Prenda
The snake is changing its skin again. Your new personal extortionist will be “Anti-Piracy Law Group”
In the beginning¹, it was “Steele Hansmeier”. The name “Steele” became poisonous as Johns’ disrepute spread around the country’s federal judicial districts. Exactly one year ago (on December 13, 2011) “Steele Hansmeier” was dissolved. A couple of months prior to that John Steele created “Prenda Law,” using his acquaintance Paul Duffy as a nominal, fake CEO: only his name, signature and occasional court appearances were required. Paul Hansmeier decided to retreat into a shadow of the scam and pull the strings from there. John Steele “officially” retired too, de facto remaining Prenda’s day-to-day executive. He likes do decline his active role in Prenda: in statements to the press and, occasionally, in the court. This denial is funny (to say the least), because there is a plenty of evidence to the contrary.
It took only a year before the majority of judges in the country started recognizing the name “Prenda,” frowning every time they hear it. What our fraudsters are supposed to do? Maybe simply changing the name will help?
I bet you know an amateurish-looking portal Wefightpiracy.com², whose few goals are simpler than its design: to spread FUD, to justify criminal activity with the help of poorly-articulated ideas lifted from multiple copyright maximalists, and to facilitate defamation.
This WordPress software-powered site is currently under a make-up by the same designers (or ones similarly “professional”). Because of trolls’ natural sloppiness, the work in progress has become available online and even cached by Google, so you can see yourself that nothing has really changed from the previous reincarnation. The title is the only notable change: our bandits are now called “Anti-Piracy Law Group” in an attempt to squeeze a couple of more dimes from the judicial system bastardized by them.
LLC registration details are here. By the way, while checking this new LLC, I noticed that Prenda Law’s status is “NOT GOOD STANDING” on the Illinois Secretary of State site. I found this fact interesting enough to ask a couple of questions in an additional post.
As a matter of fact, ransom letters signed by Duffy, are already being sent using this new name, and some were received by represented alleged filesharers. Maybe Steele does not even bother telling Duffy where documents with his signature are sent, maybe Duffy himself is emboldened by the lack of complaints from attorneys. Let him not worry: certain attorneys have been duly recording every violation of the Code of Professional Conduct, and simply waiting for the right moment.
It seems that the work is staled a bit. I think that both the “Coopergate” and impending fraud revelation in the CFAA cases have reshuffled some priorities.
My personal favorite part of the new site is “Bittorent Betty,” a Twitter account that, if becomes alive, promises tons of entertainment. “She” only tweeted four times, but it already made my day and charged the upcoming weekend with a good mood.
To finish on a cheerful note, less than a day after this article was posted, this site received an unusual but nice early Christmas gift (don’t hesitate to click, it’s clean!):
Coverage
- TechDirt: Prenda Law Accused Of Trying To Start Over Again Under A New Name by Mike Masnick.
- Rob Cashman’s blog: Borrowing the analogy from SJD: “The Steele Snake Changes Its Skin Once Again.”
¹ I omit Steele’s earlier shenanigans: prior to becoming a copyright troll, he was a divorce lawyer. He did not become evil overnight.
² All the links in this post are direct, so if you are paranoid and don’t want Prenda’s server to see your IP address, use a proxy — like Anonymouse — to browse. I couldn’t quickly find proxies that allow hotlinking: if you know one, let me know, and I change the links.
Fight © Trolls 
Great article. Oh John you fool of slimy fools. I have fired off a little ad hock torpedo this evening. A great target of opportunity presented itself and I couldn’t resist; your Xmas present is travelling straight and true. Even if mine is somehow deflected, others in the fleet have been given this intelligence. And I just thought of another secondary target. LOL! SJD, I will send you some information in a bit. I think Steel’s operation has gotten a little too big for him to manage.
DTD 🙂
DTD, I love your torpedos. I heard about the change a few days ago, and all I can do is shake my head and wonder why the attorney generals do not catch on to tactics such as these. If they are so legitimate, why do they have to keep changing their name? Part of me wonders whether we should inquire whether the Illinois Attorney General is part of this racket. It can’t be that they’ve kept their eyes shut on this for so long.
