I have known Jeff from the beginning and he has made mistakes. We all have. As a former psych nurse I don't think attacking people because of their addictions is such a great thing to do. It sounds like judgement and that never plays out well.
I give people the benefit of the doubt until they screw me. I have known Jeff for years and he has always been straight with me. I was pissed about the passports thing as well but I never believed it.
Folks may say I am defending him because he is my client but that would be short-sighted. Jeff is my client because I believe in his work. Thanks to him and a few other folks I am financially free today. Name me a visionary that did not have a fault. You can't do it and either can I.
With all due respect Hilarski, you have confused investigative journalism with "tearing someone down". I just got off the phone with one of Jeff Berwick's victims, who paid him over $30,000 for a passport that he never received. It has been several years since this man gave TDV Global the $30,000 and Jeff nor any of his associates will return his emails or phone calls. Out of desperation, he posted this on a website. He is a rather nice and congenial man. He is obviously embarrassed that he trusted Jeff Berwick.
I care deeply about honesty and freedom of speech. I also care about the integrity of this platform and the decentralization movement. I couldn't sleep at night if I turned my back on the people in Steemit who have built this place up to where it is currently. I have worked very hard, every day for months, and months and months, creating value here as a writer. If more innocent people are scammed out of money, and they start equating Steemit as a place where known scam artists can make thousands, what does that say about the integrity of Steemit and the entire decentralization movement? I believe you work for Steemit now, so if anyone, you should be deeply concerned about new users and protecting them from getting scammed by this person. I am curious, have you partnered with Jeff in some of his business dealings? What exactly is your relationship based upon?
Everyone has a right to know what is going on. By trying to shield us from the truth, you are only damaging your reputation. My post showed facts and I am now doing the research to back up those statements from victims. You and anyone else is free to contact one of his victims who lost $30,000. His name is Kevin Schmidt. He has publicly listed his information because he wants to prevent other victims from being scammed. In his estimation, he has saved between 10-15 people from being scammed out of the passport fraud. Go here and contact himself to learn the truth: http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/tdv-passports-failure-to-deliver-c707391.html#c1624651
By trying to cover up the truth of innocent people being victimized, you are revealing yourself to be untrustworthy.
People are free to write what they want online. Just remember that everything is on a very public blockchain. I will not be caught up in public dirt throwing. We are well on our way to being a successful blogging platform but it all can come crashing down if we are not careful. Other peoples private business transactions are not my expertise.
Berwick's private 'business transactions' are about to become public information on here…and many other places. If you, or he, can somehow try to refute his own emails, lies, crimes and information, to/from his victims, feel free to try. I welcome it. I will be dumping more about Berwick, and his sleazy cohorts, than Wikileaks is dumping about Hillary. Cheers.
Steemit is still censorship free and we all have a right to know the truth. Perhaps investigative journalism has a chance to thrive. Let's see hard evidence and information so people can make up their own minds. Free thinking people are obviously in short supply everywhere.
There's plenty of evidence and information about Galt's Gulch Chile and the criminal Ken Johnson on our webpage ALREADY. Go to http://ggcrecovery.com
Judgement is fantastic and absolutely necessary for any respectable community that values good character. I invite it myself all the damn time and hold myself to the highest possible standards.
This is not a matter of "having a fault" like some harmlessly bad habit. He co-founded a business that sold imaginary parcels of land that could never legally exist. He left his partner alone to do whatever crazy shit he wanted and was so negligent and careless that he even got cut out of the scam and then, rather than warning people like me to stay away, he maintained the lie, which enabled his partner to continue operating even longer. I had to fly down there to learn the truth for myself. In the end, their victims were out over 10 million dollars and one of them was even rendered homeless because he lost his life savings and his wife left him as a result. After all this, Jeff went on the Freedom Feens Radio Show and promised to fix things but never did. He just washed his hands of it, pretended to just be one of the victims himself, and moved on, leaving the whole clusterfuck behind... Imagine if you or I were to pull shit like that? And then the passport scam on top of it all, which his crooked ex-partner set up for him, is still running, which proves that he has no intent on going straight. You can't leave a 10 million dollar smoking crater in your wake and get a pass from good, honorable people. All this blind cheerleading is pathetic and it's why I don't call myself a libertarian or anarchist, even though I do adhere to the NAP. The label is horribly contaminated by characters like this, who claim to represent the ideology but demonstrate irresponsibility, cowardice, and immorality. To praise and support such actors is a confession of one's own lack of standards.
Thank you for that. I appreciate your candor. I promise you I will never attack you or say anything bad about you. Good luck on your project. One bit of wisdom that I will pass along is, "never tear others down. It is damaging to ones self and the person you speak bad of". This post is straight depressing.
I hope if you ever catch me doing anything wrong, you absolutely call me on it. It would be a service not only to me but to the community as well. If we're really gonna be strong pillars of virtue in the world, we have to hold one another up to the highest of standards. This goes double for people that feel the need to preach our beliefs to others... but there's plenty of time for hugs too, especially when they're well deserved. lol
I would do it privately. I do look forward to meeting you some day. We were really excited about working with you guys a few years back. It was unfortunate how it worked out but I hold no grudge.
