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

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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.

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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
That was exactly my thought. Watch from a distance and don't risk any involvement. Self preservation of your 47 followers is the main priority here after all.

Meanwhile some poor saps getting conned out of 70k!

While I get the gest, I don't think it's about trying to preserve followers. If anything, a story of this magnitude would likely bring more followers... The part about watching from a distance, without risk is probably whats driving some bloggers hesisitation. To me, @DomainNameWire's article seemed more cautious than soft. Maybe he's trying to do what he feels is his best journalist duty to remain neutral, stick to facts, and keep an open discourse? Andrew clearly smells smoke, but without confirmation of a fire, or details of said fire, might be keeping him from sounding the alarms. I'm not a blogger though, so I'd love if one would chime in here.

...

Meanwhile, on twitter::

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After seeing epiks believed former SVP of Communications (aka epiks former hatchet man) his $30k masterbucks balance screenshot tweet, I always wondered if that was generated through his domian sales, or if Davis's masterbuck acct also contained salary/wages/other. Not to say that his balance wasn't from domain sales, but seeing how other employee's were paid in masterbucks, it wouldn't surprise me to learn Davis's balance was also representative of his salary/wages/other.

Given that masterbucks seems to have involved salary/wages, and seeing how some of those wages appear frozen/gone/unable to payout, it begs the question if the labor board will also be getting involved here.



Further, when questioning how masterbucks fell in such a financial hole, the question has to be asked what else did epik issue masterbucks for .... were any of epik company acquisitions paid out in masterbucks? did epik issue masterbucks loans? ...
This lady was an Epik employee for quite some time before she left or was fired. She probably had some idea of what was going on at Epik but chose to remain quiet after she left.

She's calling them out on twitter now that she's become a victim.

Karma is one patient bitch.

Tony is next. He willfully tricked someone into using Epik for a $70K transaction.

Karma is coming since legal authorities seem to be blind, deaf and dumb.
 
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Karma is one patient ...

💯

Tony is next. He willfully tricked someone into using Epik for a $70K transaction.

I wonder if @Tony Blessed is getting bonuses for closing these transactions knowing sellers won't be paid out in the reasonably expected time? Given the situation, the compensation of epik's escrow manager (if it's performance based) Tony and his salary could become investigative points of interest at some point.

This lady was an Epik employee for quite some time before she left or was fired. She probably had some idea of what was going on at Epik but chose to remain quiet after she left.

That's hard to say with any certainty. Especially for remote workers. Take FTX for example, I don't think every FTX employee who was uprooting and moving their families/buying property in the Bahama's knew how bad FTX's balance sheet was.

From my understanding, May is a respected domain broker who previously worked with Frank Schilling at Uniregistry. @Robbie blogged about her closing two 7-figure sales in January 2022 while at Epik:

https://robbiesblog.com/may-chen-of-epik-notes-second-7-figure-sale-of-2022/9972

Remote workers, especially brokers, are likely not privvy to masterbucks balance sheets. Further, by representing epik for large sales, she probably put her reputation on the line trying to bring epik to other markets (possibly the Chinese market?) and/or to her other existing established brokerage reach.

I actually think she's very brave, and I respect her courage to speak out now. Hoping to hear/learn more. Thank you @MayChen.com 💪!!
 
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Epik continues to dig out from financial mess​

Recently, the company sent an email to some customers stating:

When new management took over Masterbucks, the balance was approximately 4.5 million dollars. Through our dedicated and expeditious efforts, the new management team has brought that number down to just over $800k and change.
But last week, a representative of domain seller DomainEmpire posted a review on TrustPilot saying it has a balance of $1.5 million in Masterbucks that it has not been able to withdraw. It accrued this money from domain sales, it stated.

According to DomainEmpire, former Epik CEO Rob Monster offered it 6% annual interest if it kept its money in Masterbucks.

more here
https://www.namepros.com/threads/epik-continues-to-dig-out-from-financial-mess.1289717/
 
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Hey everyone,

Unfortunately I was not active on NamePros and was not aware of what's going on at Epik.

I sold a domain via Epik Escrow after Rob was no longer the CEO, and the funds were received by Epik on 27th September, I chose not to withdraw at that time because of the hidden charges of 45$ + 2.5% and preferred to use some of those funds to renew and transfer my domains.