I wonder if the stock photos they use are copyrighted. As far as I can tell, that team photo doesn’t show anyone from Prenda so it must be a stock photo. Be nice if they got sued for using illegal photos. Only crooks need to keep changing identities like they do.
I made a similar comment over at DTD, but I just think it worth stating that using twitter to harass this account with expletives and threats does not help our cause. The moral high ground is the one thing truly on our side (other than truth, justice and the American way that is) and we shouldn’t compromise it in the slightest. I know a lot of Does are so full of anger (I know I would be) that they can’t help it, but let’s get it together everybody.
she sounds very similar to bittorrentbull…..also tor is used for a ton of good things other that “piracy”
i really hate these people…..
Notice the address on the payment authorization form that SJD linked above? It’s no longer the N Clark address that Prenda and Steele have in common. It’s now listed as 3367 Momentum Place in Chicago. These bastards move from address to address like locusts!
You’ll notice that the header of the same sheet still has the N Clark address though. LOL. And the email address is for the old *.com address not the new *.org one. Oh well. I guess I’ll just wait and see if a new round of harassment starts up with the new name.
Hey guys, I’m a bit new to this scene, but I just wanted to post again and tell you that I’ve come up with a twitter strategy, should anyone care to help me. I created an account called JammingWithIesu, and my goal is to kill them with kindness. Each day I’m going to tweet a quote from my guy and many other’s, Iesu Christos himself, that relates to the immorality of what they are doing. Help me kill them with kindness, be you Hindu, Jew, Atheist, Buddhist, some type of moral philosopher or whatever. I really am a practicing Catholic, and to think that this creep Lesko took communion doing what he is makes me want to wretch.
Anti-Piracy Law Group – Registered to Paul Duffy: Illinois Limited Liability Company
3367 Momentum Place – Chicago – Appears to be a Payment Processing warehouse used by Medical services, and US Bankruptcy Trustees
161 N. Clark, Prenda Law
Prenda Law now has two names. Why?
Odd, I live in Chicago and I have never heard of a street called Momentum Place. Almost all of the streets are either named after people, or are numbers like 21st St. Very few are abstract ideas like momentum. Also, all addresses in Chicago need an E, W, N, or S. Then I checked Google Maps, and there is no Momentum Place in Chicago. The only street it finds is a Momentum Ct in Las Vegas, which is a house. It doesn’t seem like a typo, because how could you make up a street name inadvertently? So it seems like they’re trying to hide something — but what if someone wanted to mail a check? Wouldn’t they put the right address? Like I said, odd…
The zip code is 60689, which is a unique single entity zip code for Fifth Third Bank in Chicago, IL. Think of the zip code like a big post office box. What appears to be a street address (3367 Momentum) is ignored by the post office because they deliver all mail addressed to the this zip code to the bank, who then probably uses the “street address” to internally route the mail.
Yup, Momentum Place is not even a street in Chicago. Yahoo Maps says it’s in the middle of the river, Google Maps says it doesn’t exist, but the ZIP is Fifth Third (I’ve heard some stories about so you’re correct, the street address and +4 on the end of the ZIP reference an lock box account number…again, cannot figure out how they would be able to avoid taxes if they are requesting that payments be remitted to a lock box that is handled by a bank.
I’d like to see if they have different addresses for different clients (indicating these are client trust accounts) or that the assets are commingled (indicating that some bullshit is going on).
That would be because Momentum Place does not exist. Each mapping service tells me it’s in a different place, but one thing’s for sure, it’s Fifth Third Bank. I found this same crap with their old remittance service too (Chase Bank) but it was easier to chase down than this one was.
Its like the Hydra. You cut of one head, and another grows in its place. While entertaining to watch, enough courts and judges will be temporarily fooled by the change…that being said, it also opens them up to more scrutiny. I wonder, will they attempt to change their already filed cases to the “new” company? I think there is some legal trouble if they start using APLG for cases that are under Prenda. (IANAL, so that’s an educated guess.)
