Inside the Collapse of Artesian Builds: From $20,000,000 to Bankrupt
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 มิ.ย. 2024
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This video took us months of work to compile, document, and research. We had to coordinate with landlords, brokers, former employees, lawyers, and more to dig deep into the shady, scummy operation of Artesian Builds and its former CEO Noah Katz, whom we've heard has thrown around the word "lawsuit" when talking about us. We will never back down from sharing the full story with consumers, especially when so many have been hurt by one company's actions.
This deep dive gains exclusive access to the East Coast warehouse formerly used by Artesian Builds, dives into finances, and uncovers behavior we believe to be potentially fraudulent.
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Watch our first part of this story here: • The Extremely Shady De...
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Our Biggest Investigation
02:09 - Driven Into the Ground
04:52 - It Doesn't Add Up
06:34 - Perceived Threat of Lawsuit
07:50 - What Really Went Wrong
09:10 - Obsession with Fame
10:45 - Probably Fraud, in our opinions
13:44 - Even More Probably Fraud (in our opinions)
15:32 - Screw the Customers
17:36 - Parents vs. Employees
19:30 - East vs. West Power Struggle
22:35 - Mutual Disrespect Internally
26:01 - GPUs as Currency
28:05 - Concluding Thoughts
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Host, Writing, Investigation, Editing: Steve Burke
Video Production, Filming, Video Editing: Andrew Coleman - เกม
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(2024): Watch our coverage of EK's implosion as it fails to pay employees and suppliers - th-cam.com/video/b73xG1HlFhY/w-d-xo.html
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Regarding RMA items - to answer a common question for "how can they keep it?" The problem is that, if you don't have a record or good inventory of which item is whose, then it all is at risk of just becoming inventory. The creditor would have to figure it out, probably. It's a warehouse full of computers, so if you don't have good documentation on RMAs, then those items will just look like more computers that the company owns. There's nothing that looks different about them than a desktop for an employee or a sold customer system, in the same way that if you bought an item and it never shipped, you're not going to get a refund when they go under if other creditors get that money first. The system has to be there in order for it to be given back. You'd have to have the customer contact you prior to the auction and then you'd also have to see it and care in order to filter the items out, or you'd need a good inventory and RMA system -- which at least one of the two warehouses did not have.
Not afraid to own up to mistakes. This is the kind of integrity we-nay-the world needs. This alone deserves my money. Bought a couple of shirts. Cheers!
Artesian "Legal ": Leo's Ego Going Against Laws.
Mark Dice covered a "Donald Trump's Son" hunted & killed a triceratops in Africa...(Amazon Women on the Moon = "Bullshit, or Not"???) 😁 😂 🤣
Lmao... That was the first Comment my 8yo Son made "that's a triceratops, not a Tyrannosaurus Rex" 😂. This is some great journalism, thank you.
My 5 year old would be incredibly disappointed with such a blatant dinosaur misidentifcation.
When Steve goes from testing pc's to testing entire pc companies, what an intense power up.
"This is not even my final form" vibes right here.
@@BetterBenTV Kingpin is wondering when he's gonna be surpassed by Tech Jesus.
Makes me wonder if he should test Texas power grid.
@@AC3handle It would fail badly :P
That what you'd call "a powermove"? 😂
Could you imagine if your mechanic went bankrupt and they sold off your car just because it was on the mechanic's lot at the time of filing?
You'd think that with all the files being on those pcs it should be easy enough for the owner to identify him/her self. Always wondered about that.
How can something taken in for an RMA be auctioned off when it's no longer a part of the company's assets?? Sold inventory, even if it's sitting around the warehouse, is no longer owned by the seller! The RMA is a remediation procedure implying that the seller did not fulfill some part of their TOS and is indebted to the buyer.
Here's something worse: The only way they can get away with this is if they deliberately marked each and every RMA as "FOR FULL REFUND" on their books before declaring bankruptcy!
@@James-wd9ib atleast in the Netherlands this is how it works. Same goes for down payments on cars for instance. If your car isn't registered to your name (because it hasn't been delivered yet or registration hasn't been done yet) it's considered an asset of the company and your money (or car) is up for auction. It's the dumbest system ever.
That is not how it is supposed to work. The computers in there for repair still belong to their actual owners. If they get sold off, that's wrong. Unfortunately those PC owners probably have no real way of getting in front of the bankruptcy judge to stop it and they'll get swept up unfairly
Folks who ordered new PCs that were never delivered--yeah, they're screwed and their money would get returned through bankruptcy. But the repair machines, under the law, should be just returned to them
@@mixdupjoe The legal system is so complex you typically can't even begin to figure out who to talk to in order to get in the correct venue and then file a motion. If you opt for a lawyer, you quickly surpass the value of your claim.
People losing their personal property to auction because a shitty company went under is depressing.
"That's like selling the owner's personal information to scammers and hackers. Disgusting and deadly!"
And it all got into accelleration because some st0opid broad whined about a re-roll and got 30k followers on twitter and has fewer daily viewers than before the whole event.
Relevant more than ever with Linus lmao I mean they didn't qent under but the auctioning part yeah
@@talonstrideI didn’t even think of that. That’s terrifying, I’m definitely glad I went TotalTech instead of a private builder company. (Not that it’s perfect. Annoying being locked into buying through Best Buy. But at least my computer’s back to me at the end of the day.)
@@IOverlord Linus Cheque Tips
The fact that nobody ensured that those computers were returned to their rightful owners is an absolute disgrace. What an incredible video, guys!! 🔥
I had a lawsuit once (in Germany) that I pretty much lost where the crook was going bankrupt during the lawsuit process and had fenced materials I bought and sent him to use in a job while he also charged me for it via a bill he managed to push through thanks to several corrupt judges because he had no receipts to show to back his bill up. Utter criminality.
No wonder Germany is now multitudes worse than that; really going down fast.
this worlds justice system is terrible, instead of the ones who commit the crimes getting punish they just get off free.@@Dowlphin
Imagine your car in for a tyre swap. Then the mechanic goes bankrupt, and they sell your car.
Well he fired the whole company. So the CEO is the one responsible
KATZ. all you need to know
I think that Artesian Builds aside, this also raises huge concerns about eBay and PayPal and how easily they can be abused by someone like Noah did.
ebay and paypal are horrible companies. I think everyone at some point has experienced first hand how bad paypal truly is when it comes to siding with scammers. They have virtually ZERO customer service. I have been trying to get my paypal account closed for years and I cannot get any of their customer service reps to close it because there is no way to contact them by phone.
