Prenda
A hearing transcript or a comedy screenplay? A must-read for those who think about settling
On Tuesday, November 27, 2012 one of Prenda’s individual trolling cases, Sunlust Pictures LLC, v. Nguyen, (12-cv-01685) was dismissed by Judge Mary Scriven with fireworks (emphasis is mine):
The case is dismissed for failure to appear at this hearing, for failure to present a lawful agent, for attempted fraud on the Court by offering up a person who has no authority to act on behalf of the corporation as its corporate representative, and the Court will hear, by motion, a motion for sanctions and fees against this Sunlust entity and everyone affiliated with it, including a motion against Mr. Wasinger for his purposeful failure to appear at this hearing.
And a motion will also be heard on Mr. Duffy for his lack of candor in relation to his connection with this matter based upon the representation of Mr. Torres that he was contacted by the Prenda Law Group or Prenda Law, Inc. for the purpose of being retained as local counsel in this case and that was not presented to the Court in this purportedcorrespondence. The case is dismissed.
I intend to advise the other Judges in the Courthouse of the nature of this matter and may refer this matter to the Florida Bar for further proceedings.
What preceded this ruling is an unreal, Kafkaesque hearing, that I offer for your enjoyment below. I read this transcript in a gym on a treadmill a couple of hours ago collecting strange looks from the gymgoers: my uncontrollable giggles and gasps were probably too loud.
THE COURT: Mr. Lutz, who is the individual who you just spoke to in the Courtroom with you?
MR. LUTZ: Sorry?
THE COURT: Who is that behind you?
MR. STEELE: Your Honor, my name is John Steele.
THE COURT: Who are you?
MR. STEELE: I’m an attorney, but not involved in this case.
THE COURT: You’re an attorney with what law firm?
MR. STEELE: I’m not an attorney with any law firm right now […]
During the entire hearing, the judge’s attempted to understand who was who in this comedy with everthickening plot. Despite that it was apparently the only actual agenda, I am not sure that the judge succeeded in figuring that out. The only thing that she seemingly got right is that she dealt with a bunch of fraudsters, and very sloppy ones. I hope that she will carry out her intentions to alert other judges and to ask the Florida Bar to conduct yet another investigation.
Although both this hearing and the resulted dismissal were based on procedural questions, if you want to learn about the merits (or the lack thereof, to be more precise) of this case, read an excellent motion to dismiss written by the defense counsel Graham Syfert.
Please set sharp things aside, do not eat and drink, and sit firmly and comfortably, so you cannot fall and injure yourself. Laughs are guaranteed (not for Steele though: I am sure that some unpleasant phone conversations ruined his evening).
After you wipe off your tears and your hiccups subside, I will have a question for you. I am waiting.
Ready?
Girls and boys, ladies and gentleman, senior citizens!
Appendix. Prenda and Florida: a love story
Many things happened since my article/informal interview with Graham Syfert “Who and where is Prenda Law? What happened to John Steele?” written in May, but you do not need to follow all the intrigues, just one fact is enough to know. This fact is: Prenda has tried and failed to secure nine local counsels in Florida.
Every time a new guy understood that the newly acquired stink he couldn’t get rid of is exuded by Prenda Law, he ran away as quickly as possible. Even 75% contingency fee cannot persuade local lawyers to stain their future careers by associating themselves with a lawfirm that is actively investigated by the Florida Bar Association, and is expected to be investigated criminally in the nearest future.
Coverage
- ArsTechnica: Porn trolling case thrown out for “attempted fraud on the court” by Timothy Lee.
- TechDirt: Copyright Troll Case Tossed For ‘Fraud On The Court’ After Abbott & Costello-Worthy Hearing by Mike Masnick.
Followups
- 12/4/2012: Expected development in a courtroom comedy: attorney Graham Syfert moves for sanctions.
- 12/18/2012: A quick update on dismissed Sunlust Pictures v. Nguyen case.
- 12/20/2012: Prenda hires an outside counsel in Sunlust Pictures v. Nguyen case.
- 12/21/2012: “White collar criminal defenders” attempt to defend Prenda’s scam artists. Surfacing of a new evidence of others’ identity misappropriation by Prenda.
- 12/30/2012: Does “under penalty of perjury” mean anything? Apparently not for Prenda and one of its plaintiffs
- 01/03/2013: Graham Syfert reiterates his demand for sanctions, accuses John Steele of fraud.
Fight © Trolls 
no idea how proud this makes me that this was in my jurisdiction, although I am a bit further south. Go go FLMD
Also, in the hearing transcript – huge LOL to the reference to ‘who’s on first’ by the judge.
after reading the transcript, wow Steele came | | close to having it all blown out, unfortunately its all falling on Duffy and associated. I’m guessing when the veil is pulled back more some FBI agents will be talking to Steele about racketeering and extortion
I can’t believe how these morons thought that no judge would take the time to try to figure it all out, I am sure this is just one of many such events.
