alert The fund can't be withdrawal from Epik.com via Masterbucks wallet

[enamebroker]

It happened on 23rd Aug 2022 and this matter lasted almost one month without any process. Masterbucks.com declined my fund withdrawal and disabled the button of fund withdrawal. And I contacted Epik.com and got no further action even if Rob Monster got involved in it for two weeks. All the time I was told in email by management review.

What is wrong with Epik.com? Do you think it is normal to disable fund withdrawal? How can I get back my fund from Epik.com? Thanks for your suggestion.

 

[Derek Peterson]

I have no clue about any of this.

However, in general though a company can't just misuse company funds, especially on personal projects, then convert that or other losses resulting from corporate abuse to "debt" that leaves customers holding the bag.

This is especially true with escrow funds. They are supposed to be separated from other funds.

That type of scheme would likely lead to severe consequences both legally and financially.

If a company is commingling escrow funds, and business funds, and personal funds...that is a textbook example of when piercing of the corporate veil would be appropriate.


The people who need to get left holding the bag are the shareholders.
Instead, Epik is making the customers hold the bag.

They are only able to still operate because of customers like Kathleen Kalaf. They essentially have stolen $91K from her. What other term would be appropriate to describe it?

They took $100K in payment for her domain. Kept the funds, and stuck her with some worthless magic beans (Masterbucks). They have had her funds for well over 4+ months now.

Let's not forget all the other people who are owed money.
These are not shareholders. They are just victims.

Brad

I was recently contacted by a shareholder. I don't want to reveal too much personal info but I can say that he had no idea of any of this stuff. He hadn't even heard about the investors until Royce took over as CEO.

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

i think the real issue here is that you fancy yourself some kind of legal expert

That is EXACTLY what @jberryhill is.

 

[bmugford]

Very interesting news:

Epik's address changed TODAY and now points to a registered agent. Bankruptcy incoming? Fed takeover? Some thing is up.

Show attachment 232288
Show attachment 232287

Their previous "address" was just a UPS store box.

The UPS Store Bellevue North Shopping Center
1100 Bellevue Way NE
Ste 8A
Bellevue, WA 98004

Their current address just appears to be a corporate registered agent service -

Northwest Registered Agent, LLC
522 W. Riverside Ave. Suite N
Spokane, WA 99201

I have used Northwest in the past. It is basically just a location to receive mail if you don't have a physical address there.

As far as I know limited, if any, people are actually working out of Washington state.

Maybe they could just not afford the UPS Store bill.

Brad

 

[Derek Peterson]

Their previous "address" was just a UPS store box.

The UPS Store Bellevue North Shopping Center
1100 Bellevue Way NE
Ste 8A
Bellevue, WA 98004

Their current address just appears to be a corporate registered agent service -

Northwest Registered Agent, LLC
522 W. Riverside Ave. Suite N
Spokane, WA 99201

I have used Northwest in the past. It is basically just a location to receive mail if you don't have a physical address there.

As far as I know limited, if any, people are actually working out of Washington state.

Maybe they could just not afford the UPS Store bill.

Brad

Also, interesting to note is that it is about exactly 6 months to the day since Royce became CEO. I had heard he was only hired for 6 month stint.

 

[enamebroker]

this is really a hot thread.

 

[Derek Peterson]

Their previous "address" was just a UPS store box.

The UPS Store Bellevue North Shopping Center
1100 Bellevue Way NE
Ste 8A
Bellevue, WA 98004

Their current address just appears to be a corporate registered agent service -

Northwest Registered Agent, LLC
522 W. Riverside Ave. Suite N
Spokane, WA 99201

I have used Northwest in the past. It is basically just a location to receive mail if you don't have a physical address there.

As far as I know limited, if any, people are actually working out of Washington state.

Maybe they could just not afford the UPS Store bill.

Brad

I'm sure this place is more expensive than the UPS store. UPS or other mail box places are nomally used to regular business stuff for businesses with no pysical address. These types of places are usually used if they need an offical place to receive official docs.

 

[wangtou]

Try with another browser

Try with another browser

Internet Explorer,Google chrome.
I can't even change a few

 

[bmugford]

I'm sure this place is more expensive than the UPS store. UPS or other mail box places are nomally used to regular business stuff for businesses with no pysical address. These types of places are usually used if they need an offical place to receive official docs.

RA services like Northwest, Incorp, even LegalZoom are like $100-$300/year. That should be a negligible amount of money to most businesses.

Brad

 

[Derek Peterson]

RA services like Northwest, Incorp, even LegalZoom are like $100-$300/year. That should be a negligible amount of money to most businesses.

Brad

They didn't change addresses for any financial reasons, there is some legal reason for the change. Has anyone checked to see if any lawsuits filed?

