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Former Motionloft CEO Jon Mills Arrested By The FBI
- ChuckMcM 13y agoSad sad story. Feels very bubblish to me as well. I knew a couple of people who had, what could best be described as a meglomaniac breakdown kind of experience during the dot com explosion. The person I was closest too seemed to be so confused/mystified by what ever it was that got people multi-million dollar IPOs on no revenue or profits that they seem to have decided it was basically all acting, and they embraced full out meglo-mode. Big parties, lying about everything, pulling in as much money as they could as fast as they could and apparently just hoping that "somehow" the magic would happen and no one would care or something.
- chris_wot 13y agoOr it could be outright fraud. I was a victim of a person who made big promises and I finally had to take them to a debt collector. My sympathy level for people who do this sort of thing is at a very low ebb.
- danielweber 13y agoSome people are taking the extravagant behavior as sign that he's mentally ill. But, as you are probably aware, the extravagant behavior could be a cold deliberate move, an attempt to get people to give him money. "Look, I'm a rising star, I'm rich, hook yourself up to me." Lots of con artists flash money to get people to trust them.
- chris_wot 13y agoI think the best thing here is to let a court of law determine this. Either way, a lot of people got hurt. There has to be some level of culpability for committing a crime.
- _delirium 13y agoThat person was at least 30% right about the dot-com boom afaict... plenty of people whose skills were precisely self-confidence and throwing parties made big profits, simply by not holding the bag when the music stopped playing. I'd hesitate to say it was the majority, but there are a lot! And many of them are today's VCs. :)
- lauradhamilton 13y agoIs it really sad though? Seems to me like he got his just deserts.
- ZoF 13y agoEverything about the situation is sad in my opinion. It's sad that gullible people invested blindly/stupidly. It's sad that this guy clearly has(at the very least) sociopathic tendencies that weren't discovered by his peers until the damage was done. And in a way it's sad that he probably won't receive the help that would best facilitate his rehabilitation. Do I feel worse for the people who lost their money than the guy who lied/stole/cheated them out of it? Of course. Fuck him. But I still think his situation is a sad one in the same way I would think a heroin dealers situation was.
- johnvschmitt 13y agoThis looks to be fraud & lies (not just a business failing amidst unrealistic hope.) And, huge waste (not ramen). It's good to see justice to help keep the investment environment clean.
- dirkdk 13y agoWell, with so much focus on news about tech companies worth billions, do people become too optimistic and blind for sheer con artists?
- staunch 13y agoI just hope we don't find out that the only reason the FBI got involved in this case is that Mark Cuban or another rich person called them in. The FBI is in danger of becoming the enforcers of the rich and powerful. They already act as Goldman Sach's volunteer corporate security dept: http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2013/09/michael-lewis-goldman-sachs-programmer http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2013/09/michael-lewis-gol...
- the_watcher 13y agoWait, you'd be fine with it if someone else called them in? Or you don't think the FBI should be available to anyone to report people like this? Just because someone is rich doesn't mean they lose police protection.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- staunch 13y agoThe FBI should not give special treatment to the rich or powerful. If you or I had called the FBI I suspect we'd have been told to file a civil action or contact the local police.
- sanswork 13y agoIf you or I had called the FBI in the matter of $100s of thousands of dollars being fraudulently obtained we certainly wouldn't be redirected to the local police. Check section 7 http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate
- staunch 13y agoYes, it falls under the FBI's purview. My question is with how they handle cases.
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- jpsilvashy1 13y agoNobody should feel sorry for him, I was the CTO of Motionloft during the first two years of the company, and before he started stealing from the company (as far as we know). He is/was the most selfish and delusional person I've ever met. I hope he ends up in jail for a really long time.
- loceng 13y agoOr perhaps gets the help and guidance and mentors he needs now that he's no longer able to get away with that behaviour?
- jpsilvashy1 13y agoReally? We have enough smart minded people that are responsible and willing to work hard. Why worry about rehabilitation for him? He doesn't deserve another shot at earning an investors trust... You must be kidding.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 13y agoJail's not for dudes like that.
- urethra 13y agoCan't wait until his prison stint where his cherry anus gets "disrupted".
- GFK_of_xmaspast 13y agohey hey hey ain't nobody deserves that.
- pekk 13y agoYou should not be posting to HN.
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- reubensutton 13y agoThis is an article from a few months ago about the accusations against him: http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/30/motionloft-jon-mills/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/30/motionloft-jon-mills/ The comments have quite a few of his investors discussing the allegations, which make for interesting reading.
- goldenkey 13y agoThanks for the link. The evidence on that page paints a pretty grim picture for him.
- goldenkey 13y agoGotta love that 'startup culture'
- hoilogoi 13y agoPart of me wonders whether https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6967516 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6967516 was related. This is all very sobering.
- jklib 13y agoI remember reading about his apparent escapades a month or so ago. Guess there was some truth to the stories after all.
