MSCL.com

GaryEA wrote:Has the mug shot been released yet? I want to make a mug that has it and says "Doing ten to twenty in another universe".

Will not be released. Feds to do not release a mug shot unless a suspect flees. I will try to request the information on the case under FOIA. If and when I get it, I will post it here.

http://www.dawnsbrain.com/ross/

Ross Rojek and I dated for about a year. Here's the short version of my Ross story. It includes photos, and scan of his letters to me.

I'm still a little dazed that Ross has been up to all this. I last check Google for his name in 2001 or so. There were no anti-Ross sites up yet. Guess I should have started my own.

Funny detail: my friend Joseph was in Ross's last remaining Comics and Comix store on Friday. The clerk got a phone call: "Are you sure? Really. Okay." The clerk then told Joseph that everything was now on sale. Joseph asked him how much longer then store was opened, and the fellow said "about ten minutes." Joseph: "for today?" Clerk: "forever." Joseph had no idea why until I called him this evening. I takes every fiber of my being (and some cowardice) to keep from spray-painting "HA HA!" on the front of that store.

Seeing all the familar names (debs, candygirl, mephisto, GaryEa, starbug, etc etc etc) is bringing back the memories. Sniff sniff. We had a time!

Okay so here's the plan. That MSCL convention we always talked about will now be scheduled so that we can attend Ross' trial during the day and watch episodes at night. It would have been better if he went to jail for the dvd's but any sort of jail time is fine by me.

I wonder if his lawyer will be smart enough to ask potential jurors if they pre-ordered the MSCL dvd ;)

One last random thought since I am remembering so much about the battle with ross, sab did you ever turn off the amazon dvd sales rank log that was recording sales rank every hour?

You know, all of this is so surreal that I don't even know what to think about some things. For instance, when people complained about getting porn emails after ordering from AU.com. Ross said he was going to bring it to the attention of law enforcement.

He may not have been arrested for the DVDs, but bear in mind that he was caught after transferring money from the Real Estate company to American Entertainment Group, to which he transferred AU.com after stealing it from his CMIH investors..

To my knowledge, the investigators didn't even know about American Entertainment Group until they were notified en masse about the DVD problems. So, I think it is very possible that all of these scams combined to finally bring him down.

Anyway, this obviously affects the efforts to fix any unresolved refunds, bonus items, etc. (Obviously the laundry list of items promised by Ross on this forum to prevent people from cancelling was a hoax). I will send out an email to the list -- probably in the next week. If he is somehow acquitted, I guess we would restart those efforts (and monkeys might fly out of my butt). But I was told specifically that the chances of investors, customers, vendors or ANYONE seeing anything at this point is miniscule.

Oh yeah, and the irony of all of this? The MSCL DVD is apparently on track to ship 100,000 units for BMG and Ventura. It could have generated a tidy sum of money for AU.com if managed as a legitimate business. That's the thing I will never comprehend.

pgh kenny wrote:Seeing all the familar names (debs, candygirl, mephisto, GaryEa, starbug, etc etc etc) is bringing back the memories. Sniff sniff. We had a time!

Okay so here's the plan. That MSCL convention we always talked about will now be scheduled so that we can attend Ross' trial during the day and watch episodes at night. It would have been better if he went to jail for the dvd's but any sort of jail time is fine by me.

I wonder if his lawyer will be smart enough to ask potential jurors if they pre-ordered the MSCL dvd

One last random thought since I am remembering so much about the battle with ross, sab did you ever turn off the amazon dvd sales rank log that was recording sales rank every hour?

I can barely believe all this is happening... it just gets better and better (or worse and worse from RR's perspective)!

All these people who are coming out of the woodwork to share their stories... the arrest... the articles... hurrah!
I have had my faith in justice restored somewhat; I'm kind of irritated that our DVD saga wasn't enough to prompt the FBI into action because when you add up the figures, collectively we were conned out of alot of money. However, if it is because the FBI had a bigger fish to fry with more certain conviction chances, I don't feel too bad. I'd still like to think that my reporting to the authorities has at least done something for the tome of evidence against RR.

Jason, I take my hat off to you. I am a tenacious little so-and-so, but I truthfully don't know whether I would have been willing to invest as much time and energy as you have.

In the USA I'm not sure how it works - can someone enlighten (JJP13?) - if RR is convicted and sentenced, do the papers on this case become public?

starbug wrote:
In the USA I'm not sure how it works - can someone enlighten (JJP13?) - if RR is convicted and sentenced, do the papers on this case become public?

Although I don't normally practice in federal court, if it's anything like the county courts (and generally they're pretty similar) then the court-generated records in criminal court are public record unless otherwise ordered by the judge. Evidence that is in the prosecutor's possession stays with the prosecutor and/or investigative agency.

When I checked a couple of days ago, the Eastern District of CA Federal Court (where the initial indictment was filed and where it is highly likely RR will be tried if the case goes to trial) indicated they are in the process of putting case records online but will not have it done for another 9 months or so. I'm not sure what the actual procedure is to see the court documents- at the State/ County level you just go to the clerk's office and hand over your driver's license, but I haven't had to do this on the Federal level yet, so no answer here.