 

[Derek Peterson]

Apparently Rob Monster's phone has been disabled. I heard some reports so decided to check for myself to catch up with my buddy but it just goes straight to a generic VM, and he always had personal message. Address changed to Registered agent, phone disabled. I have a feeling this will be Epik's new homepage design any day now.

 

[Future Sensors]

Northwest Registered Agent, LLC
522 W. Riverside Ave. Suite N
Spokane, WA 99201

My best guess is that it's conveniently close for this attorney to check Epik's mail on a daily basis, without Epik having to reimburse a lot of travel expenses.

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PS, read this article, as well.

The identical telephone & fax numbers provide a little more guidance than just the name of the attorney.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

If this review is about delaying payouts by weeks instead of months, then it looks like Epik did this escrow this year.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

I just realized this entry on their website allows them to continue their dirty work.
For example, another gullible citizen sent them data that he wants to sell his name for a hundred thousand dollars. They can immediately answer him, our escrow service improved and restored work, then they receive money and say thank you for the money. Actually, they thank you for the money in advance.


https://escrow.epik.com

Thank you for your interest in using Epik escrow. At this time, we are working to improve our process so that our customers can get the most benefit from using the service. If you wish to go ahead and submit your information for us to be able to contact you once the service is back up and running, please email the following information, seller email, buyer email, domain(s), deal amount, and any additional information to [email protected].
Thank you!

 

[wangtou]

I just realized this entry on their website allows them to continue their dirty work.
For example, another gullible citizen sent them data that he wants to sell his name for a hundred thousand dollars. They can immediately answer him, our escrow service improved and restored work, then they receive money and say thank you for the money. Actually, they thank you for the money in advance.


https://escrow.epik.com

Give them the money or domain name, and they will be gone.
I sold the domain name and I couldn't get paid

 

[GNP]

Here is another TrustPilot review about Epik from yesterday.
trustpilot .com/reviews/63ee0c149b64b1bdaf593993

Epik really messed with them multiple times over several months and they ended up losing all their $'s while gaining nothing. I shudder to think how many more customers are having similar experiences.

 

[gotaheadrush]

Rob Monster did a $3-4M renovation project on his home slightly before the Epik crash, lost millions in crypto bets and spent many millions more on dumb pet projects, which was probably a money laundering scheme. That was NOT his money, that was embezzled and misappropriated investor's money, most of which has now been converted to debt in exchange for not pressing criminal charges. This is terrible and totally illegal but as despicable as these crimes are the theft from customers is even worse, far worse.

Kathleen, Igor and the rest did not want to invest their life savings into a Epik. They didn't want to invest every dime they have with some moronic grifters to build some scammy fintech or buy Monster's new kitchen. Brian Royce has no right to use this STOLEN money to pay operating expenses never mind build his pipe dream. When it is proven, and it will be, that he's building a fintech or some other venture with STOLEN monies he'll be sharing a cell with Monster. That would be a great punishment.

Why has he not been arrested?

 

[Future Sensors]

It looks like Epik has sold DNF. The domain is now pending transfer.

I wonder who the new owner of DNF is...

Updated Date: 2023-02-11T17:12:13Z
Creation Date: 2001-12-23T13:33:56Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2030-01-19T18:05:38Z
Registrar: Epik Inc.
Registrar IANA ID: 617
Domain Status: pendingTransfer

The domain is now safely registered with GoDaddy, and the victims can be paid from the proceedings.

Updated Date: 2023-02-17T05:17:58Z
Creation Date: 2001-12-23T13:33:56Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2031-01-19T18:05:38Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 146

 

[Embrand]

Not sure if this has been posted already, but it looks like Monster's Kingdom Ventures (Kingdom Companies, LLC) was dissolved last month because of missing tax reporting.

 

[Michele Dinoia]

first time I see this, good catch......., I really don't understand how they still doing whatever they want, I mean the web site is still there without any problem..........

 

[Embrand]

first time I see this, good catch......., I really don't understand how they still doing whatever they want, I mean the web site is still there without any problem..........

Yes, and Rob's LinkedIn pages still states he is Founder and Servant Capitalist of Kingdom Ventures.

Oh, and Executive Chairman of Orphans.com, which seems to have been sold by Saw.com. It is at Key-Systems now.

 

[Derek Peterson]

Why has he not been arrested?

I do not know. Feds can be cruel like that, they will sit and wait even after they have tons of dirt on crimes to watch them squirm and try to cover things up. It's usually the attempt at cover-up that does these type in for the long stints. They've probably been investigating him for well over a year trying to establish crime network. There seems to be a lot of international connections with some shady folks from what I have been told but who knows. Maybe they aren't doing anything and they never will for whatever reason.

