Okay, I'm typing this for some sort of self therapy I guess. Here's how it all begun, if anyone really cares.
About 3yrs ago I met someone online, OMG online yes, in #phreak on IRC (undernet), no no, not yahoo! personals or anything like that, but at this point what does it really matter? His real name was Brett Oliphant. Brett was living in Lafayette, IN at the time, and planning to move to Elkhart, IN to start a ISP and datahosting company (85West). Sounds cool huh, randomly meet someone online that is planning to move near me. Since we hit it off so well, it was awesome.
Brett, claiming to be well versed in the computer security world (which turns out he really was) also claimed to be, without saying so, rich. Now, I'm not a woman who goes after rich men, it just seemed nice since I was a not so well off single mother. Brett claimed he had just sold a company and was moving up here. That company was called Security Profiling. It existed, however he didn't sell it. He also claimed to have some Ferrari's which are shown here http://digitalparanoid.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=4097 - turns out none of them were his, although to this day, he still claims they are even though where he lives in California he doesn't even own a car. Funny how that works.
The more and more I got involved with Brett, the more I believed his narcissistic ways, beliefs and living style. It was amazing. I even started a company with a friend of mine, who I'll refer to as Mr. S where we rented space at Brett's business. Oh of course, this was not at 85West, this was at an electronic recycling company (ESRC). Which brought me closer to the world of the Oliphants.
What happened to 85West you may wonder? Well to begin with, Brett's brother Bryan, was a local investment broker in our area, had many friends that he wanted to help out and get them more money. He let them know about his brother's idea for the internet company in Elkhart, so they invested a lot of money, I am not sure of the exact amount, maybe $750,000 or something, Brett worked with Verizon and the city of Elkhart to get fiber ran to it's location however it was not possible due to I believe some sort of infrastructure issue. Brett then paid someone to find another datahosting company for him to purchase with the investors money so there was a return on investment. Well, Brett told Bryan that that was purchased. Bryan then found out that was a lie. At that time is when he said in his own words his "heart sunk."
Since there was no 85West (and supposedly purchased another company in Chicago) Brett figured he'd start an electronics recycling company for more profitability. Got Bryan to borrow some more money from investors, I want to say $250,000 or so, not quite sure. This money was to start ESRC which had a great ROI if run correctly.
Little did anyone know, except Brett, he had been spending the original 85West money on himself to live like a king, and also used some of it to pay off the ESRC investors. This left 85West people screwed.
During all of this, with my company located at the ESRC building, I started to learn I was one of 8 other girlfriends, ranging from Indiana to Maine, to wherever else. Who knows, I only know of 8 of them, so there must have been more. I was scammed just like his brother, Bryan, and these 85West people. At the time of course, the lies said to me led me to believe 85West people were fine and there were no problems. Until the day the Indiana State Police served some papers. More lies were fed to make me think everything was okay. I wasn't quite sure, things were sure looking shady. There were times that Brett even paid my gas bill and other utilities with his 85West debit card. Had I known then what I know now, there is no way I would have went along with that.
Brett's shadyness was escalating and I was having less and less to do with him, one night I got home and found I had no power in February, due to lack of paying my bill. I called him, he was busy with his girlfriend so wouldn't have me over, but told me to call his brother, Bryan, and my son and I could stay at his house. I thought that was very weird because I didn't know Bryan at all, just in passing at ESRC. That was the night my life changed.
With Bryan I saw what a real man was, a caring, loving and compassionate man. Over the next few months we became good friends and I distanced myself from Brett even more, although it was tough with his extreme narcissistic ways. I started learning more and more about was really going on there at ESRC and it was amazing. I then knew why Brett always tried to keep me from his brother (even though he offered him to me in a way that night in February) ... sometimes I think that was one of those odd works of fate.
In late June of 2006, one day Brett just packed up everything and left town. Yes, that simple, left all his employees and his business behind, drained the bank accounts and left no money for even payroll. I was left with a few others to run his business and try to figure out what to do next. Bryan was devastated and scared to death, not only did he invest an ungodly amount of personal money into this project, but so did his investor friends, and now, it was over, Brett was gone, gone with all the answers, all the money (what was left), and all the documentation from the last few years.