I tried to transfer some of my domains to Epik 2 days ago and used the funds at Epik's Masterbucks and the transfers kept failing immediately even though they debited the amount from the wallet. After that I came across this thread and I am shocked to see what's going on at Epik. Epik's support team was not available on the chat and didn't reply via email. I have withdrawn the remaining funds to my bank account but haven't received any confirmation. Transfers are still failing. Wish me luck.

Also, will ICANN and other overseers help the customers get their funds back and the domains back in case the company folds?
 

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This lady was an Epik employee for quite some time before she left or was fired. She probably had some idea of what was going on at Epik but chose to remain quiet after she left.

She's calling them out on twitter now that she's become a victim.

Karma is one patient bitch.

Tony is next. He willfully tricked someone into using Epik for a $70K transaction.

Karma is coming since legal authorities seem to be blind, deaf and dumb.
I am not sure of May's role in this. There is probably compartmentalizing so it is impossible to know who knows what.

She very well could not be aware of any of this, and is just a victim. This entire house of cards came down pretty quickly.

However, Tony has responded in this thread. He clearly knows what is going on. There is no way he can play dumb.

He was also specifically called out in at least one recent Trust Pilot review.

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Epik is taking in new business when they can't pay existing customer debts. It is essentially making new victims by sticking them with Masterbucks balances that can't be withdrawn. Who knows when, or if, they will be able to be withdrawn.

This is basically the flow of an Epik escrow transaction now -

1.) Buyer pays Epik in real money.
2.) Epik transfers the domain to the buyer.
3.) Epik sticks the seller with a Masterbucks balance that can't be withdrawn.

Epik actually got paid real money, but is sticking the seller with Masterbucks that can't be withdrawn.

You only have one reputation. To still be involved with this is disgraceful.

Brad
 
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💯



I wonder if @Tony Blessed is getting bonuses for closing these transactions knowing sellers won't be paid out in the reasonably expected time? Given the situation, the compensation of epik's escrow manager (if it's performance based) Tony and his salary could become investigative points of interest at some point.



That's hard to say with any certainty. Especially for remote workers. Take FTX for example, I don't think every FTX employee who was uprooting and moving their families/buying property in the Bahama's knew how bad FTX's balance sheet was.

From my understanding, May is a respected domain broker who previously worked with Frank Schilling at Uniregistry. @Robbie blogged about her closing two 7-figure sales in January 2022 while at Epik:

https://robbiesblog.com/may-chen-of-epik-notes-second-7-figure-sale-of-2022/9972

Remote workers, especially brokers, are likely not privvy to masterbucks balance sheets. Further, by representing epik for large sales, she probably put her reputation on the line trying to bring epik to other markets (possibly the Chinese market?) and/or to her other existing established brokerage reach.

I actually think she's very brave, and I respect her courage to speak out now. Hoping to hear/learn more. Thank you @MayChen.com 💪!!
I indeed does not know what was really going on when I separated with Epik in the end of August this year. Back in August I did not agree with Brian Royce when he was trying to talk me into a position change proposal (Pay cut). And I have been working 24/7 for Epik since 2020, even when I was in labor for my second son, I was responding to customer's messages and emails on the hospital bed. So at that point, I felt very disappointed with Epik. And told Brian that I do not agree, and whatever decision he wants to make, please follow the employment agreement. However, he did not.

I helped every clients professionally and sincerely through out my domain career. I have always make sure all my clients get their proceeds on time, I actually remind them to make withdraws right after the transactions. For me only when buyer receive their domain, and seller received their fund in their hands are considered deal close. Up until today, I still do not know what is really going on with Epik, but as a customer, I reported my experience and I hope via the proper channel, issues can be resolved or at least get a proper reply from them. But so far, no reply from Brian or Lars.
 
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This lady was an Epik employee for quite some time before she left or was fired. She probably had some idea of what was going on at Epik but chose to remain quiet after she left.

She's calling them out on twitter now that she's become a victim.

Karma is one patient bitch.

Tony is next. He willfully tricked someone into using Epik for a $70K transaction.

Karma is coming since legal authorities seem to be blind, deaf and dumb.

Could this woman's money have been transferred from Masterbucks wallets to newly created In-Store Credits?
The answer is no!
 
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The weak response from @DomainNameWire and others is just pathetic. I know most of the people just want their money and are happy to promise silence if they just get paid and have no real concern for anyone else but you would think these domain niche news outlets would be jumping on something like this. Not a lot of excitement in the domain industry so a story like this should be a big deal but nope, barely a word. Makes you wonder if Monster is threatening them, bribing them or these news outlets just suck at their jobs.
Not sure how much post in
This lady was an Epik employee for quite some time before she left or was fired. She probably had some idea of what was going on at Epik but chose to remain quiet after she left.