This seriously made my year. Although I haven’t really been sweating it since following this site daily since being sent the letter about the (now) lightspeed v smith case (I was one of the lucky ones whos info wasn’t released when comcast fought back), it’s still been on my mind enough to check for updates on dockets, this and related (dtd, etc) sites and twitter daily.
huge raise of the glass to SJD, TAC, DTD, CC, and the various defenders (including those vocal on this blog such as Cashman) and fearless pro se defendants, thank you so much for your (continued) work.
I have a small orchard. I’m going to name my favorite Mango tree Jane in honorarium of this blogs steward.
OMG!!!! The people at Denny were looking at me as I laughed my a$$ off. Thanks Prenda Law and cast of fools. I couldn’t ask for a nicer early X-Mas present. I really couldn’t believe they were trying to feed the judge so much BS. Mark Lutz, you really moved up from Prenda bitch boy to court jester. Read and see what idiots are threatening.
DTD 🙂
It is a great transcript to read as it is hilarious. If anyone ever doubted the claims made that Prenda engages in fraud upon the public and the judicial system, a careful reading of this transcript will put those doubts to rest. Prenda’s past and current employees (Lutz,Steele and Duffy) all misrepresent their capacity and involvement in this circus, incredible and Judge Scriven thought so as well.
I kind of felt sorry for Torres as he was clearly played as a patsy by Prenda and who naively believed he would receive 75% of settlement monies even though those settlements would not be handled by his office but by the liars in Chicago.
As a on older lawyer I feel badly for Mr. Torres but it is a great lesson to learn at the outset of one’s career..having said that, I remember how difficult it is to start a law practice and need/want to earn an income…Mr. Torres seems like a good guy but the others…wow…I felt uneasy just reading their answers and statements…piece of work all of them…great work on the blog by the way from a Canadian lawyer up north..cheers
Yes Mr. Torres was reminded of the old saying, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” He will spread the word amoung his circle of lawyers as to the cast of idiots that run Prenda Law.
DTD 🙂
I thoroughly enjoyed reading that transcript. Thank you so much for posting it.
That was amazing!
Torres dodged a bullet. He clearly didn’t drink Prenda’s Kool-Aid and sounded like he would have preferred to have been dismissed before he even had to show up.
Very interesting how that played out. The judge was swearing everyone and crawling up their asses, and clearly had it in for the Prenda crew. I wonder if their reputation precedes them and this judge has just had it. Her closing remarks to Torres are quite revealing, she says she knows this is fraud and the type of scam that gets people disbarred:
—
Mr. Torres, a word to the wise, sir. When you represent an entity, no matter how limited your role is, you’re placing your bar number at issue and you’re placing your name and your goodwill at issue before a Court.
And saying you’re local counsel and you only intended to file on their behalf and pick up a small fee for that limited role does not absolve you from responsibility for making sure that whatever you sign on to, whatever you enter an appearance on behalf of is a legitimate entity with legitimate concerns, because you run a strong risk that you could be sanctioned or lose your bar license behind conduct of the type that you’re witnessing here.
I hope that this is a lesson to you about how to proceed going forward with characters such as the ones that are presented here.
—
The underlying menace here is that she is calling them fraudsters and “characters,” which I don’t think is obvious simply from their conduct in this transcript. They appear incompetent as hell, but for the judge to speak so harshly implies she knows who was in her court room and the jig may be up!
A few additional noteworthy pieces of information:
* Steele and Lutz apparently did not have a falling out. I think many of us assumed there had been fireworks and that relationship ended badly, but it sounds like Lutz just struck out and attempted to start his own franchise. It’s not entirely clear what he does, and even he doesn’t seem to know, but my best guess as to what’s going on is that Lutz is maybe trying to function as a copyright trolling consultant/project manager. Since he doesn’t have a law license anywhere he’s of no use litigating, but maybe he was attempting to be a mini-mastermind and follow in Steele’s footsteps, soliciting clients, hiring local counsel to do the dirty work, sending the extortion letters and making calls (Lutz’ bread and butter…). It’s obviously not working though, amazing that she kicked him out of the deliberations for being worthless.
* Steele is pretending not to be a practicing attorney. I wonder if that includes his family law practice… He wasn’t actually sworn if I followed correctly so I suppose that will slide, but that is clearly a load of crap, as he has been making appearances in other cases. The next time he makes a documented appearance in one of these cases, I wonder if it would be worth sending a note to Scriven…
* Lutz claimed he is also working as a representative of Hard Drive Productions, which I found interesting. I figured Paul Pilcher had thrown in the towel at this point, with the exception of that big, ~1400 Doe DC case he is probably contractually obliged to let Prenda keep “litigating,” so it was surprising to see signs of life in the Hard Drive Productions trolling machine.