Bryan had never been cut a paycheck in the 3 years he worked with Brett on these projects, and had stepped away from his investing career to help his brother. He was now stuck with $100's of thousands of dollars in credit card bills his brother had run up, no income, no savings (he put that into the companies) and no family. No family you wonder? Well his wife of 8yrs slept with his best friend, so they divorced, he also has two little girls. Bryan felt his life was over, betrayed by all who meant anything to him except his innocent children.
He had to sell his house that he could no longer pay for, he even sold it for a loss and sold the hot tub separately to make up for the loss. Having no one except his mother down state, there was no where to go. With the relationship we had built I felt that I could invite him into my home. It was a hard decision for him, to go from a successful investor to someone who was completely broke and having to move into a house with a broke single mother. Although the depression had already existed, it then hit a new low.
We have had a wonderful last 1.5yrs here, at least I have, learning what it's like to have a functional family, what a real man is and how to love again. Although Bryan knew there was impending doom for his 85West/ESRC investor problems, we tried not to think much about them because we needed to live our lives as normal as possible.
That was until December 7th, 2007. One morning we awoke very early, 5am or so and were just laying in bed talking, about 6am there was a loud pounding at the door. Bryan was under arrest for the sale of unregistered securities. You can find more information about that here. http://www.in.gov/newsroom.htm?detailContent=7315_13501.htm
As you can see Brett, who is a Vice President of Security Services at a very well known company, ScanAlert in Napa, CA was also arrested. Unfortunately he doesn't have as many charges as Bryan does, it's sad because all of this was Brett's doing. You may wonder why Bryan got stuck with the unregistered securities charges? Well, he's the one with the securities license, and these were his clients that he borrowed from. Which was, unknown to him at the time, a pre-meditated plan by his brother to rip off people for over 1Million dollars. Good scam huh.
Bryan has to go to court to file his plea in April, and find out his prison sentence. He has been threatening suicide the whole time. On February 25th his attorney told him to expect 3-5 years or so and he was relieved, thinking he was going to do 20 years or more, 3-5 years, although unbearable to think about was something he thought he could face. Although in a deep state of depression at this point he was willing to face it. I was so proud of him when he told me he felt better about it.
That was until the next day, when we got a subpoena on the door. The ex-wife was taking him to court for contempt of paying child support. He is only behind $1,000 ish. He has no money, has filed bankruptcy, finally found a job, which is 100% commission based and he hadn't made any money yet. He then lost it, he said he's not going to jail for her, he's not paying the money (that we don't have) and that he's going to kill himself. I wish I could say he isn't serious but he is.
He feels that it's one more blow that he can't take. He has always looked out for her and now she wants him in jail over $1,000. He just can't take it, he's not mentally able to take it and won't be able to for quite a while. It may seem petty, but to someone so extremely depressed, on more straw like this on the camels back is enough to crush all his bones, and that is what has happened. If she cancels the court date, he will live. If she doesn't he will die. I know he's not joking or making false threats. I know him well enough by now.
Christy, I beg of you, please please please cancel the court date. All you need to do is get it canceled and the father of your children might be around for them as the grow older. I know you want your money, as a mother who doesn't get any child support and is owed $18,000 I do know the feeling. I know you won't read this but this is one more of my prayers. It's all up to you to save him.
Well he's waiting for me in bed, I had better go. I just needed to type this, for some strange reason it helps me face this. I will pray that Christy changes her mind and pray for everything in general to help him, and us, get through this. Suicide is never the answer, to the one who wants to do it, they know no better at the time. They just want that terror at that time to go away, and thats the only way they know. I hope I don't have to devote my live to supporting others like myself. I want to thank the SOLOS yahoo! group for their support. And of course, my long time friend, Jason, for listening.
*** Please make sure you visit the rest of the "days left posts" and the months following this post, there is much more to read. Click the arrow next to March, April, May, etc... at the upper right hand corner or just simply click here and scroll down! ***
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