Hold Jeff Berwick Accountable to his Promise of Transparency in the $10M Galt's Gulch Chile Scam by Sep 25
Jeff Berwick promises to send me every last scrap of information on the $10M Galt's Gulch Chile scam. Help me hold him accountable.
I just had an interesting chat with Jeff Berwick ( @dollarvigilante ) this afternoon.
As you may know, Jeff was the leader of the Galt's Gulch Chile project to develop a tract of land in Chile and sell lots primarily to libertarians.
$10M Disaster
The project ended in disaster with dozens of libertarian families out more than $10 million. But Jeff shirked the blame for it, claiming that he too was a victim of partner Ken Johnson, a move I criticized him for.
Ken Johnson, in turn, places the blame on Berwick.
After noticing a reference I made in episode 5 of the Steem Smart Podcast, Jeff contacted me, upset that I think he's a scammer.
My Offer
I don't think Jeff is an honest person but I offered to re-examine my opinion if he sent me every last scrap of information he has on the Galt's Gulch Chile fiasco. In return, I'm going to interview all of the parties involved, as many as will speak to me, and present everything I learn in a long-form journalistic piece.
Jeff expects me to learn that my current belief that he is a con man is incorrect. In 1 month or less, we'll find out whether he held up his end of the bargain or not.
Scammers Shouldn't Prosper
I need your help holding him accountable to the September 25th deadline. Scammers shouldn't prosper in the libertarian community. We've got a $10 million dollar ripoff happening in our midst and we still don't know the full story. One hand blames the other and the truth is lost in the middle.
This is Jeff's chance to tell it, and clear his name.
Frankly, I'm looking forward to this. And I hope you are, too.
UPDATE: Jeff has committed, in the comments below, to an even more aggressive deadline of Sep 8. Ken Johnson has committed to a deadline of Sep 30.
Check out my comments in this post, it might have your interest: https://steemit.com/crypto/@dollarvigilante/to-buy-or-sell-bitcoin-cash-that-is-the-question
I had high hopes for GGC. When it went south, it felt like Laissez Faire City all over again...another confirmation to the world, of the shadiness of the expat/freedom community. Great...
There are a number of good people who got burned by GGC, who are now stuck 'behind the lines' and still haven't seen a dime of value returned.
Hope you can shed some light on this!
You mean the guy who is now saying the world is going to collapse according to signs he's seen on his favorite occult calendars wasn't a straight shooter? Shocking. The guy is a total joke and clearly full of s**t.
Me too. We'll see if Jeff keeps his promise or not. Ken Johnson is volunteering all of his documents, has done so repeatedly for months, so I'm not sure why Jeff hasn't done his part already.
But has Ken delivered?
Not yet. Neither Jeff nor Ken have delivered yet. We'll see which one goes first.
It looks like neither of them will.
This is fucking awesome - thank you for showing the STEEMIT community what kind of person our collective STEEM has been flowing to! People should be fucking enraged!
https://steemit.com/steemit/@proglobyte/the-scamarchists-have-taken-over-usd100-000-of-your-steem-gone-in-a-week-a-response-to-berwick-vs-vays
No need to "hold me accountable" George, I'm more than happy to do it. I'll send it to you in the next 1-2 weeks (super busy).
For the record, I've never "shirked the blame", I take full blame for being so stupid to allow KJ to have the ability to take control because I was too trustworthy. But I'm happy you will try to give this a full, objective look (even though you appear to be quite one-sided about your beliefs about me right now)... I have no doubt that once you know the entire story you will see that I had nothing but the noblest intentions and got massively sideswiped. If anyone cares to look further, the buyers of GGC have their own site where they post info and you'll note that they blame KJ for virtually everything and that I am on their side and have been helping ever since. http://ggcrecovery.com/
Also for the record, I wasn't upset that you thought I was a scammer... I was surprised you thought I was, as I thought there was enough information out there now showing that I am not. But, again, I'm happy to provide you with as much info and evidence as I can to show that is the case.
