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 world for $5 an hour. He negotiated me down to $25. I ended up declining.
Like many people who crow about how they’re a “millionaire”, when it came time to show the money, he was suddenly really concerned about very small amounts of money here and there.
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 him and I hope to keep it that way.
I wonder if his prominent online persona made him more likely to be targeted. People at the SEC are very likely to be in the age range who is familiar with him.
Not to suggest he is or is not guilty but that being loud often makes others watch you more closely.
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?
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 bankruptcy was already the end, and this was just private equity puppeting the corpse. Nevertheless, it's a sad and nostalgic story.
Tai Lopez, the lamborghini youtube influencer, bought Radioshack? The company that once challenged Apple for the home computer market with Tandy Computers?
After tons of internal crisises, mismanagement, and consecutive revenue losses, Radioshack got delisted from exchanges and eventually filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015.
After that, Radioshack got acquired, got mismanaged again, the parent company went broke, and Radioshack filed for bankruptcy again in 2017.
By the time Tai Lopez got his hands on it (late 2020), there was pretty much nothing of value left there, except the brand (and even the brand was a questionable value proposition at that point tbh).
"""
REV Chief Operating Officer Maya Burkenroad is also accused of aiding Lopez and Mehr's alleged crimes. On REV's website, Burkenroad, who is Lopez's cousin, was described as having "over 10 years of experience managing multi-million-dollar companies," according to the complaint.
But the SEC claims Lopez and Mehr misrepresented her experience. Before joining REV, she had worked as a substitute preschool teacher, a promoter at a radio station, and as an assistant to Lopez at a prior endeavor, the complaint alleges.
"""
Nice family. Hopefully they get lots of jail time.
If they are found guilty, their company will get fined, they will still be rich.
This will keep happening unless you a) take back their personal wealth and return it to investors and b) put them in jail & c) black list them from holding office at a corporation in the future.
24 comments
[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 48.2 ms ] threadhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29607989 ("RadioShack – Bringing Cryptocurrency to the Mainstream (radioshack.com)" (2021))
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31958998 ("RadioShack reinvents itself as a crypto platform with wild tweets (washingtonpost.com)" (2022))
(Amusing to count five different HN'ers calling it a "scam", and two more calling it a "Ponzi").
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 world for $5 an hour. He negotiated me down to $25. I ended up declining.
Like many people who crow about how they’re a “millionaire”, when it came time to show the money, he was suddenly really concerned about very small amounts of money here and there.
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 him and I hope to keep it that way.
Not to suggest he is or is not guilty but that being loud often makes others watch you more closely.
After tons of internal crisises, mismanagement, and consecutive revenue losses, Radioshack got delisted from exchanges and eventually filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015.
After that, Radioshack got acquired, got mismanaged again, the parent company went broke, and Radioshack filed for bankruptcy again in 2017.
By the time Tai Lopez got his hands on it (late 2020), there was pretty much nothing of value left there, except the brand (and even the brand was a questionable value proposition at that point tbh).
I’m sorry but what kind of idiot would believe this about the zombie online version of Radio Shack that remained?
But the SEC claims Lopez and Mehr misrepresented her experience. Before joining REV, she had worked as a substitute preschool teacher, a promoter at a radio station, and as an assistant to Lopez at a prior endeavor, the complaint alleges. """
Nice family. Hopefully they get lots of jail time.
https://youtu.be/u8wwBIA8wMw?si=cKWzNq4Qu_nCQcMA
I tried to pick out the most painful segments, but it was hard to choose. 6m30s is a strong contender but 28m31s takes the crown for me.
If they are found guilty, their company will get fined, they will still be rich.
This will keep happening unless you a) take back their personal wealth and return it to investors and b) put them in jail & c) black list them from holding office at a corporation in the future.