Yeah whenever I had a problem with a customer that paid via Paypal or bought off me on ebay, the customer always won. Even though you give all the info and documents to paypal/ebay, you lose as a seller. Even just a partial refund means that you dont make any money. And most cases they just do 100% refund. And now you dont have the item, dont have the money, but have expences, work, etc. Its crazy.
PayPal customer protection has always been useless for me, I've had to file a chargeback with my credit card any time I've ever had to use it as they are literally useless
One of the reasons I avoid Paypal whenever possible. Or anything with the fetid stench of Elon Musk about it.
@@PoisonedAl Elon hasn't owned PayPal for years though... Not defending PayPal, just to note.
I’m so glad my Patreon funds are going to good use. I wish I could give more because you all deserve it. Thank you for helping to protect the community!
Thank you for your support! We have a small team doing all of this, so we all the help we can get goes to good use!
Same here. This is why I give money to GN (and also good testing as well).
Cancel your Netflix account and give more lazy boy.
@@x-ray3431 no gotta keep feeding the propaganda machine brother
@@GamersNexus This gave me Project Veritas vibes, lol.
Such a great work on this story.
Jesus, 10% of the builds got RMA'd?! I can't imagine how nerve-wracking it would be buying a computer with a 10% chance of having to send it back.
I find this whole shenanigan as another reason to only EVER use a credit or bank card. Both of whom fight FOR you not AGAINST you like paypal does. (lets not even mention paypals new wrongthink clause for fining its customers 2500 dollars.)
Nobody knew they were getting a 10% chance of RMA because the other shop had as good of an RMA rate as you can realistically get.
@@goldenhate6649 Yep, PayPal is what you would get if you could compile Justine Trudeau into code.
@@jaysdoodr/rareinsults
@@jaysdood 🤣nice one
Came back here again.
Wanna know what I want to see? A lawmaker's PC being auctioned off when it's not a bankrupt company's property.
See how fast that particular law changes after that.
GN now occupies a special and very important place in the tech video world. You guys are getting insanely in depth and professional about what you do, and it's fantastic.
When you've done something so well that even LTT decides they don't want to attempt what you're doing, you know you have complete control of a niche content set.
It has become investigative journalism.
I'm here for it
Its the High IQ PC tech channel
@@AarPlays People still watch LTT? I tried 1-2 yesrs ago after a long break, but the content is so driven by sponsors, merch and mostly shallow content I couldnt anymore.
Also due to the sponsorships and stuff I always had this huge skepticism towards the accuracy of some of the tests and content.
The channel is taking big strides towards being a standard bearer for tech journalism. Still early days so editing and gloss will improve but I think Gamers Nexus is now becoming indispensable to the consumer PC market. Thank you...
totally agree, its mind blowing to me how much effort and hard work they put into this, but they also have dump truck worths of talent and good ideas too
I'd say they have already surpassed the standards of what has passed for tech journalism for a very long time.
No it won't it's too technical
Yeah, I was thinking throughout the entire vid: "Wow, this is some SidAlpha level of investigative reporting."
Kudos to Steve and the crew for their hard work. It's greatly appreciated.
Those fan wires secured in proximity to the back of the CPU has got to be the single most astonishing evidence on how someone like this could have come this far being this careless and unaware of his surroundings. His employees must have enjoyed his mentorship greatly...
I feel so bad for the RMA'd customers. That is so scummy and irresponsible. I agree with others that that should be resolved when it would be so easy to do even if none of the PC's are known or marked if anyone spent any amount of time checking them. Even if the customers had to spend $45 to ship them back that's better than nothing
Yeah, that seems like an crazy security hazard that wouldn't be allowed in EU. Auctioning PC:s with personal data is definitely a no go. Even the regulatory GDPR-states that everyone has a right for their own data and their own information destroyded even from companies. Don't know how the things work in U.S though.
@@samtheman7366 Think most people are shocked it's legal even in the US
I don't get why the creditors get to keep those. The customer already paid for them and received them. Shouldn't they belong to the customer, not to Artesian?
@@dwaynepeters4520 Yeah it doesn't make much sense
Yeah hearing that genuinely pissed me off. Imagine paying for a computer, using it for a while and then never getting it back. That's just terrible.
You know you've sniffed out a good story when people start threatening to sue you over reporting facts! Incredible job.
You know you've really screwed up when you have to change your name. GJ GN
What journalism was always supposed to be.
Yep. Way over the target
When people who have just bankrupted their company and caused damage to many people have money for lawyers, then you know they deserve all that bad rep, and that the story should go public and hopefully even viral.
Also, as for US laws, they seem kinda stupid if they can allow such a jerk to screw everyone over and then get most of money from the auction to his parents. Even if they really invested 1.2M dollars into his company, they were a part of the problem themselves. But in the end it is the customer who lacks any protection, and the investors get their money back. Laws like that are what makes people angry at the wealthy.
Wait until they start calling you a nazi. That's when you really know you're on the right path.
The fact that Steve finishes his ominous sentence, only to be punctuated by actual thunder, proves to me that he is truly Tech-Jesus.
Also possibly Tech-Thor?
He is beginning to Believe
This only means Judgement day is coming for Noah Katz
Well that's one good way of throwing it out there. 😅
Tech- Jesus got tech-God powering on to deliver judgement.
Gamers Nexus truly are the paladins of PC consumer protection. May the light ever shine on them for doing the good work.
and on occasion they throw up the shield and defend us squishies from OP Encounters.
its not that serious
"paladins of PC consumer protection" please go outside
@@vlissblisskiss did you type that from outside? Keyboard warrior?
I too feel the euphoria of the light. *Farrrrrt*
The irony here is that if they weren't so scummy, and had just pulled through; they'd probably be flush with GPUs. Just in time for Christmas...
Poetic justice, but then again too bad for the employees
they were done long before..
That last line in the opening text..."We will always advocate for consumers" yep...GN has a record for this and this is why I like this channel like I do.
The Dino SFF PC at 8:15 is a modified frame of an ARK case. It is intended to just have a wood surrounding, not dinosaur stuff. If you're interested in seeing what that was intended to look like I can show you some renders, I am the designer of the original base case.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought "How the heck did he get from the image to THAT!?!"... But @Samson K. is right. You need to e-mail them, as they get absolutely *swamped* with YT messages.
Please, just do it as that's a nice piece of art there that deserves its own spotlight.
defn send them an email as that case looks amazing and defn deserves the spotlight for sure
What a damn shame. Some people just don’t deserve something that great. Humble yourself whoever this guy is.
Just goes to show how much a single person car steer a ship into an iceberg.
Humans can be amazing, but we are all flawed and when you insist on a direction at all costs you will always hit something.
