
Former Motionloft CEO Jon Mills Arrested By The FBI - dutchbrit
http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/20/jon-mills-arrested/
======
jpsilvashy1
Nobody should feel sorry for him, I was the CTO of Motionloft during the first
two years of the company, and before he started stealing from the company (as
far as we know). He is/was the most selfish and delusional person I've ever
met. I hope he ends up in jail for a really long time.

~~~
loceng
Or perhaps gets the help and guidance and mentors he needs now that he's no
longer able to get away with that behaviour?

~~~
adamdavis
I'm just going to support this opinion as I felt in a fairly similar way to
the parent comment and I'm a little disappointed to see you down voted.

I don't see what benefit sending this guy to jail provides other than a simple
avenue for enacting vengeance on someone who behaved poorly. Worst case, he
should have to repay all of his debts and money he swindled. He'll take
whatever lessons from his mistakes that he may.

~~~
rayiner
So the worst case penalty for fraud is possibly having to give back what you
stole? Given a non zero chance of not getting caught, that makes fraud a
positive expected value course of action.

~~~
fidotron
This doesn't sound like it's just fraud, but full on mental delusional stuff.
In that case throwing him in jail is probably not going to help matters by
itself, and he needs doctors. Ideally some mix of the two.

I've known people like this, luckily that didn't get backed, and it can get
incredibly messy. Things like maxing credit cards, identity changes,
disappearing to foreign countries. It's better for everyone in the long run
that this gets sorted properly as he'll just emerge from prison desperate to
get back and will do something worse.

~~~
deong
How does this case sound any different than, say, Bernie Madoff?

On the face of it, it sounds like a much more blatant fraud than Dennis
Kozlowski, the former Tyco CEO who served about 8 years in prison, or Bernie
Ebbers (what is it with guys named "Bernie"?), who is still serving a 25 year
sentence for defrauding WorldCom investors.

People stealing money and behaving erratically when it collapses around them
isn't evidence of mental illness. Maybe he's nuttier than a squirrel hole, but
right now, I don't see any reason to assume he's not just a criminal.

~~~
fidotron
Got to say, your Madoff comparison is annoyingly good.

One main difference is Madoff wasn't alone. He needed the help of a group in
on the conspiracy over a long period of time. Combined with the overall
magnitude and the regulatory failures I'm much more persuaded Madoff had
criminal intent. This case sounds a lot like he was lying to absolutely
everyone all the time (and especially to those closest to him), not that he
was trying to orchestrate some group conspiracy to fleece outsiders of their
cash. The whole story isn't out yet, so maybe there is more, but it sounds to
me like he's one of those people that genuinely believes that if you act rich
you become it.

------
ilamont
From the original TechCrunch report (1):

 _Mills was a first-time entrepreneur, but he had received backing from high-
profile investors like Mark Cuban, and according to the Motionloft website,
the company had secured clients like CVS, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Cushman &
Wakefield.

Several former friends say Mills was also fun to be around and generous about
inviting them to party with him at various music festivals and in places like
Las Vegas.

All of which is why, when Mills started asking friends if they wanted to
invest in his company, a few of them jumped at the opportunity.

They say Mills cashed checks that altogether were worth hundreds of thousands
of dollars, promising them a small percentage of the company. Later, when he
told them an acquisition was imminent, they felt confident they had made the
right decision.

Mills is no longer part of Motionloft (Joyce Rietman is the CEO, effective
December 1), and the validity of the investments his friends made while he was
there is being called into question by earlier investors. As a result, after
months of waiting, those friends now believe that not only was there no
acquisition, but that it is possible they won’t get any of their money back.
..._

 _... Sources say the private performance by Miguel, which cost $100,000, was
never paid for. That was also true of the private jet charters, which included
three separate flights into Vegas and four flights out, and cost nearly
$100,000 altogether.

Justin Sullivan is the CEO of Private FLITE, the private jet service Mills
used to charter the flights in November. He told me that Mills promised
several days in a row he would pay for those flights by wire and later told
Sullivan he would FedEx a check. Neither came.

After multiple attempts to reach Mills on the phone, Sullivan confronted Mills
at his house to demand payment. Mills then wrote two checks for a total of
nearly $294,000, but both bounced, Sullivan told me._

1\. [http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/30/motionloft-jon-
mills/](http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/30/motionloft-jon-mills/)

~~~
thematt
Interesting about Private FLITE. Why would a company like that extend services
without upfront payment? Especially for $100K+...

~~~
tlrobinson
From [http://jonmillsfraud.com/about/](http://jonmillsfraud.com/about/) :

 _tl;dr – Guy gets credit from private aircraft company because of his
connection to super rich baller. Aircraft company boss feels stupid and angry
so puts up a protest site.

Verdict:

Guy is guilty of fraud if he had zero intention to pay. Which seems a bit of a
stupid move. Having said that he seemed in self destruction mode from what
I’ve read.

The Aircraft leasing employee who gave him credit is incompetent for issuing
credit to that degree on his say so. His greed overtook his commercial sense.

Opinion only._

------
staunch
I just hope we don't find out that the only reason the FBI got involved in
this case is that Mark Cuban or another rich person called them in. The FBI is
in danger of becoming the enforcers of the rich and powerful. They already act
as Goldman Sach's volunteer corporate security dept:
[http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2013/09/michael-lewis-
gol...](http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2013/09/michael-lewis-goldman-
sachs-programmer)

~~~
tptacek
I just won a bet! Thanks! As predicted, the top post on an HN thread about the
FBI arresting the fraudster behind Motionloft found a way to criticize law
enforcement; here, because even though Motionloft seems self-evidently to be
an enormous fraud, enforcement of the laws against fraud are merely a tool of
the rich.