"as much info and evidence as I can"? You promised everything. And anything less than that will signal not just a lack of integrity but the breaking of our agreement.
Don't worry, Jeff
Although it was more than just a mistake; it was a massive fuck up and a lot of good people got terribly hurt, but you didn't scam people ... big difference!
I read just about each and every article and watch all the videos that's are out there about it.
I have never read a testimony of somebody who was indeed involved who has accused you, many of them still blame you for dragging them into it and they're still upset with you ... of course ... but I have never seen any of them accuse you ... big difference!
This while it's really remarkable that of all the people that were actually involved, only 2 of them accuse you; Ken and his fake account ...
Of course you still need to clean up that mess. As it's not only a cloud hanging over your own head, but it's a problem for the steemit community as a whole; you're the most followed person on steemit ... Jeff ... you HAVE TO fix this!
Amen to that last bit. Fortunately, it's not too late. There's still the potential for a great redemption story here.
And he could help finance it all with Steemit!
Exactly, you claimed that you were a victim, too, and it was never really your project. Anyway, this is pointless. Just keep your promise and let the truth come out. Ken has been offering for months to give me all his documents.
If Ken has been offering the documents for months, why hasn't he sent them yet?
I almost bought a plot in GGC, but I pulled out of the deal after speaking to Ken Johnson. I asked him what would happen to the project if the subdivision was not approved. He explained to me that the project could remain afloat by screwing the adjoining landowner over water rights. At that point, I realized that KJ would just as likely screw me over too.
I know Jeff Berwick's heart was always in the right place, and I accept that he too has been screwed. But if I was the promoter of a scheme that had lost a lot of people's money, I would be doing everything I could to reimburse people from my own funds.
Good luck in your attempts to resolve this, George.
Because I decided not to step into this morass until Jeff promised to send me every last scrap of information he has on GGC and the passport stuff.
I don't want to tell just one side of the story. That would be pointless. I want to put everyone's stories together, document the crap out of it and find the holes in it so the responsibility for this can be laid at the proper feet by an uninvolved third party.
That's the only way to step beyond the he-said she-said business and take the conversation to a higher level where hopefully we can prevent this kind of bullshit from happening again.
I believe in you Jeff. Keep fighting the good fight. This guy is just trying to make a buck or two on Steemit by trashing you.
I'll be watching this. I heard the accusations, but since I cannot know or prove anything either way, I just went with "presume innocent till proven guilty" principle.
Can steemit blockchain be used for conflict resolution like this? This is a very interesting case. It will be even more interesting if KJ also represents his side of the story.
Don't forget everything posted here is public forever, written in blockchain.
Yup. No matter how it plays out, it's all gonna be on record right here.
"One would think that a site which relies on conspiracy theories to generate viewership would be very open to a critic posting a rebuttal in the comment section. I found out this was not the case at a pretty popular site. "
https://steemit.com/conspiracy/@bitcoinmeister/debunking-shemitah-silliness-and-the-irony-behind-so-called-free-speech-conspiracy-sites-censoring-critics
There are three sides to every story: Your side, my side, and the truth.
Luckily, I don't have a side in this. I watched GGC fall apart from afar. But I know people who were hurt by it.
This could really help tie things up about the controversey. I had heard Ken was up to no good. Either way, as a business person who has failed, I am always willing to wait for hard evidence of fraud before I assume projects that fail are a scam.
There's no shame in failing at a business. The best of us do it, learn from it, and grow... but that's not the sort of failure George is referring to. He's talking about the kind where your business robs $10m from people that trusted you and then you just go on your merry way without fixing any of the damage. Saying "it was my fault for trusting some other guy" is not taking responsibility. That's passing the buck and avoiding responsibility.
If one of my business partners conned me out of control of Fort Galt and screwed people over, I would deal with the perpetrator by whatever means necessary and I wouldn't spend a dime on myself until all of the victims were reimbursed and my good name was secured. There was a time, years ago, when I expected that kind of upstanding leadership from Jeff but now, three years later, I find myself here in Chile, working to restore the Galt name that was left in shambles because of his colossal clusterfuckery.