Ik you all aren't lawyers, but, as a transactional attorney specializing in corporate governance and M&A, I think you guys went far more in depth and did a surprisingly good job covering the legal and financial elements of this case. Great video. If you ever need help on something like this or just want a second set of eyes to confirm something, hit me up and I'll see what I can do to help.
I'm one of the contractors that had to deal with the PayPal dispute. I lost my case to Artesian too but I KEPT CALLING PayPal and spoke to supervisor after supervisor until I got someone who was willing to go to bat for me and gave me my money back. It was over 8 hours of phone time, but I got it back in the end. It blows my mind that PayPal had that many "unauthorized charges" come from one account over a 6 month window all at once and still went in his favor. You would think that would be a huge red flag. What a terrible situation. (I'm also the creator of that poor stuffed animal in the video with him, sitting innocently while this all went down 🥺)
Isn't it amazing how you are lied to over and over again by "supervisors" at PayPal and then magically one person does what all the others said wasn't possible.... Maybe PayPal should stop outsourcing to 3rd Party companies, whose contracts cost them the lowest amount possible and actually hire competent service staff.
Happy you got your money back and sorry you had to spend so much time! This guy is disgusting!
idiots use paypay its a scam system, ive never lost a dime due to never use paypal. its like yea ebay / paypall are the same company both are rotten to the core. they scam billions yearly off poeple.
@@goawaybaizuo As someone who's actually worked phone support for a financial company, I don't think this is a competence issue. Based on what I've seen, I can basically guarantee you that the service staff - outsourced or not - are doing exactly what PayPal has told them to do. Most support conversations regarding finance are an uncomfortable legal minefield for the company where liability arises from even the lightest commitment, so the support people are taught to stick to their scripts, not to share information unless it's absolutely relevant or legally required, and to never _ever_ promise anything they can't 110% guarantee. In the end, everything is technically possible - But certain problems are inefficient or costly for the company, so as long as they don't legally _have to_ address them, they will tell the support people to tell you that it's impossible.
So, to get it sorted, you need someone at the company who's willing to go above and beyond what the company has taught and expected them to do, for no additional reward. They need to tiptoe around internal policies at the company, talk to a bunch of people outside their line of command (which, depending on the company, may be hard, frowned upon, or both) and basically be an annoyance to their colleagues and make their own lives harder. That's a pretty big ask for some poor schmuck making minimum wage at an already emotionally draining job, and most people who are willing to invest this amount of care at a job like this tend to chafe against corporate culture and get burned out extremely quickly.
@@BackwardsPancake Thats exactly what happened. Without trying to assume, it seemed pretty evident that almost all the people I worked with were not outsourced but just either unwilling or taught the script. The supervisor I finally reached has been there for 8 years and heard my story and saw my evidence and took it upon herself to make things right. It wasn't PayPal that finally came through, it was her. I sure hope she doesn't get burned out or reprimanded from the whole thing :(
PayPal shows how they handle situations and proves yet again why they need a reality check. I found myself needing their support after a deal gone sour and after pushing me side to side like a rollercoaster they just closed the case and told me to live with it. Thanks for pointing out how they ignore evidence and crap on the honest ones.
There are only two groups of PayPal customers: those who have learned the hard way and refuse to use them ever again, and dangerously naive PayPal users who will inevitably find out the hard way.
@@lsdzheeusi I belong to the got screwed group.
Does PayPal have any power to recover negative funds? Like if you got scammed and had -$4000 do you have to pay it or can you just sit at -$4000 forever
@@runescapefan0001 nope
The last negative interaction with PayPal was from a friend of mine. Someone booked off money without authorization, for something he never bought.
PayPal support required him to show them the invoice, which he didn't have because he never bought anything in the first place. He couldn't and they closed the ticket
I love how dedicated you guys are to everything within this field that we all love. From your (almost numbingly) in depth testing and metrics, to your factory tours and interviews with people who are not just working in but also advancing and innovating in different fields. I can't wait to finally get all the parts for my first build so I can buy a short or some coasters.
How can someone else's property be sold for some other parties liability? That is theft.
I guess it's similar to Repossession
Or an eviction notice
It SHOULD NOT!!!
It IS theft and whoever disagrees deserves NOTHING good in their fucking miserable lives!!!!!!
It is probably due to theft clauses and laws that screw the consumer.
If it wasn't Artesian's money used to build the thing, then as long as it is in their possession at the time of filing, it might be considered a product sold on credit that the company did not have. Kind of like buying a stolen car. The consumer would have to sue.
For the GN team as a whole, thank you so much for all the kind words and care when speaking on us and what we dealt with. Steve you really went out of your way to do the best job possible with telling what happened, means so much to us having you in our corner. We mean it when we say we appreciate you more than you know!❤️🔥
Any chance you're hiring builders?
@@xwingx1gt damn
I really like how open and honest you guys are on your FAQ page. I really wish you all the best success rising from the ashes of the dumpster fire that you were all caught in with your previous employer. Given the fact that you're just getting started, and working on securing vendors, you've got yourselves into fairly reasonable price brackets already.
Good luck and all the best PhynixPC.
Love the fitting name!
This video ranks as the best video Gamers Nexus has made thus far. The quality of the video and the great way Steve narrates the story is top-notch. Weaving all the facts together and laying out a cohesive story that doesn't get bogged down into all the details is excellent work. Andrew definitely deserves props for the excellent video editing and production.
Also, I love the killer shirt design. I've already ordered one for me!
This is legit investigative journalism.
Very nicely done piece, GN crew. Excellent work here.
TH-cam on iOS is broken. Can't do picture in picture and it claims this is music content lol. Seems to be doing it on an videos
I think they could do better wrt. the narration. There's a lot of words but not much concrete information, and the whole story doesn't clearly present any cause-and-effect relationships. I understand that this may be difficult to do for GN because they don't have access to all the information to be able to reconstruct the whole timeline and pinpoint exactly when the company started going under and why, and hypothesizing what could've happened could be dangerous from a legal PoV (I guess, IANAL), but after watching the video I still don't feel like I understand what happened there.
Anyway, I'm glad GN is doing those kinda investigations, which I think are much needed in the industry. Thanks GN and keep going!
I've been loving watching all my youtubers become the professionals. We are "the news" now.
Lmao. This is a bootleg 60 minutes.
Steve my man is about it … i found gamers nexus as a 27 year old veteran trying to get into tech ( cyber security ) after getting drunk playing cyberpunk and realizing i didnt wanna go to nursing school … i legit was browsing looking at building a arcade cabnet lol then this long haired metal rocking stud appeared ! Cheers man!
okay but can we APPRECIATE the ACTUAL investigative journalism that took place here? This is legit stuff. I wish everyone was doing it this well and structured. Hats off to you guys!
