Complaint Review: Fashion Rock - Orlando Florida

Obviously, I am not Jason Hoffman, nor am I Juan Stumofu; however, Jason Hoffman is Juan Stumofu. It was stipulated without Hoffman's consent because Pearlman knew that Defrawy had ordered Hoffman to file bogus ripoffreports. [Ripoff Report- please put recorded "sound-bites" where Alec Defrawy instucts people to sign in and to post phony Ripoff Reports HERE.] This is an email Jason Hoffman has floating around. Evidently he is proud that he is a scam artist once again. This time for weatherbug.com, hoping we will forget that Hoffman was part of the Defrawy crew who piled up a heap of bogus charges at other companies. Weatherbug is a recipient of Defrawy's stolen fees through Hoffman who processed those cards through this scamming company. It also does no good to report these infractions because of the corruption of Lou Pearlman, Alec Defrawy (and his minions), Michael Zwebner and Steve Miller. This website has also inform us that some of their felonious connection are cropping up, like Miller's in-house counsel Chris McFarland and Zwebner's unethical attorney, Cooper. It has been demonstrated that law enforcement does not prosecute these scoundrels. Some reports here give us the answer; that John MacGregor, who got himself positioned to replace Jacqueline Dowd, is in the back pocket of Pete Antonacci, who is part of the Jeb Bush organized crime network reported by several journalists. Here is just one example: http://www.newcriminologist.co.uk/news.asp?id=1185989364 Meanwhile, consumers continue to be ripped off by ever-growing numbers of schemes by this corrupt cartel. Meanwhile, Weatherbug.com is under contract with AOL to be allowed to access their customers computers via their spyware. Jay admits to posting bogus reports to throw off their detractors. Now these shysters have the means to screw even greater numbers of victims. Even if AOL customers deselect the weatherbug program it still load onto their computers allowing stealthy surveillance via their spyware which has been surreptiously included in their computers, sometimes doing grave damage to their computers also. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 06:18:34 -0700 (PDT) From: jay the benny Subject: well, the Model 1 cat is out of the bag To: edward , michele presley , TJ so one of my jobs here is to be the chief advocate on spyware/privacy issues - whenever someone says something about us being spyware I go and attack them, much the way i've attacked people over the years at M1 and TCT. I am the company pitbull apparently. so the other day my boss, the VP of Product, and the chief attorney who is also the CPO (chief privacy officer) invite me to lunch to discuss spyware stuff. I'm going with 4 other staff to las vegas next week for the huge NetWorld conference (i know- me at a computer conference when my computer skills are about 1 level above edwards'- it's pretty funny!- i'm just going to deal with any spyware stuff) so I think, okay, they just want to go over everything I may need to know before Vegas. so we go to lunch yesterday and I bring all my printouts and stuff, and I notice that as I'm passing out papers and asking questions, they don't seem real into it..... so then the attorney, who I'm good friends with and work with regularly says "well, actually we're not here to talk about spyware......we know about the Virginia modeling agnecy stuff"-"- and I am thinking "gee, I picked a bad day not to wear my Depends because these guys are about to "Jerry maguire" me and fire me at lunch"- now, you may remember that about 9 months ago WeatherBug fired some dude and in retaliation he found out about the Model 1 stuff and posted a bunch of ridiculous lies about me (and my friend Mike) on ripoffreport. 1 of the claims was that somehow there was credit card fraud at TCT- and since I have access to credit cards here at wxbug, this was a threat to all our customers. so they said "we know that most of what he wrote was not true, but the credit card allegation concerns us because you DO have access to credit cards here." so i told them it was 100% bullshit- the guy just found out that I had this achilles heel so he figured he'd make up whatever he could. and they said "well, normally it would be cause for concern, but we checked and could find nothing about any credit card abuse at the florida companies, and more importantly, you've been a great employee, very loyal, and a great advocate on all these forums and writing to customers who hear the 'spyware' rumors and correcting them, so we're putting the issue to bed." the good news is the attorney understands the consent order and obviously he could tell it was weak since they settled for 60K total. and obviously they had a feeling the credit card 'claim' in the ripoffreport was bullshit. so on the way back as I was walking to my office, my boss turns to me and says "don't worry about it- it's closed." but boy, for about 10 minutes there I was wishing I brought my Depends. so, I hope everything on your end is better! hear you're supposed to get some rain today. we'll be down in December- amy and i are going to disney for a few days b/c 1) she's a huge disney fan and 2) i had to use my USairways tix before those idiots go bankrupt again. say hi to cami and val. Jay ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Well Jay, if you screw enough people, eventually KARMA will catch to you. The show is now on the other foot... and screw the rest of your comrades.. Michael Zwebner, Steve Miller, Chris McFarland, Alec Defrawy, Lou Pearlman, Pete Antonacci, and whoever joins their unethical cause. Until then, Heaven help us all.