It is going to be interesting to see if this goes anywhere, the judge appeared to be outright hostile to their whole crew, but these guys have gotten away with a lot of crap and the legal system has yet to give them any teeth.
SJD Said: “Even 75% contingency fee cannot persuade local lawyers to stain their future careers by associating themselves with a lawfirm that is actively investigated by the Florida Bar Association, and is expected to be investigated criminally in the nearest future.”
OMG, this explains why Johnny Boy and Co are blowing their wads on named cases throughout the country. It’s really their last hurrah to make more $ at the 11th hour before it all falls down 🙂
It also appears that Lutz “resigned” from Prenda to be inserted as “representative” for Prenda’s various real (Hard Drive), pseudo-real (Sunlust), and outright fake (Guava) plaintiff clients. He’s clearly still affiliated or at least “in bed” with Prenda, but just not as the goon making the harassing phone calls. By admitting affiliation with Guava under oath, he’s essentially admitting affiliation with Lightspeed, and to a lesser extend, Prenda.
Question. When she dismissed the case, how was it dismissed: with or without prejudice? Wasn’t clear to me. In other words, is Nguyen (defendant) off the hook (with prejudice) or might they come at him again in a new Sunlust case (without prejudice) with this new clown Greenstein?Well. chances are that this new lackey may not hang around long enough (if history repeats itself) to do anything even if he technically could. Hopefully, the defendant can move on as if this never happened.
Final question.
When Steele said: “I don’t represent Sunlust or anybody anymore.”
(wish I knew how to use the forum tools to bold or underline ANYBODY) did he technically lie to the judge? He’s admitted pro hac vice in SDIL to represent Lightspeed in Lightspeed vs Smith et al. And as we know from the posted settlement letter in the new Guava post, Lightspeed=Guava, and Guava was an entity mentioned in this transcript (by Lutz). So, did he technically lie to this judge? If so, too bad the judge didn’t get him under oath. Dammit! But can the lie still be used against him?
The docket in SDIL lists him as representing Lightspeed
http://ia600705.us.archive.org/3/items/gov.uscourts.ilsd.58824/gov.uscourts.ilsd.58824.docket.html
It still lists Hansmeier, but he has been the only one to to date to seek withdrawal as counsel in that case, and not Steele.
Click to access gov.uscourts.ilsd.58824.55.0.pdf
So as of this moment and during the Nov 27 hearing above, Steele still technically represents Lightspeed.
Also on 11-27 Torres’ Prenda predecessor, Wasinger,filed his excuse as to why he did not attend the hearing in which he states:
“I came into the case after it had been initiated and after learning more about the case I felt in was in my best interests to withdraw from all outstanding cases associated with Prenda Law.” http://ia601506.us.archive.org/11/items/gov.uscourts.flmd.274150/gov.uscourts.flmd.274150.27.0.pdf
Smart guy.
Please note… he said we was getting 75% of the fees generated by the case, not 75% of the settlements.
Could this be how they lure the newbies in… you get 75% of the fee for just showing up and pushing paper. We dropped the case, here is a cookie. Want to do another one for another cookie?
This made my day! After having these asshats torment me for the last year, it is wonderful to see them exposed as the fools they are. More please!
I read the transcript, and I found it to be intoxicating. I usually write long posts, but not today. After reading it, I am finding myself exhausted from laughing so much. When Steele said he doesn’t represent anyone anymore, I knew, there and then, that all of us should collaborate and make this into a reality show. This is truly good comedy.
Between the happenings in Arizona and this transcript this is quickly becoming the funniest blog on the internet! I love it!
I wonder if this will also happen to Ruggiero. He has filed cases for the same porn purveyors along the East Coast and PA. Wondering if the Does should send this transcript to the court chambers in which Ruggiero currently has cases. Has he served anybody yet? I can’t believe that he would put all of his licenses on the line for a few pennies!
Danny, if you are reading this, it is not too late to get out. As soon as you serve me, that will be the end of your career. Once you serve, I am not backing out of it. No settlement money will help you get out of it. I don’t need money! My attorneys are waiting for you to make the next move, I mean mistake.
Actually, it might be useful to send this transcript to all of prenda’s local council. Many are newer or failing attorneys and may not realize the extent of the jeopardy they are placing themselves in for a small contingency.
