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Buyers of Radio Shack, Pier 1 brands accused of running $112M Ponzi scheme

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31–40 of 123 posts

Re: Buyers of Radio Shack, Pier 1 brands accused of running $112M Ponzi scheme

#31
post #5

People may remember Tai Lopez from his "Here in my garage, just bought this new Lamborghini here" YouTube ad, subject of several parodies such as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GIwTG8V-Ko I think he was one of the first to realize that you could take regular YouTube videos that are several minutes long and turn them into skippable pre-roll ads, and some people would watch the whole thing. I know nothing else about…

he legitatmely innovated/invented a whole type of youtube channel/influencer. clearly was never a moral person, doesnt mean he wasnt influential

Does mean I’ll make sure not to remember his name, though! Thanks, I had no idea who he was until this thread, appreciate the opinion.

Re: Buyers of Radio Shack, Pier 1 brands accused of running $112M Ponzi scheme

#32

As this is a tech forum, I expect that the name that stands out is Radio Shack, and I do agree that that story is tragic. For me, as a long time New Yorker, the other name that stands out is Modell's. They were, for quite a long time, a fixture in New York City and beyond. Even for us not sports inclined, we still knew Modell's as a reliable retailer of sneakers throughout the years. Arguably, their Covid era bankrup…

Gotta go to Mo’s!

Re: Buyers of Radio Shack, Pier 1 brands accused of running $112M Ponzi scheme

#33

Circa 2010, I met Tai and he wanted some work done for his portfolio of dating websites he had back then. (He had a whole bunch of them targeted to various ethnic groups, religious subgroups and so on.) It became apparent that (a) he had a huge pile of messy PHP, WordPress-based sites, and then (b) expressed contempt for paying $35 an hour for programmers since his opinion was you could get programmers in the third w…

Never met him personally, but one of his companies tried to recruit me for a database migration project. Part of the interview process included responding to the question "I enjoy having sex with people I hardly know" on a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

Re: Buyers of Radio Shack, Pier 1 brands accused of running $112M Ponzi scheme

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Millionaire" is now practically synonymous with "professional nearing retirement". About 1 in 15 Americans have a net worth of over $1m.

A million dollars isn’t cool anymore, it’s like $500k a few years ago. It starts to be cool when you have like $10 million dollars. We need a term for people who have 8 figures now that 7 is so common.

Decamillionaire?

Re: Buyers of Radio Shack, Pier 1 brands accused of running $112M Ponzi scheme

#35
post #33

Circa 2010, I met Tai and he wanted some work done for his portfolio of dating websites he had back then. (He had a whole bunch of them targeted to various ethnic groups, religious subgroups and so on.) It became apparent that (a) he had a huge pile of messy PHP, WordPress-based sites, and then (b) expressed contempt for paying $35 an hour for programmers since his opinion was you could get programmers in the third w…

Never met him personally, but one of his companies tried to recruit me for a database migration project. Part of the interview process included responding to the question "I enjoy having sex with people I hardly know" on a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

Dude what the actual F. This is a crazy thing to put into a job interview.

Re: Buyers of Radio Shack, Pier 1 brands accused of running $112M Ponzi scheme

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Millionaire" is now practically synonymous with "professional nearing retirement". About 1 in 15 Americans have a net worth of over $1m.

A million dollars isn’t cool anymore, it’s like $500k a few years ago. It starts to be cool when you have like $10 million dollars. We need a term for people who have 8 figures now that 7 is so common.

You know what's cool? A billion dollars.

Re: Buyers of Radio Shack, Pier 1 brands accused of running $112M Ponzi scheme

#37
post #33

Circa 2010, I met Tai and he wanted some work done for his portfolio of dating websites he had back then. (He had a whole bunch of them targeted to various ethnic groups, religious subgroups and so on.) It became apparent that (a) he had a huge pile of messy PHP, WordPress-based sites, and then (b) expressed contempt for paying $35 an hour for programmers since his opinion was you could get programmers in the third w…

Never met him personally, but one of his companies tried to recruit me for a database migration project. Part of the interview process included responding to the question "I enjoy having sex with people I hardly know" on a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

This guy loves court cases I guess?

Re: Buyers of Radio Shack, Pier 1 brands accused of running $112M Ponzi scheme

#38

Overstating the success rate of your business model, moving funds between subsidiaries when the investor agreements said they wouldn't be, and embezzling funds. Did I get the claims here right?

I wonder if it is all legal had he been forthcoming. I heard the "borrow money to pay dividends" thing was a well worn playbook. Not necessarily a ponzi. ut usally borrowed money serviced by earnings. Is it illegal because it wasn't stated? How to they prize apart ponzi from just aggressive debt.

Re: Buyers of Radio Shack, Pier 1 brands accused of running $112M Ponzi scheme

#39
post #33

Circa 2010, I met Tai and he wanted some work done for his portfolio of dating websites he had back then. (He had a whole bunch of them targeted to various ethnic groups, religious subgroups and so on.) It became apparent that (a) he had a huge pile of messy PHP, WordPress-based sites, and then (b) expressed contempt for paying $35 an hour for programmers since his opinion was you could get programmers in the third w…

Never met him personally, but one of his companies tried to recruit me for a database migration project. Part of the interview process included responding to the question "I enjoy having sex with people I hardly know" on a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

[flagged]

Re: Buyers of Radio Shack, Pier 1 brands accused of running $112M Ponzi scheme

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Acting is notorious for being a bad career choice, and the small fraction of actors who become wealthy through acting do so because of the structure of the market for entertainment (namely, fame sells tickets, so the employers of entertainers all want to hire already-famous entertainers, making it very difficult for unknown entertainers to become famous, which is necessary to start earning good money), not because of…

Since ancient times, acting and prostitution have been considered closely related industries and I think this probably never changed. The actors who "make it big" are the ones that win favors with producers one way or another, probably in many cases by sating their perverted desires. Some of this was revealed in #MeToo cases, like all the Weinstein stuff.

And there have been many books written on this topic well before Weinstein came in the scene so it's not a new thing in Hollywood at all.
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