...and released my personal data to people trying to sue me for doing what they told me to do. I will not be the TCT/Fashion Rock scapegoat for this mess... and I let them know almost 8 months ago. Beware, Garett McClure and Lori Gayne! Antonacci got his buddy, MacGregor, of the Florida Attorney General's Office, to release your confidential files and they will be after you next. What happens to you will be the result of you trying to do the right thing. Silly you. -----Original Message----- From: Juan Stumofu Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 5:43 PM To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Cc: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Misconceptions about my involvement with MSA/I-Model Dear Lou, Greg, Mark, Rene, Richard and Terri: I am truly saddened to be writing to you under these circumstances. As you know, for over 3 years I poured my heart and soul into the company. From the too frequent nights spent sleeping on Alec's office couch during the early days as we built the company from 6 people, to the equally sleepless weekends running every convention, I believed wholeheartedly that we were truly creating a world class company that would revolutionize the industry. When I made the decision to leave back in early June, I was saddened at having to leave coworkers who had become good friends. But I made the decision to leave based primarily on the growing feeling that the company was making short-term decisions that would have significant long term negative implications. Had I truly believed we were growing in the right direction, any reasonable offer in Maryland would have paled in comparison to the opportunites I once believed existed at TCT. I came down to Orlando in early 2000 with 2 goals- to help set up the infrastructure of the company and identify and hire managment to run it successfully (allowing me to return to Maryland), and to help get the company in the position to go public, thereby allowing me to cash in some stock in exchange for taking a far lower salary than market value would have dictated for what became a 50 million dollar company. I think I succeeded on both counts, but sadly some of the policies of recent months since the TCT/Options merger have caused the stock to be worthless, making my former stock options worth less than the paper they were written on, and setting up the company for future legal entanglements for which I will not be a party to. Some of you might ask, why did you not voice these concerns to us? Many times I did. Rene, Richard, Evan, Joe, Terri, Tom, Armand and many others can testify to the numerous times I objected to verbage in sales scripts, training manuals, talent booklets, etc. and those changes WERE implemented. The entire IT department can testify to the dozens of times when they had to call the printers to literally pull manuals off the presses when I objected to language I believed had the 'capacity to mislead consumers'. When I ran customer support for about 6 months, Chris Jackson, then the #1 TE almost every week, was terminated (as were other TEs upon my insistence), when I became convinced he and they were lying to customers, despite the negative effect it had on our sales to let them go. I would not compromise my principles nor would I put myself in a position to possibly violate my Consent Order with the FTC for the sake of a few more sales. As my duties shifted to running the franchises and, for the last year, to helping run the conventions, approving all purchases, and being in charge of the day to day facilities operations, I was less in touch with specific aspects of our accounting systems or the sales floor. However, when I began to hear from VERY reliable sources that some of the following were occurring, I felt it was best, after my complaints fell on deaf ears, to look for other employment opportunities, which led me back to Maryland. I felt heartbroken over having to even consider my own interests above the companies, but in May when I discussed my concerns with Edward, he told me he felt it was time for both of us to consider leaving. I knew then that I had no choice but to gain other employment. Among the issues I discovered were taking place that caused me grave concern were: 'cashflow' games and check 'issues'; allowing credit card information to sit practically unguarded so that on 2 or 3 different occasions we had employees, from TEs to IT staff, illegally using our customers' cards for personal use; allowing Transcon Record employees to be added to TCT payroll when all or almost of their job responsibilities had nothing to do with TCT; questionable franchise sales to groups with which top executives had private side-deals; and