP logs :)

At around 2 AM here in the UK - even deeper into the early morning in mainland Europe. Some banks don't even make their online banking systems available at that hour, let alone process wire transfers.

Agath was indeed a customer, and did indeed receive his money.  The TIMING of receiving it is interesting, as it was within days of him starting to pursue legal action.

(Apologies if I'm telling too much, Aga.)  Agath reached out to me when he received it last night.

Agath, were you purely a customer or were you also one of the original investors Tom spoke of?

I could hardly believe this story when it got posted so I called up Agath today to verify his story. It correlates with the information I
got from Tom back in September. Agath did place an a large order and paid  a fair chunk in EUR up front. He did confirm he got a refund via wire transfer (the phone line is from Italy and Agath did give enough details to confirm the info I got from Tom)

In the mean time, it seems Tom has moved on and started doing BTC refunds

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=143868.0

In his accompanying email he stated it might take a while to get through the whole list but I am happy to see he is fulfilling his promises

W.

I don't know whether Tom considered me an investor or a customer, however I contacted it at the very beginning, and I think I was the first to sign an agreement with him.

Now that I've been made aware as to exactly who agath is, I now feel doubly bad.


Knowing what I know now, I'm surprised to read the above as agath's first post.


Since I'm the one who basically started this train wreck, it's up to me to humbly apologize to agath, hoping he accepts.

I'm not an asshole, but this time all the clues pointed in the wrong direction. Reminds me of what Mike Rowe said here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IRVdiHu1VCc#t=912s

There's probably no need for agath to show proof of receiving said refund. I further believe that this thread has served its purpose.

Later, bud.

~Bruno K~

Bruno, You apologize too much.   :D

Has this been verified that it is the same person? I understand they share the same name, but anyone can make a BT account with any name. Also, if he's got "a different and well-respected" account already on BT, why didn't he use that one?

I would like to direct you to this sticky found in the newbie section called Trust No One (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=33835.0).

He's posted the same info repeatedly  while authed on IRC.

TY.

Sorry 'bout that!  ;D

Grrachptsbblrbhyionkream!

This can all mean only one thing.....

Phinnaeus Gage .... IS ....Tom!!!!

 :o

Name:   cablepair [a.k.a. Tom]
Posts:   2308
Position:   VIP
Date Registered:   April 30, 2011, 11:40:41 PM
Last Active:   January 23, 2013, 04:16:33 AM

Name:   Phinnaeus Gage
Posts:   10761
Position:   Hero Member
Date Registered:   June 16, 2011, 03:38:53 PM
Last Active:   Today at 05:59:07 AM


Sorry... couldn't resist. :P

||bit

[...]


I think you jack off too often and for very little!  ;D

However, I accept your apologies, we didn't have any chance to know each other before, I can understand.

Note to self: Hunt hidden cameras.

Thanks, agath.

Later, bud.

~Bruno K~

PS: For only 100 BTC, I will tell you who agath really is. I only accept Bitcoin, no refunds, no escrow, and no guarantees. Limited to only 300 requests, and only one reply per customer. Don't want nobody gaming the system. PM me if interested.

For 50 BTC, I tell you who I am. I provide a scan copy of my ID card, same conditions, plus I require a signed NDA.

other Italians know agath and they know them well.

Its not hard to find out he is most certainly not me

just msg him on irc sometime, or ask other Italians in the community

here is my statement posted in other threads so you know whats going on

Ahhh finally got back into my hacked account. This does not mean I will be a regular on this board anymore it just means I can make some statements that will hopefully be helpful to you.

1) I do not deserve a scammer label. We sold FPGA Mining products since may, when BFL announced their product MONTHS early just to try and squash the competition they lied which was a total lie and dis-service to the community but we wanted to keep our business alive, this led us to begin developing out own ASIC basic based prodcut. Our latest attempt at making the huge leap to ASIC failed. It was never our intention to scam anyone. Anyone who ordered a FPGA mining product has received their unit or their unit is on the way (2 orders slipped through the cracks when shit went bananas but we found these orders and we shipped them out this week.

2) I have paid back over 1 million USD to credit card buyers and BTC buyers alike. I am liquidating assets like a madman and still mining at about 60 gh/s with my FPGA rigs, which brings about 10 btc per day. Every week I gather what assets I have obtained and I distribute them to the customers starting with the earliest customers first and than working my way up to the later buyers. There are many people who can attest to this. One of our largest orders who spent over 100k was refunded by wire transfer just last week and I am sure if you look you can find that thread.

IF you are interesting in reading the actual definition of a scam you may do so here:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scam


Instead I am doing everything I can to make sure every single customer gets a complete and total refund. Unfortunately some people do not like the fact that they are returned less coins than they have sent. Although the fact of the matter is - these units were priced in USD NOT BTC and it is appropriate to use the current exchange rate when converting USD to Bitcoin to make these refunds. Any one who knows what they are doing in e-commerce would agree totally.

3) See a scammer would of taken all the money (over a million dollars) and disappeared, instead I still live in my same house and still go to my regular job every day. I am a family man and the last thing I want is any kind of trouble. You guys have no idea the sleepless nights worrying about this thing, but I am going to keep on this and make sure every customer gets his refund.

4) I am sure its hard to believe but this has hurt and will continue to hurt myself and my family far more than it will hurt any of you, But that's the gamble I took when I decided to make an ASIC device, and take pre-orders, we just could not make the damn thing work (for long) and the chips were clocked wrong or something because they had a very little life especially when you pushed them to any degree.

At any rate that is all behind us. Like I said I have paid over 1 mil in refunds and continue to do so every friday night (20k just last friday) this list is shortening and shortening and before you know it every single person will be paid back in full.

I just hope and pray you give me the time to make this all happen, I sold most of these coins at around $15 and now am buying back at $30 - its very difficult but as the last 2 weeks showed you , you will continue to see 10 refunds every friday until every single person is paid back.

I have been a very strong member of this community for 2 years, and I have always fulfilled my promises - please have a little faith in me is all I am asking - I WANT to do the right thing. Think about what a true scammer would of done with over a million at his disposal??????


I have four kids and I am just trying to get by - I am sorry I was not up to meet the challenge of bASIC but I assure you all of you will be paid back.

thank you for listening

Thomas Van Riper
BTCFPGA
P.O. BOX 246
Hannibal NY 13069

(any correspondence sent to any other address other than the business addresss of BTCFPGA will be returned. My house is not my place of business nor is it the address for my business)

i have changed my numbers due to the hundreds of calls I was receiving a day - if you need to get ahold of me email btcfpga@gmail.com
and I will get back to you within a couple of days at the latest

again thank you for reading this and for those who have it - thank you for your compassion and empathy.

Tom
BTCFPGA

p.s. BTCFPGA will continue to sell FPGA based devices to hobbyists and all others who are interested in this device.
http://www.btcfpga.com

Can you explain how you have access to your account again?

According to your link:  a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation

Care to explain the Can-Electric situation...?

I disabled his account a while ago because it was clearly compromised. Recently cablepair contacted me and provided reasonable proof of his identity (signmessage using an address that he's used before), so I gave him back his account.

This is really good news to anyone awaiting a bASIC refund.

I've always thought Tom was a good guy, that was the main reason why I supported him through my opinions and posts on the forums (more than other ASIC companies.) I thought he was the least likely to scam everyone, although the recent drama has withered that trust, I still believe that he meant well in this endevaour. I am glad he is still trying to make everything right.

I know you must have spent a pretty penny on the R&D for bASIC without making a penny off of it (after all refunds come through.) It makes complete sense you are liquidating assets, and put in quite a tough situation. I hope you and your family are well Tom, I feel for you. I know what it feels like to have a business fail after working so many countless hours on it. Take care of yourself buddy.  ;D

That's a joke, right? Do you really expect anybody to pay you in advance?

this is bitcointalk.org someone will.  :P

It's also bitcointroll.org

aww someone got butthurt enough to register that lol

Thanks Theymos. Theysome as usual.