Wow! Just wow. I am dumbfounded by this transcript. I am floored by how blatant Prenda et al was in this case. I do not believe anyone could read this and not see the lies. I am a little surprised that Judge Scriven didn’t call out Lutz on the whole “I don’t know anyone in any capacity at Sunlust,” followed by “Oh yeah, except for Sonny Leone, who was the person at Sunlust who contacted me and asked me to represent them.” I’m sorry? What was that, Lutz? You, under oath, do not know anyone with any corporate connection to Sunlust, until it suits your need to back up John Steele. Keep in mind that the witnesses were never dismissed. Lutz was still under oath. After a single Google search on Sunlust, i found their site, listed as the TOP link. After clicking that link, right at the top of the page is the “about us” link. The first sentence on that page is “Sun Lust Pictures Inc. was founded in 2008 as a partnership between Sunny Leone and Daniel Weber.” So, Under Oath, Lutz implies that he doesn’t know even the name of any entity associated with Sunlust, but he was contacted by the co-founder of the company. The individual that the company would appear to derive it’s name from. The individual whose name John Steele conveniently misspelled for the court, thereby confusing the gender of said individual. I though, immediately that Sunlust might be named after Sunny Leone after seeing Steele mention her (note that Sonny is the name for a man, which is way the Judge thought Steele was referring to a man after he spelled it for her). This isn’t just a comedy. This is a travesty. Someone involved in this case should send the SJD link for “Who and where is Prenda Law? What happened to John Steele?” to Judge Sciven. Mr Syfert, I’m looking at you. She needs to be aware of the Prenda/Steele/Lutz/Duffy/etc. history. I get the distinct impression that she isn’t one to do the research on Prenda without prompting.
Pardon the many typos.
I think, though don’t claim to be an expert, that since the Judge will hear motions on sanctions that this would be brought up by Syfert when he files a motion for sanctions/fees/etc.
I certainly hope so. 🙂
I don’t buy for one second that Lutz was a contract employee for Prenda as he stated under oath. IMO he crossed the fine line between agent/employee and contractor a LONG time ago.
BWAAAHHAHAHAA-AHAHHAA-HAHAHAHAA-HAHAHA!!
WWAHAHHHAHAHAAAHAHAHA … AHAAHAAAHAHAHA..BAAWAAAHAHA…
>>gasp<>wheeze<<
teeheeeheee …
hehe..
HAAAAWWWWHAAAWWWHAAWWWWW!!!
Hope you heeded my advice and don’t have sharp things around 🙂
LMAO!! Thank you for the wonderful laugh of the week! Ohhhhhh … it’s so good.
Where’s your coat and tie? You DO realize you’re in a federal courthouse, right?
“Who is that behind you?” Whispering into your ear … ?
Mr. Steele! Who owns Sunlust?
DUhhhhh … you talkin to-a me?
AAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAH!!!111!!!
Well, I don’t know who owns Sunlust, but her name could be Sunny Leone and she could be a porn star banging some dude on camera in Bangladesh. But I wouldn’t know, because I don’t follow that kind of thing.
BWWAAAAaaaahhahahahahaa!!!
” THE COURT: Have you ever been licensed in the State
of Florida?
MR. STEELE: No.
THE COURT: All right.”
*cough* bullshit *cough*
“No, Your Honor, but I practice law without a license in Florida” (by signing hundreds of Florida federal court subpoenas). Wish she had put Steele under oath also.
I cant write to the judges chambers fast enough to help her understand who the man behind Lutzy was.
Me: Um, Your honor!
The Court: Yes.
Me: Mr. Steel is the owner operator of Pretenda Law, AF Holdings, Sunlust, Guenva and employs Mr. Lutz. Hint: that is Why Mr. Steel is here today.
We should send this Judge a graphic organizational tree chart to help clarify.
As an attorney representing a defendant in a Lightspeed case, this was beyond funny. I had to stop reading and call another attorney to read it to them it was so good.
In my 20+ years of practice, I have never had a judge say to an attorney “Wait let me put you under oath…” If you don’t see that as a huge RED FLAG that the court is not buying what you’re selling, then you’re a moron. Obviously Lutz (who called me a “funny guy”) and Steele may think they got away with one, but the sanctions and ramifications of this hearing will be heard long from now. Don’t be surprised if some feds will be sniffing around at the behest of the judges to find out what the truth is. You don’t lie to a federal judge and hope to get away with it.
I would so love to have someone pull up facts to show Lutz knew who owned the Sunlust, who the officers were, etc. He may be in jail within a year for perjury (man I would love that – then he could live out his porn plots in real time – “Hard men behind bars – the Mark Lutz story.” At least then he could own the copyright….
She didn’t just put Torres under oath (and then spoke to him the same way that she’d speak to a non-attorney about what being under oath means), she put Lutz under oath and I’m almost certain he perjured himself when he claimed he’s not an agent of Prenda Law (since I have multiple voicemails recorded around that period that begin with “Hi…this is Mark Lutz from Prenda Law calling in regards to a lawsuit….” His LinkedIn profile listed Prenda Law as his employer. How many people who work on contract list one company as their employer on LinkedIn? Lutz is the only one I’ve ever heard of. On top of that, Prenda Law’s registered agent is Mark Lutz. Or was, before he quit. I realize registered agents may be contracted, but this smells too bullshitty to be a coincidence.
Can you say perjury?