~~~
lawnchair_larry
Be careful, you just claimed that Motionloft is an enormous fraud. That's not
what has been established here.

~~~
danielweber
If you mean that he should have said _Mills_ seems to be an enormous fraud,
then yes. Which meets his larger point that _of course_ the FBI should have
called in, because there was still enormous fraud going on.

~~~
staunch
This fraud is "enormous" only compared with a bartender stealing cash out of a
till. It is infinitesimally small in terms of what occurs on a very regular
basis.

------
ChuckMcM
Sad sad story. Feels very bubblish to me as well. I knew a couple of people
who had, what could best be described as a meglomaniac breakdown kind of
experience during the dot com explosion. The person I was closest too seemed
to be so confused/mystified by what ever it was that got people multi-million
dollar IPOs on no revenue or profits that they seem to have decided it was
basically all acting, and they embraced full out meglo-mode. Big parties,
lying about everything, pulling in as much money as they could as fast as they
could and apparently just hoping that "somehow" the magic would happen and no
one would care or something.

~~~
chris_wot
Or it could be outright fraud. I was a victim of a person who made big
promises and I finally had to take them to a debt collector. My sympathy level
for people who do this sort of thing is at a very low ebb.

~~~
danielweber
Some people are taking the extravagant behavior as sign that he's mentally
ill.

But, as you are probably aware, the extravagant behavior could be a cold
deliberate move, an attempt to get people to give him money. "Look, I'm a
rising star, I'm rich, hook yourself up to me." Lots of con artists flash
money to get people to trust them.

~~~
chris_wot
I think the best thing here is to let a court of law determine this. Either
way, a lot of people got hurt. There has to be some level of culpability for
committing a crime.

------
reubensutton
This is an article from a few months ago about the accusations against him:
[http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/30/motionloft-jon-
mills/](http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/30/motionloft-jon-mills/)

The comments have quite a few of his investors discussing the allegations,
which make for interesting reading.

~~~
goldenkey
Thanks for the link. The evidence on that page paints a pretty grim picture
for him.

------
downandout
For those of you wanting to see this guy go away for a long time, you are most
likely going to be disappointed. It sounds like he stole less than $1 million
and will be charged with mail or wire fraud. He will be released on bail, will
plead this out a year or so from now, and will be sentenced to somewhere
between 18 and 36 months in a minimum security federal prison. He may get a
little less than that if he can convince the prosecutor that his conduct was
the result of a drug or gambling addiction (my guess is gambling was an issue
here).

He will have a chance to redeem himself in the not-so-distant future.
Hopefully he will capitalize on it.

~~~
argonaut
Why should we want to see him go away for a long time? We shouldn't. This idea
of "we got to put this person away for decades" is one of the few areas where
I find the European belief (in rehabilitation) to be better (I'm American).

18-36 months, in addition to the fact that he will have a felony on his record
for probably the rest of his life, in addition to the fact that his public
online reputation is destroyed forever, is appropriate.

~~~
AJ007
Can con men be rehabilitated? If they are, can you tell the difference?

~~~
paulhauggis
can a drug dealer?

------
duck
I'm sure I'm suppose to know who the other guy in the picture is (I don't),
but when you feature a person in an article and then show two people in the
lead photo... you really should give that photo a caption so we know who was
arrested and who has nothing to do with the story.

~~~
danielweber
I only know because someone linked to a prior techcrunch article in this
thread: [http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/30/motionloft-jon-
mills/](http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/30/motionloft-jon-mills/)

He's R&B singer Miguel, who I guess you kids are listening to these days.

------
johnvschmitt
This looks to be fraud & lies (not just a business failing amidst unrealistic
hope.) And, huge waste (not ramen).

It's good to see justice to help keep the investment environment clean.

------
pbreit
We had a MotionLoft installed in our store and while it was not tremendous
value to us, it struck me as a pretty decent idea. Crazy story, though.

------
goldenkey
Gotta love that 'startup culture'

------
danbmil99
I doubt very much that Cuban was the one reaching out to the FBI. In
situations like this, the "rich & powerful" often use their power and
influence to sweep things under the rug, avoiding scandal and the shame of
being a dupe to a grifter.

More likely, someone with half a brain on the BOD or within the co. realized
everyone was going to be super-screwed really soon, and better to be in front
of the wave doing the right thing. Sure, Cuban's involvement may have
accelerated the process (people are human, fame has an impact) but I suspect
something like this would have happened regardless (might not be featured on
YC news with a cast of nobodys)

------
tlrobinson
I'm reminded of Shirley Hornstein: [http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/28/talented-
shirley-hornstein/](http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/28/talented-shirley-
hornstein/)

How do these people think they can get away with this sort of thing? Are they
just completely delusional, or does this kind of outright fraud sometimes work
out for them?

------
dirkdk
Well, with so much focus on news about tech companies worth billions, do
people become too optimistic and blind for sheer con artists?

------
hoilogoi
Part of me wonders whether
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6967516](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6967516)
was related. This is all very sobering.

------
pan69
Every industry has it's charlatans. If you invest, do you due diligence even
it concerns a friend you're investing in. It's just business, not personal as
they say.

------
jklib
I remember reading about his apparent escapades a month or so ago. Guess there
was some truth to the stories after all.

------
rosenjon
As my dad is fond of saying, "He who takes what isn't hisn must give it back
AND go to prison".