Just one more post (I’m trying not to spam, I assure you). This whole twitter thing got me thinking, and I’m going to try and use social media to my advantage here. I’m taking a different approach than DTD and this site’s author. http://copyrighttroll.blogspot.com/ Help me spread the word, and let’s make it clear to everyone involved that we are on the moral high ground. Love, Peace and Karma!
you should set up your new websites to auto forward to this site 🙂
And that’s exactly what is done (see the update and enjoy clicking) 🙂
Post update:
LLC registration details are here. By the way, while checking this new LLC, I noticed that Prenda Law’s status is “NOT in good standing” on the Illinois Secretary of State site. Very curious why.
I hope like hell no one actually settles with Prenda because that settlement isn’t binding. Prenda is prohibited from entering into any contractually binding relationships, including settling lawsuits. Hmm…interesting….
“Stock Information
Class PAR Value Number Authorized Number Issued
COMMON 0.00000 100 100.000
Total Paid-In Capital: 100”
To say that Prenda is inadequately capitalized is a mild understatement would be an extreme understatement. Par value of Prenda stock is $0. The company is worthless. Prenda was incorporated on November 7, 2011. Anti-Piracy Law Group, LLC was incorporated November 8, 2012. So, to answer your question, my guess is that Prenda never filed an annual report with the State of Illinois. Directly from the Illiniois SoS website….
“When is the Illinois annual report Due?
Illinois annual reports are due by the day before the first day of the anniversary month. In other words, the last day of the month before the anniversary month starts.”
So, in other words, the annual report was due the last day of October or…Happy Halloween! Trick or Treat!? (We ALL know the answer to that one)
Correction, foot extracted from mouth. Illinois allows no par stock. So, I’d put money on Prenda’s stock being bought for $1/share when it was incorporated. Not undercapitalized if you’ve got hundreds of thousands in retained earnings.
So Steele and Duffy (if he exists), are changing their name again. What do they think they can gain by that? Do they not understand word of mouth will get around quick and expose who they are? They are not going to fool anyone. These guys are seriously evil and fucked in the head. Their new ransom letter with two different addresses has me at a loss for words. BitTorrent Betty sounds way too much like Steele. This guy just won’t quit.
Steele….. You sir are a coward! You hide yourself because you cannot face the truth that is before you. Come out and play with everyone. What are you afraid of? You don’t like the fact that us Does know your game and will crush and expose it, do you. How would you feel if you were in a position where you were facing harsh punishment, though you were innocent? Could you face daily harassment? Could you handle the anguish of paying thousands of dollars for something you didn’t do? With each day that passes, you are losing. Good will triumph over evil! When your world crumbles to the ground without any chance of resurrection, you better realize that you brought this on yourself. You will have no one to blame. Karma is a bitch Steele, and you pissed her off!!
They avoid filing an annual report with the State of Illinois, I’m sure you can figure out why. But they fucked up and didn’t create their new scam…err, law firm until Prenda was considered “not in good standing” by the state.
Funny how the new site lists the Maricopa County lawsuit against Sekora in their “Sample Cases” section; the county docket is not detailed but it looks like Sekora and his attorneys are totally slamming Jones, Steele and Goodhue. A smart troll would want to bury that moronic decision to sue, not tout it. Stay Intrigued.
Don’t want to name Steele’s victims unless necessary but this new website’s “Sample Cases” lists a few of Prenda’s EPIC failures (or soon to be).
so my mom has recieved one of these demand letters. is this legit? it has a case number and all.
> is this legit?
Yes and no.
Noticed that the agent for Anti-Piracy Law Group is Jeffrey Livingston.Wondering if he is the same Jeffrey Livingston referenced in this article that opens with this paragraph:
“SOUTH BELOIT — The city has filed a malpractice lawsuit against its former attorney, Jeff Livingston, that accuses him of colluding with a partner in his law firm to secure $400,000 in loans from the city’s revolving loan fund.”
http://www.rrstar.com/news/x736421817/South-Beloit-sues-its-ex-attorney-for-malpractice-fraud
Prenda might be coming back on the header of the letters. According to the secretary of state website, Prenda is back in good standing.
They filed their report on 02/06/2013 and paid the $47 for the certificate.
Are you still looking for the whole letter?
Thank you: no, I have some. I simply forgot about this announcement. Will remove it and upload one of the letters I have. Thanks again.