Click to access gov.uscourts.flsd.396031.18.0.pdf
From what I heard the Nguyen case 8:12-cv-01685 originated off of the Sunlust vs Does 1-120 case 1:12-cv-20920. Wonder if the docket in the latter will move forward now with these recent developments. Mr Wohlsifer can you please comment if you read this.
Tons of those individual cases are spin-offs. Either they re-file after completely dismissing the case if they feel like they’ve got some leverage or go and dismiss the Doe without prejudice while the case is still pending just so they can re-file indivually because John Steele doesn’t like the Doe’s attorney or some other fifth-grade schoolyard bullshit reason. Both of which are REALLY stupid because for one, if the individual case is dismissed for any reason at all, it’s just as good as losing at trial or dismissing with prejudice. Even worse is that for for every one default judgment, they get a dozen who fight back…like in this case, or out in California with AF Holdings vs. Trinh (where the judge granted defendant’s motion to post undertaking, AF Holdings actually has to put some skin in the game Should be interesting to see exactly where this money comes from, probably AF Holding’s client trust account.
Then there’s Wong, Abrahams, Hatfield, Sekora (or getting ready to, haven’t followed that one but should be interesting), LMC and Prenda about to be sanctioned and taken to the cleaners for hundreds of thousands if not millions in legal fees by AT&T and Comcast down in ILSD after Judge Murphy kicks the case to the curb (why he keeps canceling telephonic conferences I have no idea…probably has something to do with Duffy’s eye and Steele can’t appear on a conference that’s being recorded and say that he’s Duffy unless he wants to lose his law license and go to jail, among other things for impersonating another lawyer), that Bubblegum Productions clusterfuck down in FLSD that landed Perea in deep shit (Doe filed a complaint with the bar, then Seitz referred Perea to the FL Bar for the same thing I believe), Fantalis, the bellwether in PA that they’re trying to sabotage, Baker and Hutchinson vs. Patrick Collins et al in Kentucky, Dore out in MA, the Doe #22 (Samuel Perkins vs. Marvin “I’m way the hell outta my league” Cable, the LMC state case in CA where Morgan Pietz filed a motion to post undertaking (this could get costly for Prenda), and…I could keep going.
One great thing about Judge Scriven’s questioning is that she asks for a clear report of WHO. Who are the real plaintiffs, real business owners, real troll lawyers, and real troll agents.
Getting these facts, or the deceitful troll evasions of facts, on the record under oath would be a dent in copyright troll cases. If Judge Scriven’s questioning of troll identity gets to lots of judges, that by itself would be a huge remedy for trolling.
Well, first, I think it’s funny as hell how she smells perjury almost immediately after hearing he’s associated with Prenda so…
“MR. TORRES: Well, Your Honor, I was —
THE COURT: I’m sorry, I’m sorry, hold on a second.”
Then has him sworn in but it doesn’t stop there. She then explains to him in layman’s terms that he’s under oath, perjury, etc…to a lawyer. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an attorney being sworn in during a hearing, much less being explained that he’s under oath, much less being explained the penalty for lying under oath. That shows you what she thinks about him and Prenda right there.
He says the contingency agreement is for 75% of blah blah…well, he isn’t getting a dime now heh. This shit is hilarious. Judge Scriven is like a pitbull…”Did you look at the docket” like three times before getting a straight answer. Reads the letter Duffy sent her saying “I never received a notice” well that sounds exactly like what happened in another case Duffy is handling in ILND where he “didn’t receive” a notice of dismissal because “it went to the spam folder.”
“THE COURT: So, Mr. Torres, you don’t know who your general counsel is other than Mr. Gibbs, and you don’t have a written agreement and you just answered a random ad and put your name on a docket in Federal Court?” In other words, are you stupid?
“THE COURT: Do you know who Mr. Duffy is?
MR. LUTZ: I believe he is a principal of Prenda Law.”
Then Syfert interjects, telling the judge that Lutz is full of shit or an idiot, so she has his ass sworn in by the Clerk (I suspect). Then, with 99% certainty I can say that I believe Lutz perjures himself, saying he doesn’t personally know Duffy nor has he ever talked to him. He almost certainly perjures himself when he further states that he doesn’t work for Prenda Law…that’s funny, his old LinkedIn profile says he worked (at the time) for Prenda Law. When he called me last year, he told me he worked for Prenda Law. I have like 30 MP3s of him saying “This is Mark Lutz from Prenda Law.” I don’t call people saying “This is (my name) from KPMG….” because I don’t fucking work for them.
Then the kick in the balls to Lutz…
“THE COURT: You can sit away from the table, you’re not a corporate representative of anybody if you don’t have any information about the corporation.”
Judge Scriven’s lesson of the day….
“THE COURT: …Mr. Torres, a word to the wise, sir. When you represent an entity, no matter how limited your role is, you’re placing your bar number at issue and you’re placing your name and your goodwill at issue before a Court. …I hope that this is a lesson to you about how to proceed going forward with characters such as the ones that are presented here.”
