Millionaire Within. E. Brian Rose

walked in and arrogantly said she needed to paint George’s building. She was a location manager for a major production company. A few weeks later, I was back in town and on the set of a John Travolta movie. Things were great.

      Then a speed bump.

      George called one morning and told me the company was being sued by eBay for using the word “Bay” in the name. After a short battle, BidBay gave up and turned the trademark and domain name over. But that didn’t stop George. After some regrouping and under a new name of AuctionDiner, the company went forward, raising even more millions.

      The money was coming from a private placement memorandum, or PPM. A team of fast talking, market savvy telemarketers were calling private investors and telling them of the great potential the site had. This was 1999 and money was flowing all over the dot com world, so I never thought twice about it. There was talk of an IPO and I was holding a ton of shares. I was going to be rich. Life was good.

      Then it wasn’t.

      Almost four months into my employment and despite a one year employment contract, George called to tell me I was fired. I couldn’t believe it. The company implemented just about every marketing idea I threw out there and the site was growing rapidly. This was absurd. He even wanted my stock back, saying I didn’t finish the required one year of employment in order to keep the shares. I was pissed, but wasn’t going down without a fight.

      I did what every good Jewish boy from Boston would do. I lawyered up and filed suit.

      George had an insurance policy that covered lawsuits like these and the case was quickly settled. As I recall, the settlement was around a hundred thousand dollars. Of course, the lawyers got a good chunk of that, but a fair share still went into my pocket. I also got a good bit of the stock back. There was still hope for me to make millions off of this online auction site. I paid close attention to what the company was doing, in hopes of hearing those three wonderful letters: IPO.

      Months later, George and I made amends. Despite the fact that he tried to screw me, I missed the guy. He was like a cartoon character, full of life and very spontaneous. He asked me to once again work for him and come up with a redesign for the site. I flew out to meet with him and Yvonne at their new house - a hillside mansion, complete with tennis courts and Arabian horses. Call me crazy, but I took the job. No contract this time, just a project that took about three months to complete and paid a pretty good penny.

      In 2000, the dot com bubble had burst. The chances of an IPO were now slim to none. George and I spoke less and less, but I still kept my ears open. I was a shareholder and I still had hope that I would make my fortune with this company.

      Years later, I got a call from George. Once again, he wanted to hire me. By this time, I was living in Las Vegas and well into the next chapter of my life. But Tujunga was just a few hours away, so I made the drive in to hear what ol’ Georgie had to say.

      He was looking for a new direction. eBay was stronger than ever and many smaller online auction sites failed at taking on the giant. BidBay / AuctionDiner was one of them.

      This was right around the time when social media was sprouting up. MySpace was in its heyday and people were starting to talk about a site called FaceBook. My idea for George was to socialize the site. Make it more of a community where buyers and sellers could interact. Turn it into the “MySpace of auction sites”.

      George loved the idea and offered me a good deal of money to handle the redesign. I took the deal, but this time, I outsourced all the work. George and his team loved the final product. They relaunched the site under the new name of AuctionCities. This was an idea that I believed could work. I had new hope for that stock certificate collecting dust in my file cabinet.

      Again, the months went by and George and I talked less and less. The site and George were almost out of my mind completely, when I caught an article online saying he was being sued for fraud.

      All those millions the company was raking in, the mansion on the hill… well, apparently, things weren’t on the up and up. He was sued by investors, who claimed they were lied to. I read about some investors being told the company was on the verge of being bought by eBay. Others said they were told former President George Bush was on the board of directors. The stories got more and more farfetched. In the end, George and company lost and so went his money, the company, and my hopes of ever cashing in.

      It has been about seven years since I spoke to George. When I started writing this book, I decided it was time I give him a call. I was planning to catch up on some old stories and make sure I was accurate in my retelling of them.

      The number I had for George was his private cell phone number. He had the same number for many years, so I was surprised to hear the disconnected recording when I called. Looking for a new number, I Googled him. I could not believe what I found. Wait. That’s not entirely true. I certainly did believe it and wasn’t at all surprised.

      George was behind bars.

      It seems the former IRS agent was busted by current IRS agents. SEC investigators, too.

      According to prosecutors, George did not disclose to investors that half their money was going to telemarketers as commission. Another portion was, apparently, going directly to George; nearly $3 million of it. That money was not reported as income.

      George pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and filing a false tax return. He was sentenced to almost three years in federal prison and ordered to pay back $8.8 million to 216 investors.

      As for the Corvette George gave me – ironically, I ended up selling it on eBay, of all places. I used the money for a down payment on a new house.

      I still have that stock certificate.

      CHAPTER 5

      MY FIRST MEDIA FRENZY

      While working with George, I developed a good relationship with the third party software developer that created the auction engine for BidBay. After George and I split and prior to the settlement, I decided to use the same technology and take a shot at starting my own auction site. I created the design and called it “DutchBid”.

      I didn’t have any money to promote the new site, so I had to think outside the box. The timing was actually perfect. While vegging out on the couch, I came across a very interesting news story about Kevin Mitnick, the man known as the first hacker to be jailed for his hacking crimes in the United States.

      Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about him:

       In 1979, he broke into his first computer. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Near the end of his supervised release, Mitnick hacked into Pacific Bell voice mail computers. After a warrant was issued for his arrest, Mitnick fled, becoming a fugitive for two and a half years.

       According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Mitnick gained unauthorized access to dozens of computer networks while he was a fugitive. He used cloned cellular phones to hide his location and, among other things, copied valuable proprietary software from some of the country’s largest cellular telephone and computer companies. Mitnick also intercepted and stole computer passwords, altered computer networks, and broke into and read private e-mail. Mitnick was apprehended on February 15, 1995 in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was found with cloned cellular phones, more than 100 clone cellular phone codes, and multiple pieces of false identification.

       Mitnick served five years in prison — four and a half years pre-trial and eight months in solitary confinement — because, according to Mitnick, law enforcement officials convinced a judge that he had the ability to “start a nuclear war by whistling into a pay phone”, meaning that law enforcement told the judge that he could somehow dial into the NORAD modem via a payphone from prison and communicate with the modem by whistling to launch nuclear missiles.

      He was released on January 21, 2000. In December of that year, Mitnick tried to raise some funds by selling a variety of items on eBay. He listed one of his cell phones, a small computer, and two of his prison identification cards. eBay decided