Sonny Vleisides (Butterfly Labs CEO) 2014 Court Transcript [The TL/DR version]

[Bubbles06]

That people continue to send money to BFL is a failure of the Bitcoin community. We must strive as a community to prevent newbies from falling into BFL's trap. Whenever we see BFL mentioned, we must warn people to stay away. It is the only honorable action to take.

I personally haven't been involved with mining directly, but what gets me is that these guys (BFL and reps) are still attending all the high-end btc conferences (Bitcoin2014 amsterdam/ inside bitcoins hong kong being most recent) and giving endless publicity interviews etc.. why? What do they hope to achieve and who is even listening to them? Seems very deceptive to me, newbies beware indeed.

They hope to achieve more people prepaying for hardware that they'll never receive. Or receive many months or even a year or more after the fact.

[Chris_Sabian]

Excellent post and summary OP.

The level of deceit is amazing.
 

[mrpark]

yes, and I will let them also know about the 50% card scam. I have the evidence in the email with order numbers and all the wording. The wording was that they were going to refund my orders TOGETHER, it even has the numbers and amounts for each card.

[Bit_Happy]

Great read. Thanks for the shortened version, I never would have read it otherwise.

Thanks and you're welcome.

It's my way of helping the community and a way for me to do something about it, since I am also a victim of BFL's dishonesty and poor business practice. I was denied a refund this month on my $4680 August 2013 Monarch order.




I just went through and highlighted all the best parts of the text in blue as well.

Your effort is helpful, and I'm really glad to see BFL having to "face the music" by going to court. 

[cereal7802]

It wouldn't surprise me if he resigned as a manager (CEO) or sold the company at this point (if he has any major ownership).  for various reasons.

Not entirely sure selling the company would work to his benefit. The new owners would surely have a good case against previous management once they had internal information regarding invoices and communications. It might open them up to more issues than letting the ship burn in whatever way it does end up going. Also can't really see anyone willing to put money up for the company with its current standing in the community. even gox stands a better chance of clearing the shame of their name before BFL could.

[ibminer]

Almost at the end...... but I want to say it is disheartening to me that BFL is making deals with TigerDirect and that companies like MicroCenter are even talking to a company like Butterfly Labs. I also find it sickening that BFL will gladly send $240,000 worth of equipment over to credit card companies (for free) but not fulfill their own customers orders.

It is unfortunate that BFL is riding the backs of their early investors to ride up the commercial ladder and leave all of them behind in the dust.


EDIT: done reading. Judge should have locked him up based on that smell. It smells for a reason.

[murraypaul]

I thought this bit was very interesting:

A. So we -- the company was approached several months ago by a major significant credit card company about the possibility of using that hardware in validating credit card transactions as either authentic or fraudulent. That company is currently conducting testing using 12 of the company's suitcase-sized machines, much large -- about eight times more powerful than this one. So they're running a test on that, and if that turns out, what my understanding, as of last week, is their testing is going well. That would -- if they decide to adopt this technology for validating all of their credit card transactions, which I would say given the size of this company would be 10s of millions if not hundreds of millions of transactions a year, we would be looking at a multimillion dollar order from them and the opportunity to then take that product to other credit card companies as a whole new -- a whole new market for this technology.

[colinistheman]

I thought this bit was very interesting:

A. So we -- the company was approached several months ago by a major significant credit card company about the possibility of using that hardware in validating credit card transactions as either authentic or fraudulent. That company is currently conducting testing using 12 of the company's suitcase-sized machines, much large -- about eight times more powerful than this one. So they're running a test on that, and if that turns out, what my understanding, as of last week, is their testing is going well. That would -- if they decide to adopt this technology for validating all of their credit card transactions, which I would say given the size of this company would be 10s of millions if not hundreds of millions of transactions a year, we would be looking at a multimillion dollar order from them and the opportunity to then take that product to other credit card companies as a whole new -- a whole new market for this technology.

That is very interesting. more mis-use of customer funds and dishonest priorities

[LostDutchman]

Well, keep an eye on:

WeDemandJusticeFromBFL.com

I'm sure Sonny is!