Just 5 minutes in I have a burning question:
How is it even legal to auction off property that does not belong to the foreclosed company but to private individuals who sent their property in for repair? Its really simple to separate these items from stuff that belongs to the defunct company.
came here to ask this tbh
Seems HIGHLY problematic in terms of data privacy as well. Couldn't imagine this happening under EU law, though I'm no expert either.
Because modern law here is no longer written to protect the people, it's written to protect companies and corporations at the expense of the people.
Welcome to America.
I don't think that's what they're doing, though I could be wrong. Usually part of bankruptcy like this is to auction off company assets, such as inventory or tangible assets. So for example, all the GPUs they bought at the height of the bubble that are worth half as much now, the tools used in the builds, shelving, the company PCs, or whatever. I'm not sure what would happen to the customer PCs, but I don't believe they can just auction them off.
Bankrupcy court tends to side with those who are owed the most, and if they auction whatever is considered held to pay off assets, that's the end of it cause whatever warranty AB had is considered null and void, so having sent in a machine was a risk but hopefully many were able to get a chargeback if it was within a certain window.
28:41 "And the company was run by a man who we think was obsessed with becoming internet famous and with the idea of internet celebrity.
_And he's achieved that."_
What a burn, Steve.
He wanted to become Linus plain and simple, but there's only 1 Linus like there is only 1 Steve. And both of them wouldn't pull that shit with contest rules.
"fame is fleeting, but infamy lasts forever". Starlord-jacket dude has certainly achieved that
This is a really excellent piece of journaliam. Thorough, to the point with a clear path from finding the cause to the effect.
Well done. Liked and subbed with bell's on.
GN is becoming one of my favorite content creation teams on YT. Keep up the good work!
A $20,000,000 Scam, run into the dirt by one dude? Man, EA must be proud.
Man imagine if Noah and the unity guy got together. Real power couple there.
The fact that he'd consider suing you when HE on live stream flat out screwed the winner of a raffle is laughable.
Side note, I think it's STUPID that personal property of customers lose their property as if the company owned it.
Yeah I dont get how that Legally works, Artesian no longer owns it, they we're doing work on it, but it wasn't their property to retain.
Edit: Spelling
@@EliteAvenger21 adminstor should return it
The Law is supposed to fucking help the victims. This just proves that it doesn't, actually.
@@justinl8791 no, the law is supposed to protect rich people over anyone else, at least that's the way it is right now. they may present some little narrative about cops protecting the public but that's entirely optional for them, and plenty of times they do the exact opposite. their only job is protecting themselves/the government, and protecting their masters, rich people
@@justinl8791lol you're not from America are you? The systems not set up for workers or the people
Like seriously, this takes a ton of work!!! I hope this company keeps going and I will be perusing you guys for information and possibly a pc build!!!!
You (along with your team) are a blessing to us everyday consumers! Keep up the great work GN! So sry to anyone and EVERONE who was screwed over by the ppl in charge of this company.
The scummiest part of all this to me was PayPal not investigating these transactions given the volume of cash being challenged.
I'm going to stop using PayPal. Too risky.
And yet they don't mind effing with people who make way less money, and even when they submit legit documents, their account stays limited, while other times, people submit fake documents, and their account becomes fully verified. Oh, the irony!
yea considering it was the same guy claiming fraud
Paypal are a really evil company now (and with really bad quality software as anyone who ever had to integrate their API can attest)
Well, to be fair, that's only because PayPal is a garbage company
The thing I find to be the most shocking is that RMA'd stuff can just get auctioned off. RMA'd items do not belong to the company you send them to, they belong to a person somewhere that has nothing to do with the bankruptcy, how in the world can they just take and auction someone's stuff without it being government approved theft? It's a bankruptcy, a judge had to approve this.
How is civil asset forfeiture legal? It's quite simple, money rules all. When a company goes bankrupt, those they owe money to, get paid back, from top down, meaning the banks are first, you are last. Doesn't even matter that RMA items do not belong to the company, it's something that can be sold, and debtors paid back. I'ts fucked, everything abuot todays system is fucked, nothing in a free market is supposed to work like it does in america, this is corporate oligarchy, not free market capitalism.
Agreed
After seeing that the building is just there... Unoccupied. If my high end multi thousand dollar PC was sent to them to fix, is just smash a window and take it back. Or call the land lord and ask them if I could just pick it up.
The law would have required them to file a dispute/claim with the Bankruptcy Court and trustee. Unfortunately most people never know that a hearing is happening.
@@ssshanemjlll I think some laws around artwork would actually work here. This would allow saying stolen art was purchased as part of a bankruptcy proceeding so therefore the owner gets to keep it.
Awesome reporting GN, Well done.
Awesome video! Hope people saw the definition of journalism in this submission! Thank you.
The CEO's behavior sounds like that of a narcissist, a bully, a pretender. I know one person who acts EXACTLY like this. It is likely that the CEO's threats of a lawsuit for "defamation" are also hot air, given how defamation lawsuits are notoriously hard to prove. All that being said, thanks much for doing this - it really opens up what went on, and your presentation of everything seemed really level headed and fact based. Thanks for looking out for us, GN.
The punishment is the process; The defamation suit doesnt have to be proven for the defendant to incur damages from it. Lawyers are not cheap, and you probably won't be able to get your money back from the prosecution.
@@antonchilinski9729 Small correction, its plaintiffs not prosecution as this would be a civil case. Prosecution is criminal trials.
@@JJW3 Typically you would call them plaintiffs, but if you order one with toppings it's called a fancytiff.
Basically nearly every CEO of every company is like this.
There is also the fact that this might be considered a S.L.A.P.P. suit. (A lawsuit meant to bully the target into silence by draining their time and resources), but given how much of a clusterfuck the company's collapse was I doubt he would actually be able to follow up on that threat.
3:04 That is ridiculously concerning. There has to be some legal issue with auctioning off people's private property, regardless of the fact that it was left in the Artesian Builds warehouse. _Especially_ if that property could very well contain sensitive personal information.
Bankruptcy laws are a sick joke. They essentially legalise fraud. They are set up to protect people with money.
To have any hope of recovering property, you’d have to engage with the system responsible for it- banks and courts.
I think you can file claims in situations like this, but it won’t stop the property from being sold- you’d have to find out who purchased it, and figure out how to contact them.
Maybe I’m completely off base, but I thought there were some rules around how property like this can be reclaimed, even if it’s a convoluted and complicated process.
