DavidVincent
Honorable
The ability to scam isn’t quite so easy these days !
Gene Steinberg's Financial Shenanigans @ Paracast forums
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Double Nought Spy
Celestial
Man, that's a disappointment. I'd have thought Randle was all done with Slimeberg. He has got to know what he's all about.
My opinion of Captain Randle is slipping. Right off a cliff.
Paul Kimball
Adept
Here’s the thing - most people aren’t aware. I wasn’t aware of the full extent of Gene’s begging until last summer, largely because I never received a begging email. He did hit me up for a loan years ago when I was a guest with him and Biedny, but I told him never to do it again, and he didn’t. At one point I broke with him, but that was more over the Emma Woods story than the begging, which I always thought of as a ramped up version of what Jim Moseley used to do.* Until Jack’s excellent reportage, along with following the Scheme Gene Research Group at the behest of my chums Tim Binnall and Aaron Gulyas, I had no idea of the really disreputable stuff Gene had done. Truth is, most people just don’t pay any real attention. I suspect Kevin is in that group, along with people like Vallee and Jerry Clark, both of whom appeared on the show in recent years.
You would be surprised how little researchers know about all of the various characters in ufology. I did the Jeff Rense show years ago, thinking it was just another show that everyone seemed to do. It was only after appearing on it that I took a casual look at his website and quickly realised, to my horror, that he was a raving anti-Semite. Live and learn.
* Moseley told me before he died that Gene wasn’t an evil person, just a guy one far too obsessed with get rich schemes.
Paul Kimball
Adept
Double Nought Spy
Celestial
Thanks. I should have caught that. Been following Kevin's work for many years. I consider him a model researcher because he is scrupulously honest, extremely thorough, and takes ownership of his mistakes. Not that I agree with all of his conclusions, but he seems like the last person in ufology to make things up or try to blame someone else for something he did. Yes, pretty much the exact opposite of Steinberg. I guess I assumed Kevin followed Jack's blog even though I know better than to assume such things.
Thanks too for the information you have posted in the past week or so about your own dealings with Steinberg. I must say I was puzzled by what little I knew about them, but it all makes sense now.
Rense is a good example of one of the worst aspects of the circus we call ufology. I used to see links to that show all the time, and went to the site frequently until I discovered the mental illness. Yuck.
DavidVincent
Honorable
Anders - can we please have an update on the current status of the storefront now?
Thank you
goblin
Noble
Thanks for sharing that background; interesting.
I have come to think of Gene as a pretty bad guy, I have to say. I don't think he's the worst sort of person but he's pretty bad. Flaking out on his financial obligations, constantly trying to wheedle money out of the unsuspecting under false pretenses... it just destroys trust and is so counter to any social agreements we have.
Meanwhile his attacks on anyone who points these things out are obnoxious in the extreme. He just seems constitutionally dishonest, and I cannot abide that.
At the same time he does seem like a bungler. Maybe some of his 'sins' are more of ineptitude and haplessness than willful disregard for his obligations to others. But on the evidence at hand the past couple decades of his life feature him taking advantage of the goodwill of others over and over. Not a bug but a feature, as they say. Disregard, malice, or maybe he's just an inveterate fuck up; regardless he's burning people right and left.
I do wonder sometime what part his wife plays in the dynamic, mostly because Chris O'Brien once said "she has Gene by the short hairs", or something to that effect (this was a comment at the UFO Trail blog; I'd have to dig for it). But of course it would be convenient for Gene to blame things on his wife - look at the recent gonzo exchanges with Papa Bum Bum where Gene multiple times invoked Barbara as wanting to know one piece of information or another, rather than Gene himself just asking for that info.
Your Moseley comments remind me of the comments Lance (Moody afaik) made here, now lost, that Moseley told him giving Gene cash would be throwing good money after bad.
People like Erickson have appealed to Gene to come clean and turn over a new leaf but Gene refuses to acknowledge any problems with his behavior, so I don't see it happening. Presumably the begging either still gets him a few dollars (my guess) and he doesn't consider the hit his reputation takes, or it's compulsive behavior.
He's been quiet for a few days as I write this. I found myself wondering if he has been arrested for something, or actually is residing in his car, but I have to believe it's business as usual for him and the familiar email will return any time now.
goblin
Noble
I seem unable to comment at the Paracast forum any more (not sure why, but that's fine), but I found the comments from USI Calgary, below, interesting. As I recall he was criticizing any characterization of his work on the Paracast as a "hobby" not too long ago (which I thought was silly). He also recently alluded to the possibility of getting paid for his contributions there someday. And yet he doesn't know or care to know the legal status or structure of the Paracast?
Oh, right. Gene's trustworthy. Neither of his previous co-hosts appear to have any regrets over working with him. Why bother yourself with the details?
Oh, right. Gene's trustworthy. Neither of his previous co-hosts appear to have any regrets over working with him. Why bother yourself with the details?
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DavidVincent
Honorable
I seem unable to comment at the Paracast forum any more (not sure why, but that's fine), but I found the comments from USI Calgary, below, interesting. As I recall he was criticizing any characterization of his work on the Paracast as a "hobby" not too long ago (which I thought was silly). He also recently alluded to the possibility of getting paid for his contributions there someday. And yet he doesn't know or care to know the legal status or structure of the Paracast?
