CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

[jespah]

...

Whether or not the unaccounted money is a half million or a million, I think the key point is there is a big hunk of money not accounted for, and ask, do you have it or did you spend it? If you spent it, what did you spend it on?

This. So much this.

When I worked as a legal auditor, I had my head handed to me when I messed up a calculation for, as I recall, less than $10k. Even the lower figure is five times that.

So, where's the money, honey?

 

[Tom]

I would not count that 400k studio sale. We have no confirmation, first of all (as Carlos points out), and also Alec's recent official statement is that he has been paying rent for the past 6 months. Even if he was part of this 'Investment Group' He is the one paying the rent, I highly doubt he received 400k, makes no sense.

Also, if he did sell to this investor group he would be a making a big deal out of it to save face with his donors. He would love to tell his donors that their money does not pay for the studio anymore! He is now trying to say he, himself pays for it, but it would of been better to say the investor group pays for it if it were a fact.

 

[trynda1701]

Pro (by training) Tip ®:
If you don't have any past clients, don't have a "Past Clients" page that reinforces the fact you've had no past clients.

Yeah, I thought that was odd. Even with the 'jolly' style of the wording there saying " Hey, look at that!We are brand new!", that seemed like a no no to me.

Plus, under the Albums section, the following...

ALBUMS

(COMING SOON!)


Stage

Lobby

Production Offices

Bathrooms/Shower

Green Rooms/Wardrobe/Make-up/Craft Services/Storage

Set Pieces Available
Outside/Parking

...That's some 'warehouse' that will have pictures of all the cool facilities!

 

[muCephi]

Thank you. That's how I wanted you to listed it before.

Welcome!

 

[muCephi]

I would not count that 400k studio sale. We have no confirmation, first of all (as Carlos points out), and also Alec's recent official statement is that he has been paying rent for the past 6 months. Even if he was part of this 'Investment Group' He is the one paying the rent, I highly doubt he received 400k, makes no sense.

Also, if he did sell to this investor group he would be a making a big deal out of it to save face with his donors. He would love to tell his donors that their money does not pay for the studio anymore! He is now trying to say he, himself pays for it, but it would of been better to say the investor group pays for it if it were a fact.

Just between ALL of us , totally agree with the assessment.

However, Alec did say it and didn't contradict it. So my position is hold him to it, and let HIM have the awkwardness of confessing that he wasn't telling the truth, instead of letting him off the hook easy by saying "oh well we all know that can't be true".

 

[Admiral Cain]

None of this makes any sense.

 

[carlosp]

I contend that reducing the thing to a few high level numbers of income and expense, one can see how big is the gap of accountability, even if some of it is murky.



Ok.



The latter half of 2016 could have been a big sink of expenses. I'm not disagreeing, I'm not speculating when the money was spent or whether it was spent.

Did the report end at end of 3d quarter, or end of 2nd quarter? The two dates are both cited above.


Suppose as an alternate view where you have to take the items separately:
1.2 million crowdfunding
400k studio sale
150k Alec reimbursing Axanar
200k [speculated] revenues from model sales and supplemental fundraising
--------
1.950 million to spend

My CBS model is 1.5 million+400k+150k = 2.050, or 100k more. Not that far apart.

It didnt seem reasonable to me that CBS would try to incude the 400k and the 150k in their damages claim, because these would be in large part double-counting the donor money. But I could be wrong.



I did speculate a bit upstream that maybe the donor money has for all practical purposes, once you subtract out all Prelude and Axanar movie-specific costs reported, gone in great majority to Industry Studios (rent, utilities, salaries, fees, physical buildout). What you say tends to support that more than contradict it.

My budget outline itself doesn't try to speculate where it went. I just try to point out there is a measurable hole in accountability.



Agreed, we don't know. This was my assessment upstream too. But I don't see how that affects a high level look at the cashflow, and a posing of the question "where is it?".



I made my own estimate of monthly costs, and your estimate is about a third tighter than mine.



To me the question is whether it is reasonable to say "the numbers offered up to now don't add up at all, where did it all go", even acknowledging that there is softness around whether CBS figured the 400k and 150k in.

Maybe the part of 2015 you point out isn't covered in the 2015 Annual Report is part of it.

Whether or not the unaccounted money is a half million or a million, I think the key point is there is a big hunk of money not accounted for, and ask, do you have it or did you spend it? If you spent it, what did you spend it on?

The report offers no information beyond July 2015.

We obviously agree on the big picture. My only substantive quibbles are the following:

1. We have absolutely no evidence the $400K asset transfer ever happened, so I wouldn't add it to your grand total.
2. The $150K from Peters and the ~$200K from undisclosed sources may actually be the same pool of money.

That brings the grand total to $1.4 million, which is the newest figure cited in plaintiffs' partial motion for summary judgment.

 

[trynda1701]

While I think that challenging comments about the overall running of this project is merited, I think that trying to make sense of all the different quoted figures, which fluctuate depending on the time of the day and who is quoting them; that way lies madness, and probably a lot of wasted effort.

We as outside observers, do not have enough hard evidence on the true figures. Yes, there seems to be descrepencies, but without truly independently audited figures, I think trying to get answers is a wasted effort. The next stage of the legal proceedings may answer them, we'll just have to wait and see, I think personally.

 

[muCephi]

The report offers no information beyond July 2015.

We obviously agree on the big picture. My only substantive quibbles are the following:

1. We have absolutely no evidence the $400K asset transfer ever happened, so I wouldn't add it to your grand total.
2. The $150K from Peters and the ~$200K from undisclosed sources may actually be the same pool of money.

That brings the grand total to $1.4 million, which is the newest figure cited in plaintiffs' partial MOTION for summary judgment.