On the bright side, nobody died so the damage is still fixable. If he wanted to, Jeff could still make things right and regain my respect... but then there would still be all the passport scam stuff too but I wasn't involved with that so I won't pretend to have anything too useful to say about it. One step at a time, right?
Sounds like you've got something of a personal story to tell in this situation. I look forward to reading it
Dude!!! Take a chill pill. Give Jeff a break. He made a mistake. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Jeff has done way more good than harm over the past 10 years. Basically, he got screwed over by his new business partner down in Chile. Everybody makes mistakes man... cut him some slack. If you're looking for the money... go find his con-man ex-partner.
Everyone knows where his former partner is. He's still at GGC. If I had been robbed by him, I would have fucked him up myself. Since I abide by the nonaggression axiom, I can't claim any defensive justification for such action though so I've just been focusing on my own business instead. I offered to contract as an agent of the victims but they declined and preferred to let the culprits off the hook, as it were. I'll say this for Jeff and Ken, they're very lucky that every single one of the victims are such gentle souls. Their peaceful approach has been beyond impressive, teetering on foolish even. After all, people get offed every day over much much less.
This comment perfectly illustrates the problem I have with the so-called non-aggression principle. You want to frame "fucking him up" as some sort of "defensive action". You've offered to contract as an agent of the victims? Do you mean you've offered to "fuck him up" on their behalf? How is this a reflection of any sort of principled non-aggression?
Rightfully recovering stolen property from an unrepentant thief is perfectly justified according to the NAP but it has to be done by the victims or their agents. I'm neither so I can't justly take any such action... If I ever violated people like they did and refused to pay restitution, I would rightly expect a a swift and savage response. Once you establish yourself as a predator, you have to start worrying about good men that actually stand up to protect themselves, their families, and their communities from the likes of you.
I understand the position you're taking. I just disagree. I think using violence to resolve disputes over money is unacceptable. Your stated desire to "fuck up" this person if you found some angle to justify it by the "non-aggression principle" is not something that should be encouraged and nurtured. Your apparent romanticization of "a savage response" is indicative of the sort of mentality that we really need to evolve past.
@bacchist Violence isn't the goal. It's an unfortunately necessary means to the end of restitution.
@full-measure Of course I agree that a peaceful resolution should always be attempted first... and it was - two years ago. It has failed. When the theif is willing to defend his loot, the reclamation process often calls for "escalation."
I don't agree. Well, it's vague what specifically you mean, but non-aggression shouldn't mean that you escalate.
Recover the stolen property, sure. But that's probably not what you mean by a savage response.
It's unfortunate that statist legal systems are more or less non-accessible and not cost-effective for ordinary people who want to sort out ordinary crimes.
In the future, and really what we're building here on Steemit and in the blockchain world, reputation will be increasingly important and ostracism will be increasingly effective. In a p2p world stealing money is social and financial suicide.
Right now there isn't a great solution for stuff like this. But I think you'd make the world worse and not better to start physically attacking people who steal (especially because it's energy you could have spent towards the real solution and the real way forward).
Given the exponential growth pattern of this stuff, Ken Johnson will probably live long enough for his crime to catch up with him.
What principle do you suggest instead of NAP? Total pacifism, you don't have the right to take any defensive action, no matter if others initiate violence against your life, liberty, property?
How would you react if someone stole your money, or used fraud or conned you?
Tribalism FTW. Exactly what I was talking about today in the @steemsmart episode with @stellabelle and @shneakysquirrel. "Yeah, he helped screw a bunch of people over and refused to take responsibility for his actions... but I LIKE him."
Uhm I get the impression that Mr Berwick wants this investigation to happen. "Take a chill pill" is not what you say to people who have money invested and want answers.
Actually that's what the Clintons say. Not a good comparison for you, huh?