Would like to respond to a topic about Leasebit.com

[22vision]

bbjc, I sent you my email address,
Thanks,
22Vision

[bbjc]

If this winds up being a scam, it’s really a terrible one for the owner "Rowan Salter".  I’m not saying it is a scam, because as of now there hasn’t been any proof of fraud.  I’m still hoping it’s not, and I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt for his own sake.  It gets tough though when he posts in this thread pretending to be someone else (Aussieboy), and tries to vouch for himself.  “Recognized as a modern Jules Verne He was signed by AIRBOOKS LLC in December of 2008 to write Depression 2015.”  Airbooks LLC  is his own company, which amazingly has the same address and mailbox number as Leasebit LLC.  This address is a UPS store that receives his mail.
 
The business idea itself is sound.  However, I had and still have little to no confidence that he has access to the ASIC chips he would need.  He certainly doesn’t have access to the “Golden Nonce” chips that his website still claims he uses - but he has already admitted this after being called out by HashFast.  He obviously hasn’t supplied anyone with pictures or any proof whatsoever that these miners exist.
 
I went into this knowing there was a high chance that it would be a scam.  I researched the guy beforehand, and the only reason I went ahead with it is because I have significant financial, legal and political resources available to me, and because I enjoy destroying scammers (if he turns out to be one). If anyone is interested in that I can elaborate.  Due to the information I found about him I absolutely would not have signed a lease if I didn’t have those resources.  I will keep his information private for now, since there is no proof he's committed fraud against me yet.
 
Again, I have no proof yet of this being fraud, and this is not an accusation.  However, if it does wind up being fraud and I don’t receive any bitcoins in the next two months, this guy is not going to have a bright future ahead of him.  That’s not a joke, exaggeration or a threat; it’s just the truth.  If this is a scam, the only way he could get away with it is if he lived overseas.  He doesn’t.  Not only would he be sued for the entire future value of my leases, I can guarantee he would be charged criminally.  If it is a scam, he will have committed mail fraud, as well as other crimes.  Mail fraud is a serious federal offense, which carries serious penalties and jail time.

If this is a scam, this guy it's nuts for thinking he can get away with it.  Part of me hopes it is, because that's when the fun really begins.

[bits4life]

I also took the plunge before I found this thread.  Rowan has been completely unresponsive to me.  I would gladly join suit in legal action if he fails to deliver on the terms of the lease and his business promises.

[bbjc]

"Rowan Salter" really needs to understand that if this is a scam, he's going to be charged criminally and not just taken to court civilly.  I am personal friends with the General Counsel of one of the largest states, and my family is friends with the Attorney General of that state as well as its neighbor.  My father is also good friends with the Governor of that state, and a good number of the Senators and Congressman due to his business.  He's the CEO and largest individual shareholder of a private company that if public would be around 150 on the Fortune 500 list.  The bank "Rowan" deposited my check into just happens to supply the company with a credit line in excess of $1 billion dollars.  He is a partner in one of the largest private equity groups, and certainly the one that is most politically connected.  He has been involved in policy decisions in the Whitehouse, and he visits every few months.  The law firm I would consult to get a civil suit going has successfully defended him against a $1 billion dollar lawsuit.

I'm not bragging or anything like that, and I'm sure throwing around numbers in the billion dollar range comes off as unbelievable, especially considering the number of internet bullshitters out there.  At this point "Rowan" probably knows which customer I am from my past posts.  He can look my family and I up, and see everything I've just said is true.  I'm more than happy to verify all of those claims with concrete proof if anyone PMs me.  I'm a grown man, and I have nothing to do with my parents financially, but I have full access to their resources and connections. 

Since I know "Rowan" is monitoring this thread, I just want him to understand that I can have an immediate direct line of communication with the Attorney General of California and basically anyone else I would need to get in contact with.  This isn't something that would drag along - the investigation would be started much quicker than I imagine is normal.  If "Rowan" is scamming us, it would be very wise of him to shut his site down, and cut his losses.  Each individual lease would be another count of mail fraud.

[tnathe]

January nears closer with each passing day...

[AndrewWilliams]

Sorry to hear about his scam. 

Do you have an address for him? I can see what other info I can dig up about him.

[bbjc]

Sorry to hear about his scam. 

Do you have an address for him? I can see what other info I can dig up about him.

Thanks for the help, but I have a very substantial amount of information about him already.  Again, I still won't call this a scam yet, until the actual fraud is proven.  There are a ton of addresses associated with his real name.  There are couple of possibilities as to where he's actually living right now, and hopefully I'll know for sure in the next week or two.  I have someone hired to confirm his real mailing address.  Hopefully "Rowan" won't use his decade of experience working as the CIA's Director of Korean Field Operations to evade him.  (Yes, he actually claims this.)

His claim about being in the Navy I've verified as untrue, at least under his current or previous name/aliases.  Fun fact - he's licensed to sell cemetery plots.  Maybe this was useful back in his CIA days, to help make bodies disappear?

[22vision]

This just gets more interesting by the day.