Yeah, I've got no idea how the legal side of the system works, but it's fucked if your personal property is sold off to pay a company's debts because you tried to have your property repaired by its manufacturer. Even more fucked if anyone has, say, a crypto wallet or sensitive/important data on there.
ncix had a similar issu when they went bankrupt and sold off their servers, which happened to have unencrypted information about their customers. Nothing came of it legally afaik.
This happens all the time. It's pretty standard stuff. Can't speak to it legally but we've seen this happen so many times it's worth noting that if you send your PC in with files on it. Consider those files immediately leaked. Because between employees and bankruptcy it could happen.
Steve, you trip over yourself being polite when describing the worst business practices being perpetrated by a huge scumbag. It's a credit to your character.
Great episodes, thanks Steve and crew.
Wait you’re telling me that people who sent their computers, THEIR PROPERTY, to this company. They were essentially “borrowing” them to fix them, and now its “owned” by the auctioning people? That’s messed up.
Yeah, designed to fail. Any proper company should state/offer insurance against this, so if the company goes under/warehouse catches fire they pay out/ship back.
Too many people "trust" companies as if the company knows what it's doing and is not run by some chumped up nutter with fake promises.
That's what's shocking
Bankruptcy laws were created to protect rich people.
Yeah I am legit more mad about this then the people that lost cash. The people that have their cash tied up at least have the banks working for them to get their money back.
The people that sent out fot an RMA There at the tail end of ever recovering any thing.
Most likely we'll never see anything back.
Consumer rights in the USA do seem to be rather weak.
I feel really bad for the people who aren't getting their RMA's back. You never know what was on the drives that may be private or unrecoverable.
I don't understand how that is even legal. The creditors should not be able to sell things that don't belong to the debtor to recover the debt. Seriously, that is theft IMO.
@@alfredkugler3043 I can't say I understand it either.
@@alfredkugler3043 Theft is okay when parasitic ghouls in expensive suits do it, that's like a core tenant of capitalism.
You can easily report your items as stolen (if you've registered all of your serial numbers) and can easily find your stuff once someone plugs it in. It's sad but it's Still yours
This doesn’t make sense. That is someone else’s personal property. Not the creditors, not the company’s. The owners of those machines have every legal right to show up there and walk out with their property.
Proper journalism. Nice video. Keep up the good work.
sir you've put literally every news company to shame with this level of investigative reporting.
This outcome makes it so much more absurd that they didn't give the smaller streamer the pc they rightfully won.
They tried to after everyone blew up but the streamer rightfully refused them
@@Joeumadd On top of that, i think Jayz2cents built them a PC anyway. As a kind of middle finger to that company lol.
@@lyianx Oh yeah, she got hooked dafuq up.
@@Joeumadd Besides Jayz2cents gave her a better pc as a gift to compensate for this CEO's fail.
Exactly! Giving the smaller streamer the PC would have boosted her views, brought in more sales and showed future “ambassadors” that anyone can win, further increasing business. But instead the guy single-handedly and in one spoken paragraph on live destroyed his entire company. I remember within days they had posted the company was ceasing operations. That guy must have been on drugs or something to be soaking up that much money, plus he looks like he’s on drugs
I saw the picture of Noah's cable management and focus on the mess on the right and initially thought, "workable, hell I might do something like this for my build because I'm lazy, but it's not something I would give to a customer, especially a public facing customer, and why is the fan hub not connected to anything?" Then I looked at the left and thought, "nevermind, not workable at all! Why the hell are there cables in front of fans?! That's just asking for trouble! He gave this to somebody?! He was PROUD of this!?"
Considering his parents had millions of dollars in this, I get the feeling that Noah is a spoiled rich kid who just had everything handed to him and never had to earn anything.
Comparing the product on the left/right, what surprised me is that it seemed like the east coast COULD produce a high-quality product. If you first told me that the west coast produced streamer-builds and the east coast produced mass-production level hardware, I'd expect the west coast to spend too much time and labor making exceptional products while the east coast took shortcuts and produced sloppier products. Not the reverse.
I get that the west coast was poorly managed. But I just can't fathom management that doesn't have at least an excuse. If I'm gathering info from OP correctly, the west coast had more staff, fewer product, lower quality product... what did the CEO think his facility was doing outside of media coverage? And if he did think that all the west coast did was media coverage, why so much staff? I mean, he couldn't have possibly seen any other outcome than the one he got, because everything is just so predictable.
The disrespect he shown to Kiapiaa and all the other struggling content creators just screams privilege - he judges the toiling workers from high above in his ivory tower, and demands more from them. He told them to eat cake for he would not give them bread, so now his head is heading for a chopping block.
Like thank goodness for ppl like this guy and his crew, like I'm gonna get a gaming pc soon and he just dives into all and everyone!!! Great job!!!
I cannot overstate how good this content is.
It's not much but I'm glad to be able to support you guys at all. Proud of you fellow Triangle Area folks.
Every $5 makes a big difference to us still. Thank you!
you know, its not "not much", cause its the peaople, all together, making that bigger sum. and perhaps 5$ isnt much, but from what perspektive? if everyone thinks that way , none will give anything. but you did and that is actually what counts.
@@locutusvonborg2k3 Never realized they were in RDU until this video.
@@locutusvonborg2k3 Yeah, people rarely realise that if get they their pay every month all at once. But for someone having a small takeout, getting those 5-10 bucks per customer is pretty much their main income. Many TH-camrs and streamers live off such donations.
Thanks for the donation, fellow viewer, but if possible, try to donate them directly through their website, donating them through the TH-cam means TH-cam gets a huge cut of that donation (if I remember correctly, around 20%)
Top notch journalism. Thanks for fighting the good fight
shoutout kiwis my favorite people
What an amazing job of reporting this case!! There is a reason I trust Gamers Nexus reporting more than pretty much any other. That being said, there are a few others I trust.. bravo GN!!
Seeing the East Coast branch spin off into their own company, after hearing of their consistent quality and work ethic, I'll definitely give PhynixPC a look if I ever buy a pre-built, and certainly point friends in their direction. _Thanks, Steve!_
i think its a fitting name, because the phoenix did rise from the ashes.
@@mrc4nl their TH-cam channel's first video is titled "From the Ashes..." So they clearly know what they're doing. lol
We appreciate the words, we would love to build for you and your friends in the future. ❤️🔥
Same goes for me. Considering the products they were able to push out in such a dysfunctional company, I’d say it is a safe assumption that they will be able to produce top-notch builds if they get this new venture right. I will be checking them out myself.
Which is especially awesome because you know going into the purchase there's less than a 1% chance of receiving a defective product (assuming all remains equal)!
This looks like the CEO will be lucky to avoid prison time for several counts of wire fraud and mail fraud. I hope PayPal wised up and will be willing to reconsider disputes if the victims decide to dispute the wrongful chargebacks again.