One thing that confuses me as I am not familiar with the procedure.. about purjury or sanctions etc.
I understand the defendant can now put in a complaint for sanctions, fees, and awards and the Judge has agreed to hear it (which in my mind means rubber stamp a reasonable request)
However, on a criminal charge like Purjury – Does the judge do research (or read/analyze the motion for sanctions/fees) and say OK I compared it to what this guy said and its apparent he lied so he is now held in contempt of court, or how does that work? Can a judge, on their own research after dismissing a case after taking under oath statements and saying it was fraud then turn around and have people arrested? How’s that all work out, anyone know? Would love to hear why when a judge indicated he/she believes its fraud and everyone’s lying to him/her why they can’t issue a warrant or turn it over to police at that point.
He won’t be charged with perjury. At least not in this case…or ever since he’s “retired.” The judge may know he lied but that’s so hard to prove it’d be a waste of the court’s time and money to have him investigated for perjuring himself during a hearing.
Lutz’s statements didn’t even have a material impact on that particular case either. Perjury is damn hard to prove since the functional word in the definition of perjury is KNOWINGLY made a false statement. He could just plead ignorance. Someone would have to investigate, find evidence like a W2 stating that he is an employee of Prenda rather than a contractor since he states he’s a 1099, then he’d be fucked but other than that, nope. Having both Lutz and Torres sworn in was likely (well, almost certainly) an intimidation tactic because she wasn’t getting straight answers and usually “you’re under oath…penalty of perjury” is enough to get people to stop feeding a judge bullshit. Not in this case, if she had followed up, then we might be going somewhere but alas, no.
I wish she’d have dragged Steele’s ass up and put him under oath, not like that’d matter because the man is incapable of telling the truth and you could hook up the CIA’s most sophisticated polygraph machine to him and he’d almost certainly be able to pass a polygraph test…there’s a reason for that, which I will not discuss.
the proof would be if anyone has a recording of him calling them in regards to a case filed by duffy. i am sure this exists as he made all of prenda’s calls last year and into this year.
Great idea @marble! Is there any way SJD could solicit this info (ie does anyone have a recording of Lutz contacting them on behalf of a case filed by Duffy) from forum members at a higher posting level? These single replies are already starting to get buried under what is already a large discussion and is likely to get super huge and many folks in possession of such data may not see this portion of the discussion. If somebody had something like that I’m sure they’s cough it up in a heartbeat especially if they knew it could possibly be used as absolute proof that Lutz KNOWINGLY made a false statement under oath.
Further thoughts???
THE COURT: Do you know Mr. Duffy?
MR. LUTZ: Not personally, no.
THE COURT: Have you talked to him before?
MR. LUTZ: I have not, no.
http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?action=DETFIL&inq_doc_number=F11000004516&inq_came_from=OFFFWD&cor_web_names_seq_number=0000&names_name_ind=R&ret_names_cor_number=&ret_cor_web_names_seq_number=&ret_names_name_ind=&ret_names_comp_name=&ret_names_filing_type=&ret_cor_web_princ_seq=&ret_princ_comp_name=LUTZMARK&ret_princ_type=
Seems very unlikely that he does not know nor has ever talked to the Principal of the organization for which he’s the registered agent…..
Can’t we just forward this stuff to the judge and say “this guy was just dickin you over earlier this week” ???????
I misread the transcript. I could’ve sworn it was dated last November…but this November? OK, whole different ball game. I wanna fuck this fucker over so bad now. He bombarded my machine for almost two years so now it’s time to pay the piper…fucking bastard. I wanna see all of these assholes in a federal “fuck me in the ass” prison.
I have 30 or so recordings of Lutz stating that he’s “from Prenda Law.” Same script. “Hi (name), this is uhh…Mark Lutz calling from uhh…Prenda Law in regards uh to uh uh uh….” They are timestamped on my digital voice recorder, I can transfer them to my computer as straight wav files. I’d rather redact my name though.
“I wanna see all of these assholes in a federal “fuck me in the ass” prison.”
Would American History X style in the prison shower suffice, or would that be too mild to teach these guys a lesson?
You mean with a giant tatted-up Neo-Nazi? I don’t care, that’s fine. I just don’t wanna see any of these scumbags go to “Club Fed” like the usual white collar criminals. I wanna see them go to fucking USP Marion (the main max -security prison not one of the camps…one of the most violent federal prisons) or USP Atlanta (even worse than Marion). Or even USP Florence, the super-max fucker where they’d be sleeping on concrete beds, shitting in a steel toilet, and taking a shower without leaving their cells (the damn things roll from cell to cell door, can walk right into the shower but not leave the cell).
Keep in mind that this is ALL my opinion, not to be taken as fact in any way, shape, or form.
