And the FTC's first action against a Kickstarter...

Is over a board game.

www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2...tc-charges-deception

Good. That guy was a thief, plain and simple.

that's one way to get your family name into the history books. Nice legacy.

Weak punishment, but hopefully the tip of the iceberg going forward. Open and shut to me. It's a capital market. When you see these huge kickstarters for videogames and whatnot it's obvious that it is. That means so many things that no one in kickstarter wants to deal with regulationwise. Even worse that it's specifically a market to take advantage of ordinary people! It's not legal to drive a horse drawn carriage from town to town anymore selling elixir either. Because it's on the internet doesn't change anything.

There's this thing that has been finally starting to dissolve about the internet being "different." As if activity on the internet is not subject to ordinary laws and is a pure free market. There's no real reason that should be. A great example of this is sales tax. There's no real logical reason that sales tax shouldn't be collected in an effective way (yes, I know that technically sales tax was being collected, it was just caused by massive low level tax evasion by ordinary citizens). It's one of the things that's killing ordinary businesses who have to compete with tax free online businesses, not to mention hurting state/local government revenue.

He should've moved to POLAND instead of PORTLAND

Its better for him he didn`t. He would be conned to the last dollar in couple of hours here

" The order imposes a $111,793.71 judgment that will be suspended due to Chevalier’s inability to pay. The full amount will become due immediately if he is found to have misrepresented his financial condition."

So basically, he got away with it. I remember that Kickstarter.

From 2013:

"As of this evening I've begun refunding backers along the terms I initially outlined in the Terminus update. I've refunded the top backer, James Bauer, his full $2500 and contacted everyone in the next tier down to confirm payment methods.

Much that is being reported here, and elsewhere, is either not relevant or completely false. Inari was dissolved entirely well before this collaboration was even started and Joystick Labs never received any of the funds raised here. I have not spoken with anyone directly involved with Joystick Labs since early 2011 and the incubator quietly closed its doors in October of 2012.

Before this project I was working a full time job and invested my own money into launching this campaign. With my own funds and some loaned by family, but later paid back out of my own pocket, I flew to Portland to shoot the campaign video with Lee. Several close personal friends and family members who knew about my earlier ventures in great detail, and even those who'd been at Joystick Labs with me, backed this project. They too will receive their refunds in time, just like everyone else, without any preferential treatment.

Every step I've taken in the last year was in service to this game. Projects of this scope are sometimes far more complex than they seem to anyone on the outside. They take more than anyone could have guessed, the creators included.

I'll post again when I've issued refunds to the next tier.

- Erik Chevalier

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it."

What's more interesting to me is a post in the failed kickstarters Geeklist where a user is claiming he was in contact with the FTC who was aware of the Geeklist and knew about this investigation for some time before it was public.

You can see from the post history that he clearly told another user to contact the FTC in the past.

Good to see them rounding up these scam artists! There will be more to come as I see a lot of people not happy with their kickstarters.