The route that PayPal has been going with their anti-consumer actions, it's doubtful. Even simple graphical artists are having a hard time dealing with the BS that PayPal has been doing when PayPal outright "limits" (bars) someone's account for little to no reason at all over a transaction that was made between 2 parties that was a mere exchange of drawn art for money. PayPal used to be great in its hayday, but they've long been going down the slippery slope of treating their users like shit.
@@abysspegasusgaming I tried buying a retro console recently, and the site's payment processor was Paypal. I don't have or want a Paypal account, so I used the service as a guest. After entering in my card, PP emails me and tells me that they need more personal info "because of suspicious activity" on my guest transaction. It also blacklisted the card I was using. Thankfully, I had a second email and card to use.
Unfortunately, the same exact thing happened again with the new card and email address, and I ended up having to find the same retro console for $10 more on another site that didn't force Paypal use. Basically after that, I'm going to fight tooth and nail to never actually have a Paypal account.
@@signa8 Using PayPal is awesome when you are buying stuff. I'd never use it as a seller though
@@crisapx Alright, if you say so. Never been my experience. The complete story is that I had account from like a decade ago, and it got locked out after not using it for a while until I provided the extra personal info that I'm not prepared to give them. A guest option was fine, because it's just an email and a card number: the bare minimum to complete an online order. But that still wasn't good enough for them.
@@signa8 just make a paypal account
Makes me happy to hear those east coast guys started their own PC building business! That's badass.
It’s insane to me that they were making so many sales so quickly. For a random startup, largely funded by a guy’s parents, to be shipping 600-800 prebuilt pc’s every month in just the first two years of business is nothing short of a meteoric rise. Being on track to do $30M in annual revenue by your fourth year is basically unheard of, with very few exceptions.
I had no idea that people were buying high end prebuilts at such a rate that this one brand new company would be taking and shipping that many orders so quickly.
Hell yeah. This kind of work, among others, is why Gamer's Nexus is in a league of its own. Well done!
LTT does fluff pieces, GN does the hard hitting investigative journalism
Thank you Steve and GN for this incredible piece of investigative journalism in the tech industry. You're not only doing a service to the internet, but society as a whole ♥
Loving these deep dives. Good Stuff!
I hope Phoenix pc rises from the ashes and does well with better management. Looks like those guys really know what they’re doing
The quality of content you all have created is insane! It’s so impressive how much research and paperwork you tracked down. Keep it up!
60 Minutes use to be, and to a certain extent still is, investigative journalism at its best. How about 60 Ghz? 😄
lmfao. I couldnt even sit through this shit show...
@Karl with a K looks like GN really hurt you.
@Karl with a K Is this what Noah changed his name to?
@Karl with a K Not sure how you think he manages to run GN if he has zero knowledge of business and finance.
Finally! I can’t wait to learn how dinosaurs come into all this!
Poorly designed Ark case and rare herbivorous tyrannosaurid.
I just adore this channel, honestly.
Hi team. I have watched this again and find your investigation fascinating, Having been a year now this is still as fresh as the day you reported it. Nice work
I've Worked in a PC System Implementer like Artesian. Trust me, alot of companies run like this, Artesian is just the one that got caught.
True. Just wanted to write the same comment.
The guy was just so arrogant and desperate for attention that the internet developed a crush on him.
I agree also... The refusing refunds is completely legal and not fraudulent. If you request a refund you need a reason so if it's shipped you can't refund it... And I bet a bunch of fraudulent refund requests where made once that fuck up happened. It's also legal advice If a company is going under to refuse refunds on products already shipped. Of course that's only if it's been shipped. But I'm. Guessing it's not always the case as if they haven't shipped it and refused a refund it is fraudulent.
Classic behavior of people from a country in the Middle East.
the one bright side is that Phynix actually looks to have some pretty good pcs in terms of specs to price, and if they are going to continue delivering the quality they delivered as Artesian East (I have no reason to think they wouldn't) then they could quite possibly have Artesian 2 on their hands in terms of success, they just have to be sure to not let it get mismanaged. I wish them and everyone else who got laid off from this dumpster fire nothing but the best
We appreciate the words, we are employee owned and want to give you all the same quality of work you deserve. ❤️🔥
@@PhynixPCs Well, I don't personally buy prebuilds, but I will steer friends to you guys, I've looked at a few of Artesian East's builds in person and they seemed stellar.
I've worked at a company that had the east/west divide like you guys had (the only difference is that West in our case makes enough money to run the entire company off of through West's largest product line, and the other lines are pure profit)... Although all of the money goes towards improving East, while west is stuck in a building that is literally collapsing into a giant, building-sized sinkhole.
@@PhynixPCs The only piece of advice I have for you is to implement a system for dealing with ownership directional conflicts. I have seen too many companies fail during hard times when everyone is an owner and there just isn't enough unified direction and insufficient capital allocation for any of the proffered ideas to succeed.
As long as they don’t have an Idiot/jerk of a CEO things are already looking better.
I hope they can carry small form factor cases as well. The Artesian Pluto was legit a nice case. But it was designed independently before Artesian picked it up and sold it, and I'd like to see these independent case companies find better distributors.
Excellent reporting guys!!
That shirt is the bomb! I saw this and wanted to order it for my hubby's birthday (and I would certainly borrow it from him!) and it was out. Hopefully I see the next one and love it just as much.
After seeing that the East Coast team seemed to be more in-tune with the work and passionate about it rather than chasing e-fame, I'm really happy to see they've stuck together and set out on their own. I genuinely hope they find great success.
Yeah, sounds like the East branch really got fucked over by the west's incompetence. It sadly happens alot, where smart, hardworking employees get fucked over by greedy, stupid bosses.
That is the crazy part. Any idiot level CEO should have been like "east coast folks, what are you doing? because we need to copy/paste it over here". They should have mimicked the east coast for 95% of the builds and turned more out. They still could have done public builds for the streamers and such. No reason at all to not follow the successful branch's lead.
I think there was something too about the good COO during their rise being on East, but had left around December.
Well said, I hope they have the success they deserve
@@andrewt.5567 Hell, if the CEO just stopped the West coast and let East coast carry the company, he could have had a very steady check while basically doing nothing.
I'd be absolutely furious if a company bilked me out of several thousand dollars that I'd paid for something.
Losing your *existing* PC with all the hardware you already own and all the information on it?
Hell hath no fury.
Hope someone figures out a way to get those former clients their property back.
This is why you use a credit card - much easier for chargebacks
@@btnt5209 You pay for it through the nose. Let alone the loss of freedom, especially if a social credit system kicks in.