- ilamont 13y agoFrom the original TechCrunch report (1): Mills was a first-time entrepreneur, but he had received backing from high-profile investors like Mark Cuban, and according to the Motionloft website, the company had secured clients like CVS, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Cushman & Wakefield. Several former friends say Mills was also fun to be around and generous about inviting them to party with him at various music festivals and in places like Las Vegas. All of which is why, when Mills started asking friends if they wanted to invest in his company, a few of them jumped at the opportunity. They say Mills cashed checks that altogether were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, promising them a small percentage of the company. Later, when he told them an acquisition was imminent, they felt confident they had made the right decision. Mills is no longer part of Motionloft (Joyce Rietman is the CEO, effective December 1), and the validity of the investments his friends made while he was there is being called into question by earlier investors. As a result, after months of waiting, those friends now believe that not only was there no acquisition, but that it is possible they won’t get any of their money back. ... ... Sources say the private performance by Miguel, which cost $100,000, was never paid for. That was also true of the private jet charters, which included three separate flights into Vegas and four flights out, and cost nearly $100,000 altogether. Justin Sullivan is the CEO of Private FLITE, the private jet service Mills used to charter the flights in November. He told me that Mills promised several days in a row he would pay for those flights by wire and later told Sullivan he would FedEx a check. Neither came. After multiple attempts to reach Mills on the phone, Sullivan confronted Mills at his house to demand payment. Mills then wrote two checks for a total of nearly $294,000, but both bounced, Sullivan told me. 1. http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/30/motionloft-jon-mills/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/30/motionloft-jon-mills/
- thematt 13y agoInteresting about Private FLITE. Why would a company like that extend services without upfront payment? Especially for $100K+...
- tlrobinson 13y agoFrom http://jonmillsfraud.com/about/ http://jonmillsfraud.com/about/ : tl;dr – Guy gets credit from private aircraft company because of his connection to super rich baller. Aircraft company boss feels stupid and angry so puts up a protest site. Verdict: Guy is guilty of fraud if he had zero intention to pay. Which seems a bit of a stupid move. Having said that he seemed in self destruction mode from what I’ve read. The Aircraft leasing employee who gave him credit is incompetent for issuing credit to that degree on his say so. His greed overtook his commercial sense. Opinion only.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- pbreit 13y agoWe had a MotionLoft installed in our store and while it was not tremendous value to us, it struck me as a pretty decent idea. Crazy story, though.
- downandout 13y agoFor those of you wanting to see this guy go away for a long time, you are most likely going to be disappointed. It sounds like he stole less than $1 million and will be charged with mail or wire fraud. He will be released on bail, will plead this out a year or so from now, and will be sentenced to somewhere between 18 and 36 months in a minimum security federal prison. He may get a little less than that if he can convince the prosecutor that his conduct was the result of a drug or gambling addiction (my guess is gambling was an issue here). He will have a chance to redeem himself in the not-so-distant future. Hopefully he will capitalize on it.
- argonaut 13y agoWhy should we want to see him go away for a long time? We shouldn't. This idea of "we got to put this person away for decades" is one of the few areas where I find the European belief (in rehabilitation) to be better (I'm American). 18-36 months, in addition to the fact that he will have a felony on his record for probably the rest of his life, in addition to the fact that his public online reputation is destroyed forever, is appropriate.
- downandout 13y agoI wholeheartedly agree, but I saw some bloodlust playing out in the comments...my comment was directed at them.
- AJ007 13y agoCan con men be rehabilitated? If they are, can you tell the difference?
- paulhauggis 13y agocan a drug dealer?
- pan69 13y agoEvery industry has it's charlatans. If you invest, do you due diligence even it concerns a friend you're investing in. It's just business, not personal as they say.
- rosenjon 13y agoAs my dad is fond of saying, "He who takes what isn't hisn must give it back AND go to prison".
- duck 13y agoI'm sure I'm suppose to know who the other guy in the picture is (I don't), but when you feature a person in an article and then show two people in the lead photo... you really should give that photo a caption so we know who was arrested and who has nothing to do with the story.
- danielweber 13y agoI only know because someone linked to a prior techcrunch article in this thread: http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/30/motionloft-jon-mills/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/30/motionloft-jon-mills/ He's R&B singer Miguel, who I guess you kids are listening to these days.
- danbmil99 13y agoI doubt very much that Cuban was the one reaching out to the FBI. In situations like this, the "rich & powerful" often use their power and influence to sweep things under the rug, avoiding scandal and the shame of being a dupe to a grifter. More likely, someone with half a brain on the BOD or within the co. realized everyone was going to be super-screwed really soon, and better to be in front of the wave doing the right thing. Sure, Cuban's involvement may have accelerated the process (people are human, fame has an impact) but I suspect something like this would have happened regardless (might not be featured on YC news with a cast of nobodys)
- tlrobinson 13y agoI'm reminded of Shirley Hornstein: http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/28/talented-shirley-hornstein/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/28/talented-shirley-hornstein/ How do these people think they can get away with this sort of thing? Are they just completely delusional, or does this kind of outright fraud sometimes work out for them?