I think you may be making too many assumptions. There's so many murky details: For example, the $1.5 million that CBS cites in its motions has an unknown provenance.
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.
Here's what we do know, based on public data from Kickstarter and Indiegogo: As of January 2016 when Axanar's Indiegogo campaign was abruptly terminated, Axanar had raised a total of $1.2 million to produce its feature film.
Ok.
Here's what we don't know:
How much did Axanar spend between July 2015 (the end of the reporting period in the
annual report) and now? We can calculate the known rent payments at $12,000 x 15 months (thru October 2016). The other $3,000 in monthly expenses is claimed by Peters and Axanar spokesman Mike Bawden but we really have no confirmation of what those additional monthly expenses encompass (other than an unknown monthly obligation to pay utilities).
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.
- How does CBS get to $1.5 million in total income? Did it come from:
- The supposed $400,000 asset transfer from Axanar Productions Inc. to the for-profit Industry Studios entity supposedly managing the commercial studio? We have no confirmation this transfer ever happened. The claim that Axanar is out of money indicates it may well have never happened.
- The undisclosed income that came from Axanar's non-crowdfunding revenue streams (e.g., direct donations, licensing, merchandise sales through the Donor Store, "retroactive donations"—actually Blu-ray/DVD sales of 'Prelude'—convention donations and merchandise)? This amount has been variously estimated in the $200,000 range but we have no confirmation.
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.
How much did it cost to complete the work required to open Industry Studios for business? We know by his own admission that the costs went far beyond what Peters estimated in the Kickstarter campaign. We know something about the scope of work (from this September article in the
Santa Clarita Valley Business Journal) but ultimately the cost remains unknown.
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.
- Is Axanar really out of money? Peters claimed that in May to former CTO Terry McIntosh, and Peters' statement last week after the summary judgment motions were filed implied it, given that he says he's been paying the rent since May.
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?".
While we certainly can estimate fixed costs (essentially, $15,000/month), everything else is a big blank until Axanar's financial records become public (against the planned efforts of Peters' attorneys).
I made my own estimate of monthly costs, and your estimate is about a third tighter than mine.
So is a lot of its money unaccounted for? Certainly, but accurate estimates will prove fruitless without access to the records that CBS/Paramount have. The plaintiffs' motions have focused just on the inappropriateness of Peters' personal expenses but have sidestepped questions about what the rest of the money was spent on. Those answers may not come until the trial, if ever, depending on how the plaintiffs choose to build their case.
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?
irony