And I agree these may be true. I have been thinking its best to press him on his claims. But maybe a better way to say it could be:

"even after you figure in generous expenses and rent for 2016, there should still be about 500k plus whatever the studio sale produced (hundreds of thousands were projected), available to go from July 2015 until today. if we take at Alec's word that his 150k of donations was from his pocket."

A question in 2 parts:

1. if the "Annual" report only covered half of 2015, does this explain why Alec claimed a salary of 38k and the studio said it was more like 64k?

2. Would one have to subtract out 6 months of rent from their available funds, was that much expense really missing from the Annual Report?

I have to say I am pretty confused why an "Annual" report issued at the end of the year would only total up expenses through Q2.

 

[Admiral Cain]

None of this makes any sense.

 

[carlosp]

And I agree these may be true. I have been thinking its best to press him on his claims. But maybe a better way to say it could be:

"even after you figure in generous expenses and rent for 2016, there should still be about 500k plus whatever the studio sale produced (hundreds of thousands were projected), available to go from July 2015 until today. if we take at Alec's word that his 150k of donations was from his pocket."

A question in 2 parts:

1. if the "Annual" report only covered half of 2015, does this explain why Alec claimed a salary of 38k and the studio said it was more like 64k?

2. Would one have to subtract out 6 months of rent from their available funds, was that much expense really missing from the Annual Report?

I have to say I am pretty confused why an "Annual" report issued at the end of the year would only total up expenses through Q2.

Companies are allowed to choose their own fiscal year. For example, state governments have a July-June fiscal year; the federal fiscal year starts Oct 1. Most others use the calendar year.

 

[Matthew Raymond]

None of this makes any sense.

If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! Look at the monkey!

 

[RedForman]

 

[muCephi]

Companies are allowed to choose their own fiscal year. For example, state governments have a July-June fiscal year; the federal fiscal year starts Oct 1. Most others use the calendar year.

I guess I was expressing surprise that a July 31 fiscal year end report is issued in December.

Re my prior question about the rent in 2015, I note that in the Report, rent is posted against the Axanar kickstarter as 196,510.41, which at 15,000/month would be a prepay of about 13 months from Jan 2015 (and perhaps there was a deposit of a month, call it 12 months prepaid?). This would be an exception to the Report's scope being only up to July 31, 2015.

The question becomes more refined:

About a half million, plus any possible studio sale income are unaccounted for even after allowing generous 2016 expenses. Where is it? Was it spent by early 2016 so that the cash for rent had to come from paying back salary and expenses? Was there ever a studio sale which should have infused more cash, and if so, where did that money go?​

Thanks everyone for the clarifications on Report timeline and arguments to pull the 400k out into a separate detail.

Carlos, is this looking more accurate, except of course we don't know if the 150k is reimbursed or just shifted around?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

There's a lot of self-anointing going on with Alec. He must go through a lot of oil.

 

[Jam3s1701]

I would not count that 400k studio sale. We have no confirmation, first of all (as Carlos points out), and also Alec's recent official statement is that he has been paying rent for the past 6 months. Even if he was part of this 'Investment Group' He is the one paying the rent, I highly doubt he received 400k, makes no sense.

Also, if he did sell to this investor group he would be a making a big deal out of it to save face with his donors. He would love to tell his donors that their money does not pay for the studio anymore! He is now trying to say he, himself pays for it, but it would of been better to say the investor group pays for it if it were a fact.

This is so true, Alec would not be able to keep his gob shut about it, and we all know how much this man loves the sound of his own voice.

Hey just look at the spam he did on the Kickstater page.

 

[Jam3s1701]

This man is so creepy he makes my skin crawl.

 

[oswriter]

I made this point awhile back but it bares repeating: Axanar is in many respects an affinity fraud scam, which is something often seen in the securities industry. Here's how the SEC defines the term:

Affinity fraud refers to investment scams that prey upon members of identifiable groups, such as religious or ethnic communities, the elderly, or professional groups. The fraudsters who promote affinity scams frequently are - or pretend to be - members of the group. They often enlist respected community or religious leaders from within the group to spread the word about the scheme by convincing those people that a fraudulent investment is legitimate and worthwhile. Many times, those leaders become unwitting victims of the fraudster's ruse.

These scams exploit the trust and friendship that exist in groups of people who have something in common. Because of the tight-knit structure of many groups, it can be difficult for regulators or law enforcement officials to detect an affinity scam. Victims often fail to notify authorities or pursue their legal remedies and instead try to work things out within the group. This is particularly true where the fraudsters have used respected community or religious leaders to convince others to join the investment.

 

[Red Shirt]

Blogging Pro Tip: You can always create a page on WordPress for Past Clients and leave it in draft mode until you actually have something to put in there.

PS Analysis of Plaintiff's Partial S/J motion is up:
http://www.semanticshenanigans.com/axanar-plaintiffs-summary-judgment-motion/

Thank you, as always, for your kind support. Defense motion analysis blog post will be up later this week; it depends a bit on when my partner can get the blog about our most recent show up.

Thank you, @jespah. I just about fell out of my chair reading the e-mails regarding AP talking about DCMA take-downs for copyright infringers pertaining to Axanar and trademarking Axanar. AP seems to think he owns Star Trek.

Megalomania, thy name is Alec Peters.

 

[trynda1701]

Thank you, @jespah. I just about fell out of my chair reading the e-mails regarding AP talking about DCMA take-downs for copyright infringers pertaining to Axanar and trademarking Axanar. AP seems to think he owns Star Trek.

Megalomania, thy name is Alec Peters.

From the PDF in the link in the quote above...

Peters: "We can trademark Axanar I think"

also...
Peters: "We have an in at Netflix"
and...
Peters: "Let Netflix deal with CBS"

Say WHAT? Priceless!