Judgment is for $1.37 million and 5.19 bitcoin.
A U.S. Federal District Court in Western Washington has ordered (pdf) former Epik CEO Rob Monster to pay $1.37 million and return 5.19 bitcoin to a domain investor.
Luigi Marruso sued Monster, Epik, and Masterbucks in September last year. He claimed that the company held proceeds from his domain sales and refused to disburse the money to him upon his request.
Last week, the court entered a judgment in Marruso’s favor for claims of fraudulent misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, conversion, violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act, and replevin (related to the bitcoin property).
The court dismissed claims for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and RICO claims.
Marruso has only asked for his money back, and the court issued a judgment in that amount. At today’s bitcoin price, Marruso is owed $1.94 million in total.
The Epik entity and Masterbucks company that Marruso sued are not currently active, meaning the judgment will likely fall on Monster. Collecting will likely be a challenge.
he is not going to prison in Gitmo?
Monster price for Monster of a person!
I still don’t get it.
Specifically, how it would be anything more than “lunch money” for Rob to do the right thing and just pay what is owed.
Everything described about his personal history suggests he would probably be holding many millions even before doing Epik.
As a Bitcoin supporter, everything suggests he must be sitting on many millions in Bitcoin alone.
So just pay people and sail happily into the sunset with just a few less million.
Yes, I’m completely familiar with crazy attitudes, crying poverty, insane beliefs about “never sell your Bitcoin, ever,” asset holding arrangements to try to convince oneself or others that it’s only poverty, poverty, poverty, etc. That’s a given.
But when it comes to basic nuts and bolts reality and facts, I can’t believe for one moment that Rob merely doing the right thing with everyone with a legitimate would not simply leave Rob still a rich man, even very rich by most people’s conception of what it means to be rich.
Just pay people what they’re owed and do the right thing. No doubt some of them are far worse off.
Is that not so? Did I miss anything?
Yes, you’re missing the point that he thinks he was entitled to take customers’ money and now he sees himself as the victim.
And because he believes he’s the victim, he has no intention of paying back a single cent. It’s not about whether he has the funds or not, it’s a matter of “principle” for him.
From a DomainNameWire article published on May 15:
“In the event that this case does go to trial, defendants will seek reasonable discovery from Mr. Adkisson and his previous counsel, Perkins Coie LLP, as well as other parties who may have a vested interest in the impairment of Epik Holdings Inc, or the professional reputation of Robert W. Monster, including Guidepost Solutions, Marc Elias/Elias Law Group, General Michael Hayden, Fusion GPS, Psy-group, Wikistrat, Black Cube, Whiteknight, Project Rome, Archimedes Group, Project Sentinel, Cambridge Analytica, NSO Group, Protexer, Salix Services AG, the Central Intelligence Agency, Chase Bank, Allied Defense LLC, Burr Forman LLP, Willoughby & Hoefer P.A, Joel Zamel and George Nader or any of their successors, proxies, representatives, or affiliates during the period of March 2022 and March 2025.”