I never said Sonny is a "great guy". I've never met him. I said that it appears to be a witch hunt. You sure do like to distort other people's words, don't you. Go back to licking the windows, idiot.

Once again, cirtually nobody commenting actually believes that BFL is a fraud. They just have an ax to grind, and digging up dirt is the best way for them to accomplish that.

Once again, I have no doubt that the IRS wrote up a real pretty bloviating inditement, they're good at that. It's about all they're good at. I'm not "polishing" his reputation, just observing what the good ol us.gov likes to do.

If anybody thinks that BFL is a fraud, don't order (or cancel your order and get a refund). Most people bringing it up don't actually believe it's a fraud, but just want to drag his name through the mud. OP included.

From what I've read, he was brought in to help run an already established self-funded off-shore gambling pool that the IRS wasn't a fan of, and was rounded up as a part of that. The two years in jail in Italy was while he was fighting an extradition order.

Again, I've seen enough people railroaded by the IRS for having the wrong politics to not give too much credence to a witch hunt that ended in a plea bargain.

Since when is the IRS in charge of "mail fraud"? The whole thing stinks of trumped up charges and a witch hunt. But of course, it's great fodder for the people who already have an ax to grind with BFL.

For starters, the charges you're referencing appear to have been little more than an IRS witch hunt. Maybe he voted Republican?  

A joint investigation involving the IRS-CID and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), revealed that from at least 1990 through July 2006, SONNY VLEISIDES, James Ray Houston, Dennis Emmett, William Cloud, Henry Walther, Scott Henry Walther, and others committed a massive international lottery scam using the following company names: Shamrock Agency, German Swiss Group, World Expert Fund, Mutual Medical Insurance Co, Old Amsterdam Trust Co, Euro American Fax Co, European Union Commission, EU American Payment Co, Global Search Network, North American Foreign Payments Services, Wor'dwide Verification Service, and others. VLEISIDES ran the scheme along with Houston and Emmett. VLEISIDES, Houston and Emmett, who were all located in Costa Rica, worked with mailing houses which, at the direction of VLEISIDES, Houston, and Emmett, sent out tens of thousands of mailings to victims in the United States, many of whom were elderly. The mailings contained false statements, half truths, and omissions, and induced the victims to participate in various international lotteries, falsely stating that if the victims participated, they were guaranteed to win or had a very good chance to win. The mailings directed the victims to send their money to Ireland, at d the Netherlands, among other locations, where William Cloud had set up addresses with commercial mail receiving agencies and individuals to forward the money, eventually, back to the United States. After receipt at the commercial mail receiving agencies, the victims' money was sent to Henry Walther, who, along with his son Scott Henry Walther, deposited the money into various bank accounts and then distributed it as directed by VLEISIDES, Houston, and Emmett. Some of the money was spent on furthering the criminal activity. Some of the money was paid out to victims in small-dollar checks that the co-schemers misrepresented to be lottery winnings. The rest of the money was paid out to the co-schemers and others for their own use. VLEISIDES and the other defendants did not buy any lottery tickets, and the vast majority of the victims lost the money they sent. The total loss from the scheme is in excess of $19 million.

...

An analysis was done on approximately twenty of the bank accounts established in the United States at the direction of VLEISIDES and his co-schemers. The analysis revealed, in summary, that the victims' money was first deposited into accounts established by the co-schemers at numerous banks in accounts with names that sound like official lotteries: SHAMROCK AGENCY, WORLD EXPERT, OLD AMSTERDAM, GERMAN SWISS, and EUC. (Hereinafter, accounts at this first layer will be referred to as "Deposit Accounts.") The co-schemers obtained over $19 million from tens of thousands of victims and deposited them into these accounts. After the co-schemers deposited the victims' money into the Deposit Accounts, they transferred the money to the next layer of accounts, hereinafter referred to as "Payment Accounts." These accounts were in names that included NORTH AMERICAN PAYMENT and EU PAYMENT SERVICE. From the Payment Accounts, the co-schemers wrote checks represented as winnings and sent them back to the victims. The amount of the alleged "winnings" was far less than the amount the victims sent in - for the over $19 million going into the accounts from victims, only approximately 20% was sent back to victims in the form of "winning" checks. The co-schemers transferred some of the money from the Deposit Accounts and Payment Accounts to the next layer of accounts, which will hereinafter be referred to as "Syphon Accounts." The co-schemers wrote checks (or used wire transfers) from the Lottery Accounts and the Payment Accounts to the Syphon Accounts, which were in names that included WESTERN INTERNET, BUTTERFIELD, CARNEGIE and HENRY WALTHER ATTORNEY WIRE ACCOUNT. Money from the Syphon Accounts was used to continue the scheme by paying scheme expenses, as well as to provide benefits to the co-schemers. The co-schemers also took money at each layer in the form of checks to cash, checks to themselves, or checks to the payment of personal or scheme expenses.

Then wouldn't they ALL look like that then?

Thanks , it wouldn't be a post from you if you didn't presume to tell people what to do with their money or dinner. Thanks buddy wouldn't know what to do if it weren't for you, all knowing one.

Sad part is you took time to find a picture of 4 stars.

About the only good thing about BFL is they can't piss, shit and jizz in an ASIC, otherwise they would (assuming they ever ship).

A Michelin 4 star restaurant, much like many of the BFL products, just doesn't exist.

Oh yay the troll has crawled out from underneath the bridge. Quick hide the goats.

Isn't this just another word for stealing from other miners?

Are any pools even still vulnerable to hopping?  That surprises me to be honest.  I haven't kept up on the topic.

I'm going to be blunt and put my accusations about you right out there - you want bfl to fail, you actively scare monger (look at your sig) and encourage customers to get a refund. I respect that you were clever enough to be one of the early adopters - I really do (my friend back at you) - but 'I am ASIC miner'...

No i dont think this is a custom issue that means that the oder batch 1 order wood be d-laid to .
and all the batch 1 pictures i have seen on the forum have been delivered with a psu.
My problem is how is it that batch 2 units are already getting where ther supposed to get
be 4 the batch 1 has finish shipping that can only mean 2 things  the order has not ship yet or it got lost
and seaming its dam near impossible to get in  contact with avalon how are you as customer to know whats going on are suppose to sit and wait  a year long and hope the units appear   

It's hard if your only business experience is running an international mail order scam for six years.

Hardware is hard, remember this is custom hardware, it isn't like plans sit on the self and you can just modify those.