@@btnt5209 Can chargeback charge back your personal files?
Yea, when i heard that i couldnt believe it. How can they action Property/stuff that does not belong to them ? And all the personal info inside it ?
I'm confused - you cannot sell something that you do not own; the liquidators should be returning the RMA units to their owners.
Your investigated journalism product teardown of prebuilts is useful for us the customer, so that we get value for money ,keep up the good work sir
It's always a good sign when a whiny current or ex-executive is threatening legal action, means they've definitely got something to hide... Great video!
How is it legal that devices that potentially contain personal data and are technically still owned by someone (or in the case of repairs are actually owned by someone other than Artesian) are being auctioned off? That seems like a grave violation of privacy and ownership rights.
Welcome to the USA where bankruptcy laws are their to protect the company not the clients
@@himmelhero Sounds fair and unbaised and also very american XD
So the property belongs to the consumer that paid for it (orders in for repairs - not unfulfilled orders), if its sold at auction it's effectively stolen property? the auctioneers cant claim ignorance of this and are therefore knowingly selling stolen property? But I'm sure there's a loophole that allows for this because... Capitalism!
When sending in PCs for repair, typically the user agrees to backup their own personal info/data. There is no way the company can guarantee integrity and, in some cases, troubleshooting will necessitate wiping the drive.
@@toooes That is simply not true. There pretty much never is a reason to wipe a drive unless large portions of data have been corrupted as a result of unstable memory or something.
I wish I could say the most shocking thing to me in this whole report is Paypal siding with a company pulling shady practices to fraud customers. There are a number of instances that I've been party to that convinced me over the past few years that I will never trust Paypal in any manner. IMO it's an extremely poorly ran fintech company and its a minor wonder that they somehow have managed to not fall into a hole they can't climb out of.
I absolutely loath PayPal and avoid using them. This is situation is a good example of why you never leave funds sitting in your Paypal account.
@@JJW3 Yep. I only use Paypal for small purchases. Anything big, it's best to use a credit card for.
Why the hell is a company even paying its employees with PayPal in the first place?! That alone is super shady and suspect...
I mean agree, PayPal is garbage, but what do we use as alternative realistically? Crypto can't even save transactions after crashing yet again and losing it's credibility after numerous public scams
As a small business owner running paypal for 5+ years now I am just as shocked as you as paypal almost ALWAYS sides with the customer. The number of times we've been screwed over by paypal have far outweighed the handful of times they helped us against scammers.
Edit: after watching the video it actually makes sense. Artesian was buying GPUs from employees due to the GPU shortage from mining. In this case, the employee is the seller and Artesian is the customer. So when Artesian charged back on those transactions, the seller, who probably had no proof they delivered the package i.e a tracking number, since they just hand it off at work, had no chance to win the dispute. There could possibly be a chance if you force the employer to sign a contract showing exchange of goods but any good employer would produce such a invoice template for their own records keeping (you know in case irs wants to audit your business)
Tips to prevent getting scammed on paypal - Don't ever complete a local transaction and accept goods and services as a payment (if you are the seller). You won't have proof of delivery of the goods. Most of the time you will be covered if the buyer claims they don't recognize the transaction or whatever; that's not your fault and paypal usually won't make you responsible for it. I think 1-2 times they did make us responsible but we made a quick call and a rep was able to overturn the decision.
This is unbelievable. Amazing journalism
Keep up the good work, Steve and team.
You're cool for supporting GN's content
fantastic reporting on how a single horribly inept CEO can completely destroy a goldmine of a company
To be fair, the Great Pandini and the chip shortage contributed to things. But when it comes down to it, if ArtBld hadn't been handicapped by its 'idle grasshopper' CEO, it probably would've been able to survive the lean times of GPU unavailability by restricting orders - now? THIS is the time to launch a 'PC building' company; I wish ALL the success to PhynixPC!
@@empath69 we watched the video
It wasn't a gold mine. It was essentially a ponzi scheme of computer building. Steve doesn't want to say that because it could be slander, but Artesian was falling further and further behind in delivering product while keeping all of the money. (Steve makes a comment like "they're using new money to pay for old builds which...sounds like something else," that something else being a ponzi scheme.) We also don't know their profits -- they did a lot of revenue but also had to pay for a lot of material, including $2m sitting in inventory at time of bankruptcy. There was also $1.2m owed in loans from the parents that were not repaid, so it's not like they were rolling in profit.
When you have at least $1.5m in seed money (per the balance sheets) you can generate a ton of revenue just through marketing. The tricky part is turning a profit. Anyone can burn through an investment.
@@TRAMP-oline Wow! Then you're in a minority segment of the commenters here.
He wasn't inept, he knew exactly what he was doing...He let his already over inflated ego overflow...
Those charge backs against employees should go to criminal court. That's a really hideously vile thing to do, I would put a person willing to do that in supermax with multiple murderers.
Very good research! Noah sounds like a hard guy to be around. I hope he humbles himself and turns his life around and does right by the people that helped make his company into what it was at it's peak.
His parents probably just think he was misunderstood and actually a genius.
He's not. He'll just go on to run bigger scams, because that's what rich people do.
I remember back in 2020, I had an employee of artesian contact me about selling them an RTX 2080TI Aorus Elite while he was visiting LA. We went through the deal and they later tried to claim that the GPU was faulty and that I had "scammed them" even though I had tested the said GPU before going through with the transaction. Im glad I got cash and didnt use Zelle/Paypal or else I probably would've turned out like the others who were scammed by them!
The fact that they transacted with cash and not by check (which I am assuming) is a red flag with their business practice.
@@wintdkyo thats funny. Here in Portugal checks have been obsolete for the last 20 years. Though one can still technically use them, theyre usually only used for fraud or shady transactions and with comlanies its a huge red flag if theyre using checks. It automatically triggers an audit if detected by the government
@@wintdkyo Quite the opposite is true, because a check is not money.
@@worldhello1234 it's less common for a business. Cash transactions are often used when one wants to avoid taxes.
@@worldhello1234 this is a lie , no business wants to use cash if they run off a loan
Please continue making great content like this. As an attorney watching your investigative videos, I am always impressed with your diligence and insight into the experience of the average consumer. I am also impressed by how accurate your interpretation of the law can be.
Edit: I spit my drink out when you covered the "Liabilities" section and noted the loan to his parents as secured creditors.
Was that a move by Noah to make sure his parents got paid back first? Please help me understand because that part was fascinating to me but went too fast over my head.
Thank you! I've worked with enough lawyers to know some basics, or at least enough for most reporting. It's always really cool to see people with a legal background in the audience, so I appreciate you taking the time to post!