I was sick of this shit last November, and now as we peel the layers off the onion that is Prenda, it literally makes me sick. Each new thing discovered is exponentially worse than the last. If all of this shit is true, this is fraud on a scale that none of us could even imagine (or anyone has ever seen). I mean, we had our suspicions but now all of this shit has practically confirmed every suspicion. I say fraud that no one has seen because, while Madoff was the worst, this is actual exploitation of the court system, defrauding the court, lying to judges, wire fraud, attempted wire fraud, harassment, and on and on. I wanna see these assholes in orange fucking jumpsuits pretty goddamn soon. Every. Single. One. I foresee criminal charges and if so, I PROMISE that I will attend trials to look these fuckers in the eye. Pack the gallery. Can anyone tell I’m angry?
At one point Lutz had Prenda listed as an employer on his linkedin profile and it is no longer there
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-lutz/14/b8/414
Wish I had a screenie of it from a few months ago.
But he is still listed as the Registered Agent for Prenda and Duffy as the Principal
http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?action=DETFIL&inq_doc_number=F11000004516&inq_came_from=OFFFWD&cor_web_names_seq_number=0000&names_name_ind=R&ret_names_cor_number=&ret_cor_web_names_seq_number=&ret_names_name_ind=&ret_names_comp_name=&ret_names_filing_type=&ret_cor_web_princ_seq=&ret_princ_comp_name=LUTZMARK&ret_princ_type=
“THE COURT: Do you know who Mr. Duffy is?
MR. LUTZ: I believe he is a principal of Prenda Law.”
Fact is: he KNOWS Duffy is the principal of Prenda
I’m sure someone *hint hint* has a screenshot.
He’s the registered agent for Prenda…but registered agents can be contracted so that means very little. The fact that he was calling people for two years stating plainly that he represents Prenda (or Steele|Hansmeier when I first began dealing with him) is what’ll get him. I’m sure other posters besides myself have tons of recordings of his voicemails. The aggregate amount of recordings of him stating “This is Mark Lutz from Prenda Law…” is probably in the high hundreds or even thousands.
He knows goddamn well who he worked for. That or he’s a fucking moron of epic proportions. It’s like not knowing your employer’s CEO’s name. He’s flat-out lying when he says that he has never talked to Duffy and he’s basically telling Judge Scriven that she’s a moron when he says he doesn’t know the name of Prenda’s principal…when he’s working on contract. He made some statement about their accounting department…Prenda doesn’t have a goddamn accounting department, I can promise you that. They have bookkeeping but no CPAs on staff. They send unaudited financials off to an accounting firm and don’t have to comply with SOX/PCAOB shit anyway since it’s a privately held corporation so they can get away with shenanigans that public companies cannot. You know why I’m so confident that they have no CPAs on staff, or any staff accountants period? Because they have a duty to report illegal acts, fraud, and other bullshit and they’re not willing to risk losing their CPA/CIA/CIwhatever license for this shit.
I even have a voicemail from Perea, it’s fucking hilarious. He stammers and sounds like a high school freshman attempting to a girl to homecoming…he almost sounds frightened. “Hi uhh this is ummmm…ummm, Joe from Prenda Law calling about blah blah lawsuit you’re a part of (which had been dismissed a few months earlier)…again, this is Joe.”
love everyones posts 🙂 since Lutz, Duffy, Steele, et al have effectively put themselves into a box, it is certainly time these fuckers all find new careers…
DAMN…………….. What a good read!!! The judge really put these guys on the spot and yet they still managed to lie to her. Their lies are finally starting to catch up to them. The judge needs to be informed that she was lied to. I myself have calls from Lutz calling for Prenda Law, and they are saved. There has to be a way for us to put together a package of links and voicemails, proving that Lutz has (my opinion still is) worked for Prenda, and having it sent to the judge. We all know Steele lied, but because he wasn’t sworn in, nothing can be done. But we do know he is practicing law. No way he can spend all that money flying around to sit in court proceedings.
How could anyone represent someone, or company, and not know who anyone is? Makes no sense. I would never work for someone and not know who I’m working for. And I highly doubt that Sunny Leone contacted Lutz personally and asked him to represent her and her company. Maybe a representative did, but not Ms. Leone. However, I could be wrong. But imagine if Lutz used Ms. Leone in a lie and it got back to her. If they never spoke and he claims they did, Lutz’ grave just got deeper. I don’t think Ms. Leone would like that very much.
This is an opening to stick it to Prenda. I hope that something can be done.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/porn-trolling-case-thrown-out-for-attempted-fraud-on-the-court/
Only the beginning of media hearing about these bafoons, it really does make for a good story…..