Laxhack

As follow up to starbug's question, I visited the Federal Courthouse in Sacramento earlier today and verified the following:

1. Anyone with some form of photo/ governement ID can review and copy any part of the publicly available court file. If there are documents that are not part of the public record, they are kept in the vault and are not given out to the public. I did not see a booking photo, but I was in a hurry. If someone had a portable scanner, they could scan all the info directly to the internet....

2. The investigation into the Face-recognition company and other activities was a long-term inquiry; significant funds were traced from banks all over the US to accounts RR had control over or access to.

3. RR's next scheduled court date is 5/25 at 9:30 a.m. He has so far appeared, plead not guilty, and requested a jury trial.

4. RR was scheduled to be released from jail subject to a number of conditions but, due to a subsequent agreement/ stipulation entered into by RR and his attorney, he apparently remains in jail on $1m bond.

5. Most importantly to the MSCL: the file indicates the government is likely to try and obtain as many of RR's personal and company assets as "spoils" of his illegal activities. How this affects MSCL DVD claimants is yet to be seen. A phone call to the US Attorney prosecuting the case may be instructive- it may allow for additional charges to be filed or at least allow for potential claimants to find out how to file a claim to get their refund.

A visit to the "former" store on K-street found a chain/ padlock on the front door, the store banner ripped down, a "for rent" sign in the window and most of the merchandise gone- some stray items were grouped in the middle of the store but nobody seemed to be present.

Laxhack

Laxhack,

thank you for posting that information - it is really very interesting, particularly that RR has remained in jail on a $1m bond.... to my mind this means two things:
a) the crimes he have committed, and the risk of him skipping bail, are being taken sufficiently seriously
b) he made some ludicrous request which opened people's eyes to that fact that he's a moron who would try something ditzy in an effort to escape punishment.

I'm also interesting in finding out the date of his next appearance. I'll be watching the media along with everyone else...

Laxhack wrote:As follow up to starbug's question, I visited the Federal Courthouse in Sacramento earlier today and verified the following:

--snip--

3. RR's next scheduled court date is 5/25 at 9:30 a.m. He has so far appeared, plead not guilty, and requested a jury trial.

--snip--

Laxhack

My birthday, of all days...

Hello eveybody. Just a quick bit of catch-up on all my postings of way-back-when.

Ross had begun paying me early last year (my first payment was on 26 March 2003) and I had even made some concessions about receiving AU merchandise at retail in lieu of cash.

With the balance owed knocked down to $1249, I called Ross in January about the scheduling of the next payment (payments had been about $500.) An offer was made then of paying off the balance. I called again in March, and it was discussed that the checks would be going out that week, and a request was made for a "Release of Lien" letter for him and the courts, which I typed up and said I would send as soon as both checks cleared.

The last call was made in early April--to find out where the two checks were. The voice mail said that "Due to the family emergency..." Ross was unavailable. It wasn't until the next day that I learned what the family emergency was.

And that's where things stand with me.

Howard Price
Senior Editor
The Trades: Entertainment Analysis Since 1997

I haven't been around here for a while (the DVD thing left a bad taste in my mouth and I couldn't bear reading about it any more). But now I'm back and HOORAY!
I cannot believe it. He certainly got what he deserved. I just hope it's some consolation to the many other people he has cheated.

I am smiling again.

Ok, so really, what are the odds of me getting the Bonus Disc now? Anyone? Anything? :/

Quite good. 2,500 were found at the AU warehouse. 2,000 lunchboxes too. I'm just trying to figure out how to move them and store them and ultimately ship them.

I got permission from the FBI to remove them from the warehouse.

Note: I am also going to have to ask people to cover s&h if I try to do this.

Right, I'm sorry. I saw the other thread after I wrote here
But.. hmm. Any way to figure out how much S&H would be to Sweden? If it's the same it was quite a lot of money. Anyway. Good job, Jason

KrokRos wrote:Right, I'm sorry. I saw the other thread after I wrote here
But.. hmm. Any way to figure out how much S&H would be to Sweden? If it's the same it was quite a lot of money. Anyway. Good job, Jason

You might want to read this thread.

Change of plans. I received several anonymous emails stating that MSCL.com will distance itself from me if I try to do anything. It went so far as to say that some members thought that it was a trap being set up for me.

If they won't go near me with a ten foot pole if I get involved, I figure I shouldn't try to do anything. It just starts everything with the assumption that things are not being done correctly or legally. Wish I could do more, but that's the short answer.

For a longer answer:

I figure a way around this is for AU.com to transfer the items to another S&H company. They should try to sell some of their fixtures to defray the cost.

Anyway, I spoke to some friends about it, and one of them is a tort attorney (the rest just know what the last 2 years have been like). Basically, if I do nothing I'm pretty much taking the safe way out. If I try to intervene, I'm pretty much wearing a target and asking for trouble.

The merchandise is NOT evidence against Ross Rojek. Rojek was indicted for unrelated charges. It won't be preserved.