From: Mike Bryant [mailto:mbryantlf@*.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2003 12:25 AM
To: colosus@tribalwar.com
Subject: Website Donations
My son asked to borrow my Paypal account to donate to your site. My firm deals in all kinds of cases representing people who are victims of internet fraud.
If need be are you prepared to present documentation and proof of what has been doanted, as well as what it has been spent on, i.e. a break down with receipts, etc?
-Mike Bryant
Matthew DeWald <colosus@tribalwar.com> wrote:
I keep a record of all major purchases made from donations. However, we honestly don’t get very many monetary donations. We get bandwidth and rackspace donated from HomeLAN and our servers were bought with donation money from 2 years ago, but as it stands now we receive less than a few hundred dollars a year in donations. And that money sits in the paypal account until it is needed.
Most recently we purchased an upgrade to vBulletin for another 2 years and paid for a 5 year extension on domain registration. Other than that, nothing has been done with the money. I can not provide more detailed information than that as this is really just a hobby of mine. If you have any further, specific questions, I will be glad to respond to you as soon as possible. Thank you.
Matthew ‘Colosus’ DeWald
Administrator
www.tribalwar.com
From: Mike Bryant [mailto:mbryantlf@*.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2003 11:23 AM
To: Matthew DeWald
Subject: RE: Website Donations
I really appreciate you being open and honest in this matter. I'd never seen the site before until my son mentioned donating to it. Unfortunately, although judging by what I've read on the site, it's run by kids for the most part, one of my responsibilities is to actually find cases that could possibly be construed as internet fraud, as not only do we represent victims of said fraud, but also assist federal prosecutors in researching information to initiate cases.
I've noticed that there are about 204 people listed on your "supporters" page, so the math there says that most of them probably did not only donate one dollar, and when looking at similar cases to scale we go by a ten dollar average to set the wheels in motiong, which as you can see adds up to more than a few hundred dollars.
Sadly, it's my responsibility to pass this along to the next bit of authority, as well as any evidence or communication I've had with anyone in the matter, which would include some members that are listed on the supporters page.
Best of luck, and my two bits of advice to you would be to get together any evidence of how the money was spent and how much was taken in, and just be prepared to answer some questions that may be posed by the next person that contacts you about the matter, which I would imagine will be less than a couple weeks from now.
-Mike Bryant
You realize that the site has been run for almost 4 years and most of those donations were made during a large donation drive to get our servers, which earned us over 8000 dollars. I have the receipts to prove that purchase 2 years ago. Feel free to pass on any information you wish to you “higher authorities”. However, I take this as a direct insult. I am not committing fraud and I am willing to prove that however I can.
Thank you for your time.
Matthew DeWald
Administrator
www.tribalwar.com
From: Mike Bryant [mailto:mbryantlf@*.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2003 12:29 PM
To: Matthew DeWald
Subject: RE: Website Donations
There's no reason to feel as tohugh you have been insulted Matthew. You aren't accused of anything. As I said, it's just my position to seek out issues that could possibly lead to "wrong doing" and this site fits the criteria. I have no doubt that you're on the up and up, and there's an equally good chence that everyone will agree, there will be no need for a second look. But it's also my responsibility to pass this along, especially since there is no real online documentation to show that these people donating are actually helping to support the site and not you.
I'm sure things will work out fine.
The problem is that I have no obligation to show that these people are donating to the site and not to me. It is a donation not a payment. We are not a non-profit organization and as such, I have no requirements to display our purchases for public scrutiny. The insulting part is your assumption that we are a bunch of “kids”. That was the least professional thing you could have said.
If you would kindly provide me information on your “firm”, including your phone number, manager’s name and contact information as well as you salary and what you spend your money on (since we’re just comparing notes to make sure you’re on the up and up). Thank you again for your time.
Matthew DeWald
Administrator
www.tribalwar.com
:huh:
