Remember the Gay '90s?

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

The Devlin only knows...

I suspected that may have been the case....


....I had been kinda hoping that the Devlin makes work for idle hands.

[wagyl]

I know nothing about the personalities involved other than their online reputation (bolstered by looking at the way they conduct themselves online), but mate, there are some jobs which are just not worth it, even at ten foot barge pole distance.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I know nothing about the personalities involved other than their online reputation (bolstered by looking at the way they conduct themselves online), but mate, there are some jobs which are just not worth it, even at ten foot barge pole distance.

Nah, I was only kidding. I'm actually going to become a drug dealer. Crime may well not pay, but at least there's some slight semblance of picking up cash in return for labor, which is more than can be said for some....(Mind you, pursing that line of employment apparently doesn't mean lessening the chances of getting beaten up...)

[Taro Toporific]

...Turdy Roid has never refuted their arguments with any detail and admits not paying his bills) ...

{PDF} Investors Guide to Metropolis
Amazon S3.amazonaws.com/.../Terrie's+Investors+Guide17Dec2012...
Metropolis recently acquired by Japan Partnership KK. – Now seeking investor with interest in publishing, JPY20MM-JPY30MM...more..

[TennoChinko]

Have the Devlins' run out of money? Perhaps free legal advice would help:

http://www.japaninc.com/tt720_lady_luck ... ayoshi_Son

------------- Free Legal/Accounting Advice ----------------

Free professional advice by English speaking lawyers, accountants, and visa support officers? Yes, you read that right! Metropolis is organizing free consulting for our readers at our office in Roppongi. Any problem related to legal matters, taxes, company start-up, visa issues, etc... the first consultation is totally free.

Date: Saturday, September 21 from 1pm to 5pm
Address: OG building 4F, 1-3-4 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo

* Each one-to-one consultation is limited to 30 minutes, and is available between 1pm and 5pm. By appointment only. Email: events@metropolis.co.jp
-----------------------------------------------------------

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Have the Devlins' run out of money? Perhaps free legal advice would help:

http://www.japaninc.com/tt720_lady_luck ... ayoshi_Son

------------- Free Legal/Accounting Advice ----------------

Free professional advice by English speaking lawyers, accountants, and visa support officers? Yes, you read that right! Metropolis is organizing free consulting for our readers at our office in Roppongi. Any problem related to legal matters, taxes, company start-up, visa issues, etc... the first consultation is totally free.

Date: Saturday, September 21 from 1pm to 5pm
Address: OG building 4F, 1-3-4 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo

* Each one-to-one consultation is limited to 30 minutes, and is available between 1pm and 5pm. By appointment only. Email: events@metropolis.co.jp
-----------------------------------------------------------

How's the Artless Aotearoan gunna get Terry's Take if they're doing it for free?

[Yokohammer]

My possibly over-cynical reading of this is that, someone needs legal advice, but is loathe to pay for it (or anything else, for that matter). So that someone has conned a legal consultant or two into doing a "free event" with talk about it being a great way to acquire new clients, or whatever. That someone is also likely to have a privileged position at the head of the consultation line.

Or ... maybe I just need to become a more trusting person (not likely).

EDIT: What the heck is a "visa support officer"?
Is the term "officer" being used correctly here? There are "immigration officers," and embassy "consular officers," but a brief search isn't turning up any "visa support officers."

[wagyl]

My quick guess is someone who works in a visa support office (whatever that may be) Somewhere like this. It is not a visa support official (whatever that may be). It just sounds like an adviser more than anything else to me.

And for what it is worth, I do not think you are over cynical.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

My possibly over-cynical reading of this is that, someone needs legal advice, but is loathe to pay for it (or anything else, for that matter). So that someone has conned a legal consultant or two into doing a "free event" with talk about it being a great way to acquire new clients, or whatever. That someone is also likely to have a privileged position at the head of the consultation line.

I think it's a little more altruistic, but ultimately all they will do if they consider you have a case that can be taken on is recommend that contact an attorney. These events, which most municipal governments run on a daily/semi-weekly basis, are often staffed by minsei-in and used for their training. Lots of commie lawyers work on them pro bono, but again only advise that you hire them if they consider you have a case.

Or ... maybe I just need to become a more trusting person (not likely).

I cannot possibly fathom why you would ever mistrust people...

EDIT: What the heck is a "visa support officer"?
Is the term "officer" being used correctly here? There are "immigration officers," and embassy "consular officers," but a brief search isn't turning up any "visa support officers."

Our Tel, the visa support officer cum gaijin entrepreneur of J-Tel and other equally dubious products aimed to Metro Pole Us, is looking after your best interests

[GomiGirl]

"Giving" free seminars is a standard marketing tool for building up a mailing list for spamming later.

The "someone" is most likely to be sharing in the spoils of the resulting mailing list. Perhaps they are financial advisors etc wanting to top up the rollerdex.

[Taro Toporific]

Whatever happened to Mark II?

I have been noticed that all Sparky's Instagram photos have been coming from Florida and not Japan for the past two months. I was worried that "Mark II" have given up.
But never fear, today I received a Sparkzilla-gram of the continuing saga.

Terrie Lloyd tries to blackmail us with our own money
September 21, 2013 by Mark Devlin
---Dealing with the Devil---
For the past couple of months we have been in “negotiations” with Terrie Lloyd regarding his non-payment from the sale of Metropolis in 2007.
In July 2013, we heard from an intermediary that Lloyd may be interested in giving us back Metropolis magazine...
M0Ar!~...

Spark Dino laughing his ass off by CRISTINA!!, on Flickr

[legion]

As it stands, Lloyd still has all his assets: He still has the five-story house with swimming pool in Shibuya; He still has Metropolis magazine, JapanTourist.jp and MetroWorks KK; and he still has Linc Media, Japan Inc Holdings, Terrie’s Take, the unfortunately-named Doglovers.jp, and BIOS. If Lloyd and his wife were decent people they would sell or transfer these assets so we can get paid. But they are greedy scumbags who think they can get away with it.

gee that's gotta hurt

All we are asking for is a reasonable settlement so that we can pay the loans we have been forced to take because of his non-payment, turn our business around, and beyond that ongoing payments until he has cleared his total debt with us. And if he can’t do that he should return the magazine he has effectively stolen from us. And if he doesn’t do that we will use all of our abilities to make sure that everyone knows to avoid this lying, thieving, blackmailing crook.

This is the sharp end of capitalism, they have no money, soon they won't be able to afford to pay their lawyer, their bills, and their loans. All Terrie has to do is drag this along until they go under.

[sublight]

They should go find themselves a battle-hardened war correspondent (preferably one who's gone to journalism school) to take up their cause. That'll show everyone they're serious!

[Coligny]

Are you suggesting a perfect storm of suck ?

[wagyl]

The only thing that would suck, is that there is not enough popcorn in this world.

[sublight]

No idea why, but I was actually wondering this week what had happened to M2, whether it ever made it beyond issue #1 (I never even saw a printed version of that one, but I'm not hip enough to be hanging out in Roppongi every night reading free magazines).

I could probably come up with lots of bitchy speculation about people not wanting to work with them for anything but cash in full up front, but the most likely reason is simply that whatever gold mine print media for the Tokyo gaijin market may have been in the 90s, it just doesn't exist today. Even general-interest publications with decades of experience and global reputations are getting squeezed hard, what are the odds of a fly-by-night free paper aimed at 10,000 (at most) drunks striking it big?

[legion]

Even general-interest publications with decades of experience and global reputations are getting squeezed hard, what are the odds of a fly-by-night free paper aimed at 10,000 (at most) drunks striking it big?

when everyone has a smart phone to while away the 9 to 17 minutes until their buddy arrives? about zero

[Taro Toporific]

Today I noticed that another Sparkzilla post about the continuing saga of the Metropolis sale. Go get your popcorn and read on!

Terrie and Kumiko Lloyd: Impending Bankruptcy
markdevlin.com October 2, 2013 by Mark Devlin
In recent “negotiations” Terrie Lloyd’s lawyer told us that Lloyd has “no money”, and would even have to borrow the measly ¥20 million he has offered us for his outstanding debt of ¥130 million plus interest and damages.
The truth is that the Lloyds – Terrie and his wife Kumiko — have plenty of money in the form of assets they own. They simply think they can get away with not paying us.
They own a five-story house with an indoor swimming pool in Kamiyamacho, a posh part of Shibuya, Tokyo. The land on which the house was built was supposed to be our collateral in case the Lloyds did not pay us, but instead they remortgaged the land to Shinsei bank without our knowledge within two weeks of the Metropolis sale. We are in the process of contacting Shinsei now to alert them that Lloyd and Kumiko misrepresented themselves when they signed the mortgages on the property. In the U.S. or U.K misrepresenting oneself on a mortgage application...more...

[TennoChinko]

Apparently not a well-regarded boss...

http://journal.accj.or.jp/leadership-managing-people/

LEADERSHIP | MANAGING PEOPLE


September 2013
BE A BETTER BOSS!
And how to handle a bad one
By Andrew Silberman

So let’s swing the ax at this prickly topic. I’ve enlisted the help of Bill Morachnick, president, Santa Fe Reynolds Tobacco International, GmbH, andDan Nestle, long-time Japan hand, now a senior marketing communications manager for a non-profit organization in the US.
Both Morachnick and Nestle have held leadership positions with companies and organizations in and outside Japan, and Morachnick has been an ACCJ member since the early 1990s. Like us, they’ve both have had their share of good and bad bosses, and based on what I have heard from those who work directly with these two, they are good, or even great, bosses themselves.