You are angry and I understand. I personally hold none of that anger and wish Jeff the best going forward as I do everyone on this platform. I promise I am working my ass off to get the word out. These kinds of posts are what destroyed Google Plus and I cringe seeing them here. Our brand is important to us as it should be for everyone. Social Media Tip #7 Protect Your Personal Brand Online.
Crypto folks judge me because Steemit, Arcade City and Tigo CTM are my clients and Libertarians because TDV is my client. In this business I will always take criticism because of how public my brand is and the association with the brands we represent. I can't please everyone but I can choose to keep a smile on my face and move forward.
I would do it privately too, at first... but it has been several years already and the damage is still outstanding. I'm not angry, I'm just disgusted and disappointed when it comes up. If I didn't care about the community, it wouldn't bother me... but when the village you love is infested with rats, it's disheartening... especially when a bunch of the villagers would rather pretend that they're wonderful pets rather than the diseased vermin they are.
I realize you're in a delicate position because of your business though. I'll definitely hit you up for a beer one day. Conversations like this are always so much better in person. I have friends in Panama and a visit would certainly be in order. :)
Actually the ones who are doing the most damage to the platform are the ones who are dishonest and are actively scamming people out of money. I've brought in a great deal of people, writers, artists and the like. Many writers on the trending pages are here because of me spreading the word, people like Eric Walton, Inforvore, Fairytalelife, the list goes on.
I understand now that you are being paid by both TDV and Steemit and that explains your inability to see the truth. Well, at least we know better what principles are at work in here.
I agree with you completely: "Judgement is fantastic and absolutely necessary for any respectable community that values good character."
I welcome people to use their critical thinking skills whenever possible. No one is perfect, but a decent person admits when they are wrong. I have done it several times and I learned from it. If I didn't care about the long-term health and growth of Steemit, I would just walk away and never reveal the information I discovered. I really don't want this place infested with scam artists. If it does, then I'm afraid mainstream adoption will never occur. I have invested a great deal of time and energy, which has resulted in a sizable investment stake. But I possess integrity and I do not engage in shady deals. I cannot be bought off nor will i exchange my integrity for money. I call it as I see it. Anyone who has been here long knows that.
I cannot support someone who is currently doing significant damage to others in a criminal capacity. Doing so would go against my principles.
I welcome anyone with any information about this to come forward. As a community, we have a right to know the truth.
I'll leave a short addition here. I left a lengthy reply to piedpiper's false accusations about me in his other comments.
"Gabriel", aka pied piper, aka Aaron from Canada, etc, etc. didn't "fly down to learn the truth for himself". He took a bus from Vina Del Mar for $2 USD, after I agreed to let him stay for free at GGC, because he was penniless and homeless…and unknown to me of course, in communications with Berwick all the while. "Gabe" speaks of a GGC client being "rendered homeless". He is referencing a client, whom has several psychological problems, whom moved to Chile, expecting to live and work at GGC, without my formal approvals or discussions on this from the former contractor who handled sales at GGC. I allowed this client and his fiancé at the time to live in one of our houses and help out around the project. We learned weeks later that he was physically abusing his fiancé. She broke down in tears about it in front of me, and also talked to our staff about it. I then let her go stay in our office condo in Santiago, until she could fly home to her family in the US, to get her away to safety from her abuser. Her abuser has been helping Berwick, Kirley, etc., since the time that I told him to leave GGC's property after finding out about his abuse of his fiancé on GGC property. I wanted nothing to do with a person like him. We then were talking with his former fiancé to return her deposit money to her, but unfortunately she let her abuser enter into the agreement with GGC, so we did not return any money to her since it was in his name. GGC issued refunds to clients in 2013 and 2014, with one being in the six figures. In April of 2014, though, Berwick had several colleagues of his, including Wendy McElroy request refunds, as others were already aligned with the Chilean swindler, Mario Del Real, to then attempt to steal all of the shares of the GGC project, via forgeries, and other crimes. The fix was already in at that point, but I, and others, did not fully realise until months later the depth of the collusion and scheming that had already been put into motion to force GGC into a hostile takeover. We fully intend to honour all contracts or to offer refunds, but we first must remove a few unsavoury characters and their ill-conceived and seemingly criminal actions against our project and good clients.
Ken Johnson, the thief of GGC, doesn't intend to honor contracts or give refunds. He can't. He pissed away the money overpaying for the real estate, and pouring the rest down his toilet of waste and embezzlement. The project doesn't have the resources to either continue or refund the investors.
Johnson says this over and over to disarm people who don't know the facts. He also says it as his strategy to fight our criminal cases against him. He's pretending that he was merely incompetent rather than a fraud. Won't work. The evidence against him is too solid and the judge has heard it all before.
Johnson did swindle the complete life savings or several families, and one in particular has been homeless since. This is not the couple that Johnson referenced here. And his story about heroically helping the domestic abuse victim is not true according to an eye witness I interviewed.