Oh, right. Gene's trustworthy. Neither of his previous co-hosts appear to have any regrets over working with him. Why bother yourself with the details?
yes I seem to have been periodically disabled from replying - except an option to upload file attachments in reply, maybe that's the way to go if one could be bothered? - but personally I can't be. But hey look things seem to be changing in response to quite reasonable comments/questions. The store is suspended - after all those months of work by Anders. GS has been absent for days, no GS e-begging, and JRM's responses have been uncharacteristically brief. So maybe some things have sunk in? Or is it just the lull before the next e-beg storm?
Standingstones
Celestial
When I saw that Linda Godfrey was to appear on the Paracast a couple of weeks ago, I sent her an email. I explained to her what Steinberg was really about. She ended up getting the email too late, but she did reply back. She stated that she only knew that Steinberg was in some financial difficulties. She didn’t know about all the seedy details. I did send her a link to the UFO Trail blog. I guess we will have to see if she really got the gist of what is going on.
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DavidVincent
Honorable
well at least he didn't hit her up personally then I assume? be nice to see if she turns up sometime
DavidVincent
Honorable
I think the next guest is an old-timer buddy of GS's?
Standingstones
Celestial
Kevin Randle’s appearance is a big let down. He probably is oblivious to what Steinberg is doing, or let us hope he doesn’t know.
nivek
As Above So Below
Yep sounds like you both have been censored, an admin only has the ability to switch off a member's ability to post whilst allowing other functions to remain in place...Gene or Randall or both in agreement switched you guys off...
...
goblin
Noble
I really think it is hard for people to get the problems with Gene. My own biased opinions here of course - I think the Internet reading style many have is to just kind of glance at things. We want the headline, the summary, or failing that maybe a video. Tweet-size it for us. I am not trying to criticize Linda Godfrey here mind you, not at all - it's easy to just think "Oh, Gene Steinberg has financial difficulties", which is likely true, and certainly what Gene would like everyone to think. You have to spend some time with things like the UFO Trail blog posts to start seeing the pattern of behavior with the begging, the dishonesty, the sordid history, and so on. It's kind of a lot to ask of people to go through it all.
Really if people would just view the last year's worth of beg email screenshots at @SchemeGeneRC, hopefully they'd realize how bizarre this all is. I mean, I think the best case to excuse the begging at this point is that it's 'merely' pathological behavior. WTF.
goblin
Noble
Well I'm not surprised. I kept expecting to get banned (not that I was even that provocative, but I'd had many comments deleted or censored - my favorite was the discovery that just quoting the title from Gene's beg email led to the comment being deleted - it's OK for him to send them, not OK for anyone to mention them!).
Maybe they figured this "switched off" state was more insulting than being banned.
goblin
Noble
The day I will believe Gene might actually be having the kind of serious troubles he claims is when he fail to produce the Paracast each week.
If he can manage to crank out not one but typically two podcasts a week, how bad can things really be?
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pigfarmer
tall, thin, irritable
By their own admission there is a ".... discouraged list, which kills performance when trying to access the forum and persuades them to move elsewhere" In my experience after login it was like wading hip deep through mud.
When I first asked about it I got "I really don’t know why. It works well enough for me."
They have some tools in the box. Of course, when you're using them on the very few people who bother to log in anymore that says something.
goblin
Noble
Hah, discouraged! Indeed. I didn't know about that.
GhostofBiedny
Celestial
I have to wholeheartedly agree here.
Gene is not just an unfortunate guy who has these mishaps. Neither is he purely someone who is mentally ill and can't help himself.
Obviously there may be components of these issues but the extremely aggressive way in which he suppresses any discussion of his behaviour illustrates how he realises that his behaviour is at best unethical and in some cases criminal.
Let's remember he has done actual harm to people:
1. The numerous landlords that he has left without thousands of dollars of rent. These are not necessarily rich people who can take that hit.
2. The way he screwed that Torson fellow for $44k then callously got the debt discharged in bankruptcy.
3. The fact that he spent years raising money off the back of his brother in laws criminal defence dishonestly and even then ended up keeping the money himself (causing them to fall out).
4. The characterization of the BIL's victims as vengeful etc when they were victims of a crime.
5. The blind eye turned to the BIL's theft of money from his dying father in law.
6. His numerous roles in the BIL's company which seemed designed to help him keep going and stop the company being shut down. I'm still not convinced that Gene didn't at least have knowledge of what was happening - he would have had to have seen the books and bank accounts - indeed it is hard to believe Gene wasn't involved in the whole thing.
7. His committing of company fraud by setting up a company for the BIL in his own name so he could start a new business when he came out of prison - something which is illegal and yet Gene happily admits to it. Not only that he brought the BIL onto the Paracast under false pretences soon afterward (no mention of his relationship to him) as some kind of gold expert so he could plug this new scam. Even DB was not told this was his BIL.
8. The way he got his co hosts to do most of the work for the Paracast but never gave them any of the subscription or advertising money.
9. There are numerous other examples - the hard part is remembering them because Gene is so prolific in his misbehaviour and mistreatment of others it is hard to keep up. He floods you with his bad behaviour.
This is all indicative of someone who has absolutely no regard for other people. It seems to be characteristic of someone who is a sociopath.
Not all sociopaths commit multimillion dollar frauds. The vast majority just do low level stuff which may not rise to the level of getting attention from law enforcement but is still devastating to all those who come in contact with them.
I therefore have no sympathy for Gene anymore.
He knows what he is doing and he chooses to keep on doing it. He doesn't care who he hurts or how. All that matters to him is that he gets what he wants.
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