Well, here's a good one.
Back in 2002 or so, a guy contacted me claiming to be a rep for the Allman Brothers, and was creating replicas of Duane's amp. Turned out, the whole thing was a scam. He advertised in Vintage Guitar mag, who quickly pulled his ads when they started receiving angry calls. He conned people into endorsing his non-existent amps, as well... they then started gettign a lot of angry calls and emails too.
Around the same time, he organized a benefit concert that the Allman Bros were to play, called the Slider's Ball. For crippled kids. He ran away with the money.
Conned a friend of mine out of a very expensive amp, playing "rep" for the Allman Brothers.
Got me too. Apparently got Gibson guitars for around $15,000 worth of gear as well, but I haven't been able to verify that withthem yet. Tried to get other people I know, as well.
Was
convicted of racketeering, paroled recently, then almost immediately arrested again fro "Theft by Deception" posing as an employee on a sign company local to him.
The guy is pretty well known to us builders in the music community.
So, here's the question. He's back at the Allman Brothers scam again, and trying to start up a new "company", this time, misrepresenting cheap, Asian-made products as either being made by someone who was connected with Duane, or high-dollar boutique Made in USA stuff.
A friend and competitor of mine and I begun to post warnings in our community -- links to the article above, mugshot, and his past history (that we know of) of running scams. It spread like wildfire, and I've been contacted by several people he's duped, and other builders he's tried to scam gear out of.
We both received cease and desist letters, stating that the statements we made are false.
Several people have contacted the current ADA for his current arrest, as well as his parole officer. The guy is pretty well known in his area for this kind of thing. They want him behind bars again.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if our statement aren't false, there isn't much he can do, right? The lawyer who sent the letters was local to me, and said as much when I spoke with him. If the lawyer is aware that this person is a career criminal and is running a scam, would he be helping in the commission of a crime since he's trying to silence us from warning people?
What are the possibilities here?