 

[bmugford]

I found this thread interesting, from mid 2022.

It seems that Epik has been playing games with redemption period for quite some time.
When specific questions were asked, Rob disappeared.

Can a Epik staff sell your domains in redemption?​

https://www.namepros.com/threads/can-a-epik-staff-sell-your-domains-in-redemption.1275070/

So the grace period can be up to 35 days. That doesn't say much.

What is the shortest in can be? That is more important.

For instance, what is the first day after expiration that Epik can offer the domain for sale and keep the proceeds, or just warehouse the domain because they see value in it?

Brad

As explained many times before, the default/standard grace period is 15 days. If folks needs more time, they can:

1. Request a longer grace period

2. Request a domain lay-away where we renew it and hold in escrow.

3. Request a domain loan via our domain lending division, domainequity.com.


In some cases, they may prefer to:

1. Liquidate on NameLiquidate.com

2. Hire an Epik broker to get it sold, or help them improve cash flow via other domain sales.

There are options.

Our objective is to empower. Our mission statement is clear and very literally defines who we are and what we do, not cheesy rhetoric.

So the answer is (15) days then, which is well below industry standards for pretty much every well known registrar.

The "up to" stuff is a very poor way to phrase it.

Now people can decide if they think that (15) days is a reasonable time period for a registrar to attempt to sell their domain and keep the proceeds or simply warehouse their domain and keep it as their own.

To me that is not reasonable at all. If it was any other registrar with the same terms, I would find it unreasonable as well.

You could argue those terms are "empowering" Epik, not the registrants.

Brad

Can you point me to where in the TOS or "Domain Name Registration Agreement" that the (15) day redemption period is referred to directly? I can't seem to find it.

Epik.com Universal Terms of Service
https://www.epik.com/terms

Epik.com Domain Name Registration Agreement
https://www.epik.com/registration

There is also a reference to another file, which does not seem to exist -

5.5 Term and Grace Period​

The term of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect as long as you have any domain name registered through Epik or as long as you are employing any Service(s). You agree that you will not transfer any domain name registered through Epik to another domain name registrar during the first sixty (60) calendar days from its initial registration date.. All domain registrations are final. Upon expiration of your domain, Epik may at its own discretion provide a grace period during which the domain can be renewed. After the grace period, the domain, if eligible, may be recovered via the domain redemption process. For more information, see - Expired Registration Recovery Policy

That link to the "Expired Registration Recovery Policy" returns a 404 error.

The deleted (404) page is on The Way Back Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/2021030...port/faq/expired-registration-recovery-policy

I wonder why that page was removed?

From that page -

What happens to Domains that are expired​

-​

Domains that are expired may at our discretion be granted a grace period. By default Epik offers a 15-day grace period starting on the listed expiration date. During this time, the DNS of the domain is updated, thereby disabling the customer’s host records. To restore the prior DNS settings, the customer must renew the domain or complete a transfer the domain to another registrar.

What happens to expired domains​

-​

After the discretionary grace period the customer’s domain is deleted from their account. In most cases, deleted domains may be recoverable for up to a total of 69 days after the expiration date. In the case, where the domain are still eligible to be recovered a restoration fee is assessed.

 

[forrestyle]

Hello, I have not been able to get my money from epic for three months now. We are talking about 5 thousand. They all the time say chat tech support that they will contact me, but they are silent, and the mail is not responding

Can you tell me how to get my money back?

 

[wangtou]

Hello, I have not been able to get my money from epic for three months now. We are talking about 5 thousand. They all the time say chat tech support that they will contact me, but they are silent, and the mail is not responding

Can you tell me how to get my money back?

Mine is over 100 days old and $26,144

 

[Derek Peterson]

Mine is over 100 days old and $26,144

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure Brian Royce could have paid you and all the other customers back who had their money and domain assets stolen with the selling off of Epik assets but then Brian wouldn't have enough money to build a fintech (paypal competitor). No one else would give him any money to build it because he's not very smart or hard working and hasn't ever built anything and he's obviously too lazy, dumb and entitled to use his own money so he really had no choice but to steal your money and use it to build his fintech. Sure, some might argue that it's wrong to use other people's money without their consent and might even cry out "comingling" or "misappropriation" or even "theft" or "fraud" and yeah, sure, it's very illegal but they just don't get it. Brian is in his mid 40s, has 4 kids and a wife to support and no marketable skills. What else is he gonna do? I hope you all understand. Brian thanks you for the loan and for believing in him when no one else would, even if you didn't want to.

PS - They're running a little low so if you could renew and not say anything when your domains are stolen that'd be great! Thanks again!! Masterbucks to the moon!