LOL!

We at WeDemandJusticeFromBFL.com are deidcated to ensuring the BFL deliver product in a timely manner or make immediate refunds to those who request it.

BFL will rue the day that it failed to do either!

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=150803.msg7760011#msg7760011

The Dutchman.

[colinistheman]

Wow, you registered that domain? Awesome

If I can provide information to aide you I will be happy to do so.

Please use this thread's first post as you see fit.

I think the word of the day is rue.

[LostDutchman]

Wow, you registered that domain? Awesome

If I can provide information to aide you I will be happy to do so.

Please use this thread's first post as you see fit.

I think the word of the day is rue.

We are coming after BFL and Hell is coming with us!

RUEAGE!

MAXIMUM RUEAGE!

(You know, you gave me an idea so to protect RUEAGE, I bought the .com!)

Yippie-Cai-Yah!

(Edit) And "Maximumrueage.com.)

heh, heh

[ibminer]

I thought this bit was very interesting:

A. So we -- the company was approached several months ago by a major significant credit card company about the possibility of using that hardware in validating credit card transactions as either authentic or fraudulent. That company is currently conducting testing using 12 of the company's suitcase-sized machines, much large -- about eight times more powerful than this one. So they're running a test on that, and if that turns out, what my understanding, as of last week, is their testing is going well. That would -- if they decide to adopt this technology for validating all of their credit card transactions, which I would say given the size of this company would be 10s of millions if not hundreds of millions of transactions a year, we would be looking at a multimillion dollar order from them and the opportunity to then take that product to other credit card companies as a whole new -- a whole new market for this technology.

This is what I meant by the $240,000 worth of equipment sent to credit card companies but still not able to fulfill customer orders. They are in it for themselves and are just using customer funds to try and push their way up the ladder, at the same time downplaying their issues as growing pains and a lack of understanding on how to run a business. Such BS.

[bitpop]

Where's phinneus 

[colinistheman]

Where's phinneus 

Why? Does he have a large Monarch purchase with BFL?

[QuestionAuthority]

Where's phinneus 

No one knows dude. Maybe a barn fell on him.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=663251.0

[JorgeStolfi]

Where's phinneus 

He hasnot logged in since 2014-06-17.  Someone, somewhere on this forum, claimed that he is on holiday.  Someone else tried to call him about some unresolved business, and no one answered.

[mrpark]

BFL has banned me from the forum for life. heh... Nice way to treat a paying customer. I think anyone who moderates a forum to that degree, you should not buy anything. Anytime you have a problem they are going to shun you. I am glad we still have bitcointalk to say whatever we want about butterflylabs.com While they can lock down the forum, they can't lock down the internet.

[LostDutchman]

BFL has banned me from the forum for life. heh... Nice way to treat a paying customer. I think anyone who moderates a forum to that degree, you should not buy anything. Anytime you have a problem they are going to shun you. I am glad we still have bitcointalk to say whatever we want about butterflylabs.com While they can lock down the forum, they can't lock down the internet.

Damn right they can't and they are about to learn that shit the hard way!

I'll have the content on WeDemandJusticeFromBFL.com no later than this Saturday morning and the fun will begin!

The Dutchman.

[colinistheman]

If you've not done so already then also raise a complaint with the FTC.

http://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov

As BFL are violating the rules set out by the FTC.

www.business.ftc.gov/documents/bus02-business-guide-mail-and-telephone-order-merchandise-rule

If enough people do this then they might take action against BFL themselves.

If you want a refund you should request one by opening a support ticket, BFL will refuse, reply to their email insisting that you no longer have any need for the item and they have no legal basis to deny a refund. If you keep replying in different ways then they will eventually give up responding. Pass on all the details to woodlaw. The class action is still in discovery and the class hasn't been decided yet, so you might not be able to get in on it anyway. Bringing action yourself might be better, as if you find you're excluded from the class then at least your case is further on. If you wait until the class is decided then BFL might disappear before your case is heard.

[Fiyasko]

Nice summary, It'd only be better if you added the Line #'s attached to the sentence so we can go and look it up and verify