This is only gonna get worse for Duffy. He had no fucking idea what he got into when he started this. Now, he’s painfully aware. Duffy is fucking boned and he must know that Steele pulled this whole “retirement” thing because he foresaw the house of cards collapsing…unless he has his head so far up his ass. Steele, well, in true pussy fashion, would probably flee to some non-extradition treaty country and the U.S. government will have to invoke the PATRIOT Act to seize all of his assets even though he almost certainly has offshore “rainy day” (more like “rainy lifetime”) accounts no one knows about. Half of those countries hate Americans or are third-world shitholes…or both. The other half are…well, not exactly ideal for a person like Steele (Russia, China, Vietnam).
I wouldn’t be surprised if, or more like WHEN criminal charges are filed, the US Attorney will say “OK, well, we’re willing to play ball and offer immunity to the first person who agrees to testify as to the inner workings of this operation and its true goal.” It’d be funny if the USA put them all in the same room, an immunity agreement on the table, and one pen….then filmed the total clusterfuck that ensues because it’d be like watching a gladiator match in there hahaha. Rats fighting over a pen and papers.
I’d be surprised if Steele were well-organized and conscientious enough to have “rainy lifetime” accounts. I’ve met a number of con artist narcissists and you’d be surprised how many are constantly just a month away from bankruptcy.
My last name is Nguyen, please corrected and yes I was there….
My apologies. Corrected.
Just waiting for Mr.Syfert to files motion for fees and sanction….this is gonna be fun
I’m sitting here reading the transcript again and now I’m really confused by what Lutz was saying, he said that Prenda Law is counsel for Sunlust, but not this particular case, so who the hell is suppose to be counsel for sunlust? Torres? Are they trying to put Torres on the chopping block?
Is Syfert OK with you commenting here and now?
No hes not active here
Oh he knows about me making comments here, I’m not telling anything that isn’t already known to the public.
So is this Alan Greenstein the current counsel for the plaintiff? Where can I find the docs that show that he’s sign on to the case?
Raul (thanks to you) just tweeted some of the new filings by Syfert. I love this gem. Prenda’s belligerence in intimidation tactics of publishing active cases on their page bites them in the ass (remember, Duffy claimed not to be involved in the case):
“The website http://www.wefightpiracy.com is the website of Prenda Law, Inc., lists
Paul Duffy as the principal, and lists the work product that is the complaint in this matter
as their own, stating “Below is a sample of individuals who chose to litigate the matter
and are currently in court over their alleged infringment” and then listing the name of the
Defendant, along with a link to the complaint in this matter. The complaint is held on
Prenda Law’s website at http://www.wefightpiracy.com/userfiles/Nguyen%20(FL).pdf
and the website reports an address of 161 N. Clark Ste. 3200.”
Entire document is here: http://ia601506.us.archive.org/11/items/gov.uscourts.flmd.274150/gov.uscourts.flmd.274150.31.0.pdf
Again, thanks Raul.
And thank you Boron:
“Defendant would rather see the abusive and deceitful patterns of Prenda Law
terminated than be awarded monetary sanctions.”
From a motion for sanctions against Matthew Wasinger (again via Raul’s twitter):
Click to access gov.uscourts.flmd.274150.30.0.pdf
oh god those idiots forgot to remove meta data from the PDF and it has all the markings of Steele, his ex wifes computer and their location, this is golden!
Which pdf? Please explain further.
Read this filing: http://ia601506.us.archive.org/11/items/gov.uscourts.flmd.274150/gov.uscourts.flmd.274150.31.0.pdf
In the exhibits and the argument. It is argued that Steele was the one that wrote all of the letters either without Duffy’s knowledge or with carte blanche from Duffy. They were written on Steele’s wife’s computer.
Question #13 on Syfert’s Motion for Sanctions made me smile: “Have you ever talked to anyone with the last name Hansmeier concerning Prenda Law cases?” Please, please your honor, please compel Mr. Wasinger to answer these questions. Oh, this is just too good.
would have liked to see him include steel’s PHV application from the LSM v smith case in the exhibits section to further show a connection between prenda and steel
And Steele’s sworn declaration for his PHV admission for the AF Holdings v. Does 1-1058 case. The docket still says “John Steele, PRENDA LAW….” You know, if I stopped working for a company I’d stop saying that I work for the company and pull down anything like that or at least change it. His hubris is what will do him in. This is like Christmas for me 🙂 Earlier I compared unwrapping Prenda’s box of secrets to peeling the layers off an onion…a rotten ass onion infested with insects. That being said, I believe Syfert has enough on Prenda and its lackeys to make this very very VERY ugly and it just keeps getting exponentially worse on a daily basis,
I’m just wondering which of those puds at Prenda will flip on Steele first. I wouldn’t be surprised if Steele is blackmailing them though since that’s the only logical explanation as to why multiple lawyers have been willing risk their law licenses for what seems like something so trivial. Sanctions and possible permanent disbarment vs. suspension or just a tongue lashing…and they’re choosing possible permanent disbarment and sanctions or very long suspensions over a slap on the wrist.
Oh damn…shit is about to hit the fan….