@@PStewart28 It is hard to know exactly, but a secured creditor is in line first to get paid in the bankruptcy process. Secured debt is usually tied to a physical object, think your mortgage or car loan. Generally for commercial purposes you might secure the debt with goods or heavy machinery.
The consumers end up being around the same point in line as a credit card company would be, receiving pennies on the dollar.
Depending on what his parents debt is secured with and when it was secured in relation to his financial decline, will be something the bankruptcy court looks at.
Lastly, if you look up “Bankruptcy Hold”, you can get a good idea what some of the more recent charge backs are probably about, however it appears this was a pattern of behavior predating any period required by the bankruptcy code for a spending freeze.
@@RuinationFEW I'm no lawyer but to me it sounds like he knew the company was headed into the ground "soon" and so he made sure his parents got the most money out of it's failure and did it in a way where it would ensure they got the money they were owed even if it went into bankruptcy.
@@Sabrinahuskydog It certainly raises questions.
This video is SICK!!! Great job
Great work on this story.
Saw Artesian and immediately start guessing when and how will the dinos show up. And I still did not expect how the dinos showed up.
The fact that there's no recourse for rma'd devices with personal info on it is honestly terrifying. It sounds like they're not legally required to return or even destroy the drives either 😨
There absolutely is recourse. These customers are actually in front of any creditors in bankruptcy proceedings. Their items are not assets that can be sold, the administrator will determine all of this before liquidation
Good thing we have gdpr! Rest assured everything will be ok
US is not covered by GDPR. Then again, i do not know where the computers were shipped from, or under what legislation it is covered.
Either way it's a sh~tshow... And i hope everyone is getting their data and money back.
@@wuzziemaster gdpr is a false security anyway. Better off living in a location where you're forced to take care of your own information rather than trusting the legal system and the government to reassure you it's safe, because it's not.
@@dylc5604 GDPR is strictly European
Amazing, objective,engaging reporting! If there isn’t a new media award show there should be (SBSW?). You guys are on my Christmas list for accessories, etc!
Awesome reporting
Wait a second. The PCs send in for repair still legally belong to their owners. Just because they are there doesn't mean they can be sold/auctioned off. That would be the same as if I give my car for repair and the shop goes bankrupt. They can't sell off my car then either, because it's not their property.
Exactly. Something odd is still going on with that company.
Exactly. The bankruptcy trustee / administrator is tasked with sorting all that out. It just takes time
That would be logical. But we're talking about corrupt CEOs and lawyers and a legal system that is stacked in favor of CEOs and maintaining the status quo.
Vehicles have a VIN that is registered to a person with their state though.
But yeah, these people should get their property back.
My guess is that Noah listed customers PC's as company assets to secure loans or something like that. He's already proven to be a super shady CEO so I wouldn't put it past him.
By the looks of it, Katz is a prime example of a person who is handed wealth without having to earn it.
He shows no responsibility, no duty, no care for what he is doing beyond a self serving somewhat narcissistic goal of "I want to be friends with the famous people." He's like a shallow hollywood leech, trying to buy his way into the good graces of people who have some level of fame to them.
I hope he gets sued and prosecuted for as many counts of fraud as possible.
He’s really immature, That’s the main thing to me. That whole trying to be an influencer thing is just so pathetic. Even calling himself an influencer in that one clip… mega cringe. Give me a break man, I don’t know how old he is but, grow up dude. Even chasing influencers from a business standpoint is dubious - just look at the fyre festival for one obvious example. Not that it is always sketchy, but it definitely raises a flag. Influence deez nuts
Those "poor employees" that got screwed. Uh, they never met the CEO? Within 5 seconds of meeting that tool, you could tell he was a weasel. Don't go to work for shitheads, the company is likely to follow them right down the toilet.
He's a typical rich kid narcissist with parents that support that behavior. Sadly these type of people always get away with this. Even if he faces fraud charges I am sure mommy and daddy have a team of lawyers to help him avoid prosecution.
Sounds very similar to Elon Musk
What do you expect from a spoilt, rich white dude at this point?
Thank you guys!!!!!!!
As much as I appreciate your reviews, I love the investigative journalism you do -- thorough in all respects.
Slight correction: Sending a unit in for repair does NOT equal a transfer of ownership. (which is the case in every country in the western-world, as far as i'm aware)
Hence you can very-well get the PC back.
Legally it cannot be auctioned off. But you will have to take legal action yourself
That's right in theory. However the problem is if the insolvency agent assigned to this doesn't go over everything with a fine tooth comb (assuming artesian even kept good enough records for them) then it in all likely hood would get sold off and good luck ever getting any money back for it because all the money from the company would be gone to creditors and no one would take responsibility for it. It would cost you more than it's worth in legal fees to even try to pursue legal action after the fact.
its the process involved that he's talking about which would make it near impossible to pull off because of the companies liquidation - anything on the property will be seized and sold to auction by the government :(
@@Goober2289 Legal accidental theft. They are in possession of stolen property. Comb or not.
@@brendanrocco6138 sold off... go after the new "owner" for receipt of stolen property and retrieve it from them? but I'm not a lawyer.
@@jhoughjr1 Ok. Doesn't mean anything.
Waaaait, the guy scammed his own employees by getting them to sell him their GPUs and then annulling the transactions through PayPal?! I really hope when the time comes the institutions don't fall for the "Whose parents? We are here as creditors!" ruse because it's really obvious what's going on.
It really seems like he brought his parents on as creditors as personal insurance. That way when the inventory needed to be liquidated, they would get their million back first. $20+ million in annual revenue and you still have a $1m bond on the books?
@@Phyrre56 When you spend it as fast as you can make it, it doesn't matter how much revenue you're bringing in. Sounds like the company was doing some shady shit so I wouldn't doubt they were operating almost entirely in the red for a while and just hiding it through investments, shifty accounting, and recognizing revenue for product they hadn't shipped yet.
So it's likely that $1m bond was part of their shifty accounting anyway.
Yea, for sure. It’s all about cash flow. If your so behind that the next one is paying the last ones bills, yous in trouble
Has there been any update on this? I’ve watched this video a couple of times now and every time I try to see if there has been anything in regards to litigation or even just news the only recent thing that pops up as either this video or the GEN website. So now.
Side note, thank you Gamers Nexus for being you and delivering news like this. Y’all rock
Excellent work, good production y'all! You probably could have gone an hour and I would still be watching 😉
It's like they say, "Be careful what you wish for" because he certainly got his moment in the light, a light of infamy for being an awful human being. GREAT JOB STEVE AND GN TEAM. I love these journalism pieces because they are always so well put together, well spoken and presented. Such a good video. Keep it uppppppp