We’ll find better cheese!

Nestle shared one of his favorite bad boss stories, this from the CEO of an internet company in Japan.

“This CEO felt he was so right, so justified in his convictions, that any dissent or difference of opinion among his staff was due to their immaturity, or their being closed-minded. With morale at a low point, he decided to rally the troops by buying us each a copy of what he felt was the greatest motivational book of our times, titled Who Moved My Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson.

“He was so convinced that we’d come around to his thinking that he assigned us all to read it and give our feedback. Well, as more of us read the book, we came around to a new way of thinking, but it wasn’t at all what the boss had envisioned.

“Rather than fall in line, we started to see that the boss was the one moving our cheese and, dammit, we were going to find new cheese. He didn’t take it very well . . . and he never did get around to asking us for that feedback.” Nestle handled that boss in the most popular (and wise) way. Nestle left.
A recent Daily Infographic (dailyinfographic.com ) identified five of “the worst bossy traits,” namely, being a public belittler, liar, demeaner/condescender, humiliater/embarrasser, and micromanager/nitpicker.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/nestle

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Someone who refers to himself as "chief enthusiast" reeks of fucken wanker...

[yanpa]

AMT GROUP - Developing Global Wankers

-- Yanpa, CEO and Chief Evangelist of FG, Inc.

[wagyl]

Haha yes this is a current cultural watershed. I have heard of Chief Evangelists in North American technology companies having to print different business cards for use outside of North America.

It actually explains a lot, if evangelist is not a dirty word there.

[TennoChinko]

[Coligny]

Haha yes this is a current cultural watershed. I have heard of Chief Evangelists in North American technology companies having to print different business cards for use outside of North America.

It actually explains a lot, if evangelist is not a dirty word there.

Will never beat "Digital lifestyle specialist" used by the clowns reviewing the latest IRandom in their kitchen for youtube...

[Taro Toporific]

Remember the good old days at the turn-of-the-millennium with Sparky (Mark Devlin) Metropolis/Japan Today..

Well he's baaack!

Metropolis owner, David Wells, Terrie Lloyd’s partner, in $US2 million fraud, criminal probe
Posted on January 1, 2014 by Mark Devlin
...blah, blah, blah...
...Our aim is to put both Wells {current owner of Metropolis} and Lloyd in jail, where they belong. Along the way we will continue to expose Lloyd’s many frauds on this blog. We also want to make sure that anyone who is thinking of getting involved with Lloyd knows what kind of lowlife they are dealing with. It bears repeating that I had always looked up to and trusted Lloyd as a successful business person and a kind of mentor -- before he betrayed that trust and stole our money. Don’t let it happen to you.

popcorn-brony.gif

[TennoChinko]

Well, this self-disclosure regarding the Devlin's US visa situation is interesting. That is, they are on an L-1 Visa ...L-1A is Intracompany Transferee Executive or Manager & L-1B is Intracompany Transferee Specialized Knowledge which doesn't seem to be an honest represenation of their actual activities and business in the United States. Moreover it is clearly a temporary visa that can only be renewed for a maximum of up to seven years. It sounds like - based on the description of the situation on the Devlin's blog - that they have been/still currently are supposed to be in the US as inter-company transferees of the company they purported sold to Terrie Lloyd and no longer work for ... The Metropolis.

Even before 9/11, I don't think the US was ever one of those happy go lucky friendly places when it came to most foreigners violating Immigration law especially. Japan kind of spoils you in that way (as long as you're white & Western - and, not Nigerian, Chinese or colored) for those moments when one forgets to renew their gaijin card and we get away with an "oops, I'm sorry I got caught" letter.

Keep it comin', y'all!

[legion]

The Crime
It seems that Lloyd was waiting to find out if a scam his partner in Hong Kong had worked. In November Mary was been informed that Wells had issued a large amount of invoices from a company called Fullbridge to the company, registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), that held the magazine’s shares that we sold to Lloyd. These fake invoices were for non-existent services, supposedly over the last six years. As Mary found out, BVI companies only have 21 days to pay invoices or the company can be declared statutorily insolvent. Wells had hired a BVI lawyer to ensure this would happen. If the BVI company had become insolvent, Lloyd and Wells would not have to pay the money they owed. Wells nearly succeeded; Mary stopped the process on the last day.

The twist is that Fullbridge is actually our company too, which Wells sold to us in 2007 to receive and transfer payments from Lloyd to us, because the BVI company couldn’t have bank accounts. For some reason Wells had forgot this fact, or he thought that we had forgotten — a devastating mistake.

http://markdevlin.com/2014/01/01/metropolis-owner-david-wells-terrie-lloyds-partner-in-us2-million-fraud-criminal-probe/

I wonder how deep the forensic accounting will go, sounds like a tangled web which may not do anyone any favours in the unraveling.

Tough about his father, a cruel twist of fate.