now, just 2 days ago I see on google, ads for talent that CLEARLY misrepresent the fact that you are in the business of booking talent. Last time I checked, TCT strongly proclaimed it was not a casting or booking agency, because you are not. Has TCT/WSN gotten a talent license in Florida- because my understanding is it's a felony to misrepresent that someone is able to procure work for talent? I always thought we were a website where licensed agents could look for talent to represent and book on jobs. Maybe I was wrong or you have radically changed the structure of the company in the 3 months since I left. Then, to my utter dismay, and the impetus for this letter; I am called by people in Orlando who inform me that they heard me mentioned in last Thursday's Channel 6 story as one of "three former consultants to the company who left to start I-Model (sp?)." Essentially, the company is attempting to blame all its terrible publicity and the ongoing questionable practices on me, Alec and Edward because of our 'checkered' pasts. And since David Elliott was still on your payroll at the time I know you were not referring to him as the 3rd consultant. I cannot speak for Edward or Alec, but let me be 100% unmistakably clear. I have never, ever, had any involvement in any capacity in a company called I-Model, imodel, or however it is spelled, nor with the recent mass exodus of personnel to a venture in conjunction with Model Search America. And all of you know that. Considering TCT employee David Miller drove 15 hours with me from Orlando to set up my apartment in MARYLAND, and the fact that I've given out my current employers' email address in case people needed to ask me questions about TCT-related business, it was clear I had nothing to do with this other company and was happily employed in an industry totally unrelated to modeling. I have not even set foot in the state of Florida since June 24th. I do not know what I did to deserve to be thrown under the bus the other night on television. I do not what lapse of ethics would allow you to run ads clearly meant to lead consumers to believe you are casting extra roles. I had a nice talk with Wendy Saltzman, the reporter, and she clearly was led to believe by information you are supplying to her and the AG that I was involved in the MSA/I-Model fiasco. You know this to be false and it will cease today. I will consider speaking to the AG to set her straight as well if need be, to clear my name. I am sorry to have to take that tone, but every one of you knows I have been happily living 1000 miles from Florida with NOTHING to do with modeling since mid-June and to try to blame me for the mistakes of the past few months is entirely unacceptable. The coworkers I had the honor of working with should be lauded, not laid off en masse. How many companies have employees who literally break down in tears when they are not able to deliver on a promise to a customer? Not many, but I remember plenty of times at conventions or in customer service when I would literally see people in tears because they believed so wholeheartedly in the dream we built, and because they truly wanted to do nothing more than deliver on the promise to our customers. But 'the bottom line' of being a public company too often put profits and 'quarterly revenue' ahead of delivering on our service. I left TCT 3 months ago repeating the same mantra over and over: "I am leaving to return to D.C. where I'm from, and to work for a growing company where my best friend works." NOBODY knew that the real reason I was looking for a new job was that I had grown weary of fighting to keep the company from crossing legal or ethical lines I did not wish to cross. NOBODY knew that when I became aware of the accounting and other improprieties, I felt I had no choice, given the FTC Consent Order I'd signed, but to look for other work. NOBODY knew that Edward advised me when I approached him with my concerns in May, to find something else. I chose to keep this to myself at the time for the sake of the company I loved. Why you could not return the same dignity to me, but instead chose to spread falsehoods about my current employment, I do not know. I wish you all the best of luck. Should the google ads and accounting games continue, I fear you will need it. With deepest regret, Juan Stumofu

I am the inside person giving Juan the info. This is ALL true. Pete Antonacci is Lou's General; commanding Steve Miller, Alec Defrawy and Michael Zwebner. Iwas the one who passed the information to Juan. If you want to check out public record on the antics of Andrew Cooper in Miami. Chris MacFarland has been disbarred in Pennsylvania. Inquiries can be made to the state bar.