Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case
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Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case
#2This bit from the Atlanta Journal Constitution shares more details on the case:
"From June 2004 to December 2008, United Directories deposited about $425 million into bank accounts -- all of the money from businesses submitting payments for ads, Johnson said. The company did in fact publish an advertising directory. In 2008, the company received payments from about 162,000 businesses, yet its directory contained only about 55,000 business names, Johnson said.
According to the criminal complaint, United Directories also misled businesses into thinking they were paying to renew advertisements in the actual Yellow Pages directory."
Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case
#3[deleted]
Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case
#4This bit from the Atlanta Journal Constitution shares more details on the case: "From June 2004 to December 2008, United Directories deposited about $425 million into bank accounts -- all of the money from businesses submitting payments for ads, Johnson said. The company did in fact publish an advertising directory. In 2008, the company received payments from about 162,000 businesses, yet its directory contained only…
Wow. If the association with Hashrocket continues, Hashrocket's name is toast. I feel sorry for Obie.
The scale of the operation is impressive, though. If some of those accounts were personal, they made some serious bank.
Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case
#5Mark Smith funded and funds Hashrocket. Hashrocket isn't profitable without Mark Smith. If Obie had no knowledge of this scam then I feel sorry for him and this situation. I guess "The Rails Maturity Model", the Hashrocket Way and BizConf includes taking scam money and pretending to be profitable.
Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case
#6Wow, busted.
Appears their DBA was "Yellow Pages United" - hah!
Their fake-directory was called "The Business Book" and members also received submission to https://www.yellowpagesunited.com/.
Compare that logo to the one at http://www.yp.com and you can see the beggining of the problem.
These guys had a true pump model - they're even a testimonial for a high-volume FAX website - http://www.faxcomanywhere.com/customers/united-directories.h... - which you can be sure was used to fax-spam the country.
Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case
#7"Hashrocket (Rails) execs (not Obie)"
Can someone explain this? What is Hashrocket? Who is Obie? I assume this is related to ruby on rails?
Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case
#8Mark Smith funded and funds Hashrocket. Hashrocket isn't profitable without Mark Smith. If Obie had no knowledge of this scam then I feel sorry for him and this situation. I guess "The Rails Maturity Model", the Hashrocket Way and BizConf includes taking scam money and pretending to be profitable.
Hashrocket isn't profitable? Why not? Consulting is a pretty straight-forward business model, and they're pretty well known, so they shouldn't have much trouble charging enough to cover their costs.
Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case
#9Mark Smith funded and funds Hashrocket. Hashrocket isn't profitable without Mark Smith. If Obie had no knowledge of this scam then I feel sorry for him and this situation. I guess "The Rails Maturity Model", the Hashrocket Way and BizConf includes taking scam money and pretending to be profitable.
that's totally inappropriate
Re: Hashrocket execs (not Obie) charged in $425 million mail fraud case
#10"Hashrocket (Rails) execs (not Obie)" Can someone explain this? What is Hashrocket? Who is Obie? I assume this is related to ruby on rails?
Hashrocket is a well-known Rails consulting company, and Obie Fernandez is a founder and is pretty well-known as well.