[HashFast_CL]

Just an fyi - they are saying that they are leasing out equipment with HashFast chips, yet we have no idea who this is:
http://leasebit.com/Braun-1-Assalter.html

If you are behind this website, and have actually purchased equipment from us, please contact me personally, and I will confirm here.

-John

Thanks for clearing this up.

I'd hate to have customers intending to buy HashFast products not get what they paid for.

[Aussieboy]

Hi Guys. Last week i forwarded a bank cheque along with my contract papers to the value of $298 us dollars. I purchased 2 rigs.
It cost me a total of $64 aus dollars! to have this cheque made out to Leasebit, LLC. I was a bit stunned to say the least.
My concern is future payments. Its just a little steep on the hip pocket to have to give those greedy banks a whopping chunk in transaction fees every time I go to make a payment.
So, I wrote to Mr Salter at Leasebit asking him if he was going to devise at a later stage an alternative payment option for his "trusted clients"?
And below is the reply i got...  hmmm OK. He comes across as a little vague in his responses.

"Should just be bitcoins coming your way from here".

Sincerely,
Rowan Salter

[tnathe]

He's an idiot...

[vmelik]

Just an fyi - they are saying that they are leasing out equipment with HashFast chips, yet we have no idea who this is:
http://leasebit.com/Braun-1-Assalter.html

If you are behind this website, and have actually purchased equipment from us, please contact me personally, and I will confirm here.

-John

Thanks for clearing this up.

I'd hate to have customers intending to buy HashFast products not get what they paid for.

Does this mean he confirmed it?

[22vision]

I don't think we will have 100% confirmation until DEC 15

[HashFast_CL]

Just an fyi - they are saying that they are leasing out equipment with HashFast chips, yet we have no idea who this is:
http://leasebit.com/Braun-1-Assalter.html

If you are behind this website, and have actually purchased equipment from us, please contact me personally, and I will confirm here.

-John

Thanks for clearing this up.

I'd hate to have customers intending to buy HashFast products not get what they paid for.

Does this mean he confirmed it?

No, HashFast has not confirmed LeaseBit is a customer.

Until LeaseBit responds to our open offer to contact John, be very careful of this potential scam.

[bbjc]

He has already confirmed he is NOT using HashFast chips, but his claim still exists on his website.  HashFast should make an attempt to get him to remove those claims, to avoid any potential damage to their reputation.

https://twitter.com/LeaseBit/status/391206244905521152

[bbjc]

I started a new thread in the Mining forum for more exposure:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=339650.0

[NeuAscension]

I received this letter from Rowan today:

http://imgur.com/a/7j4DV

I signed my lease agreement on Oct 24th, Miner was said to go online Thursday October 31st.
It's strange that they were taking new leases when the letter says they decided to cease operations on 09/18/2013,
but received this letter today at 3pm PST (November 20 2013)

I tried calling Rowan directly. He didn't pick up.


~Neu

[bbjc]

I'm assuming they meant 11/18.  It's commendable that they are (hopefully) going to refund people's money.  I have a few things to say.

First, there's no mention on the website or lease that they are selling the leases to another company.  I was never informed of that, which all customers obviously should have been.  In my communication with Rowan, he indicated Leasebit were the ones setting up the miners.  I have to assume he started telling people there was a secondary company handling it because we were all asking for pictures of our miners and he couldn't produce them.

Secondly, my miners are consecutively numbered in the 800s, and I have talked to people who's miners are in the high 8,000s.  I don't know how they decide what number to give the miners, but assuming they are doing it sequentially, it's obvious there was no chance this was ever going to happen.  ~9000 1.25THash/s miners would equal more than twice the current hash rate of the entire bitcoin network.  It would also require ~27,000 individual ASIC chips.  There's no way they had access to anywhere near that number.  Also, if they really had ~9000 leases, they would have collected over $1.25 million dollars. All of that seems extremely improbable, if not impossible.

Third, if these miners actually existed in the first place he should offer leaseholders a portion of the bitcoins they mined.  My miners should have produced over 100 bitcoins at this point.  He obviously won't/can't do that because the miners never actually existed in the first place.

I have not received this letter yet, but I'll be asking for a refund.  It's my opinion that he didn't expect anyone to actually follow through with going after him legally/criminally, and he came to his senses and realized this is something that he would never be able to get away with.  Once I receive my refund, I'll remove all of my negative postings about this guy. 

[NeuAscension]

From what I understood they were leasing over 100 machines, but that is just a claim from the twitter feed on Oct 6th.
If in fact the machines did exist, and were mining coins, he made off with a pretty penny in BTC.

I decided to give them a shot after speaking to Rowan over the telephone. He always answered any questions I had, and was responsive (within 24 hours) in returning calls and emails.
I was really excited to see my first monthly statement, which is what I thought the letter was. Turned out to be a big bummer.

~Neu

[tnathe]

I will NOT be removing my criticisms or posting of interaction.  You are right, he has seen that he cannot pull a fast one on this community and decided to bow out before he saw himself in front of a judge.  I find it hilarious he claims the negative posts are from people who have never dealt with him when clearly the opposite is true.

F this guy