She's calling them out on twitter now that she's become a victim.

Karma is one patient bitch.

Tony is next. He willfully tricked someone into using Epik for a $70K transaction.

Karma is coming since legal authorities seem to be blind, deaf and dumb.
in Chinese 恶有恶报,不是不报,时候未到!
 
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It looks like as of two days ago (December 1st) is when Epik began responding to trustPilot reviews trying to seperate themselves from Masterbucks:

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Yes, this is complete nonsense. Masterbucks = Epik.

This is pulled directly from the Washington Secretary of State website.

It's a Foreign LLC registration referring to the company in Wyoming.

Who is the governor? Epik Holdings.

To pretend that Epik and Masterbucks are completely separate entities is absurd.

Masterbucks_is_Epik.jpg
 
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Yes, this is complete nonsense. Masterbucks = Epik.

This is pulled directly from the Washington Secretary of State website.

It's a Foreign LLC registration referring to the company in Wyoming.

Who is the governor? Epik Holdings.

To pretend that Epik and Masterbucks are completely separate entities is absurd.

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Is their any signficance to the timing of the Masterbucks LLC formation registration date: September 15th, 2022. Is that the date the application was submitted, or could it have been submitted prior?

...

I think that registration date is what Logan Flatt was referring to in his tweet. But without being having a timeline of events at hand to refer to, I'm not sure what else was going happening on/around September 15th. For some context, DomainNameWire.coms Epik gets new CEO as Rob Monster moves to non-executive role article was published on September 2nd, 2022.
 
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10,000 foot evaluation.

Epik was given $16,000,000 by investors. Paid back ~$6,000,000 in cash and assets. Absconded with about $4,000,000 in customer funds. That equals about $14,000,000 more than they had at the start.

If Epik has $14,000,000 extra cash why can't they pay people back? Where did all that money go? Is Monster hiding it in offshore accounts or crypto. Did he lose it gambling on crypto or stocks? Was he and Epik really that far in debt?

There is something else happening behind the scenes creating this situation. It makes no sense.
 
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Is their any signficance to the timing of the Masterbucks LLC formation registration date: September 15th, 2022. Is that the date the application was submitted, or could it have been submitted prior?

...

I think that registration date is what Logan Flatt was referring to in his tweet. But without being having a timeline of events at hand to refer to, I'm not sure what else was going happening on/around September 15th. For some context, DomainNameWire.coms Epik gets new CEO as Rob Monster moves to non-executive role article was published on September 2nd, 2022.
It is likely just the filing date. The actual Masterbucks LLC that was formed in Wyoming was filed on 09/12/2022.
The 9/15 date in Washington was either the filing date or date it was processed.

The Washington filing makes the relationship between Masterbucks LLC and Epik clear.

It is a complete joke to try to separate these and pretend they are not related.

Epik is the company that owes these debts.
They are the company that commingled funds.
They are the company that locked the funds.

Masterbucks LLC did not even exist at that time.

Brad
 
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Back in August I did not agree with Brian Royce when he was trying to talk me into a position change proposal (Pay cut).

@MayChen.com -- Do you know how long has Brian involved or around epik operations? Publicly, his employment seems to have been announced in September, but your post mentions talks in August. I'm curious how much involvement Brian had in Epik prior to September, trying to figure out if he's learning all things epik at once, or if he had some time to mingle with epik staff prior to him becmoming CEO.

It seems like Biran is getting hit with a curveball every day, and his actions to dig epik out of a hole, only appear to be digging epik into a deeper hole than appeared to be when Rob was at healm. Any insight any current or former epik could share would be great.
 
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10,000 foot evaluation.

Epik was given $16,000,000 by investors. Paid back ~$6,000,000 in cash and assets. Absconded with about $4,000,000 in customer funds. That equals about $14,000,000 more than they had at the start.

If Epik has $14,000,000 extra cash why can't they pay people back? Where did all that money go? Is Monster hiding it in offshore accounts or crypto. Did he lose it gambling on crypto or stocks? Was he and Epik really that far in debt?

There is something else happening behind the scenes creating this situation. It makes no sense.
Who knows. There were lots of acquisitions as well.

The crypto market collapse could have some role. The hack could have had further damage than was reported.

We already know funds were commingled. Who knows where they went.

All I know is Epik is unable to pay their existing debts for some reason.
They are radio silent, so we can only speculate.

Brad
 
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Who knows. There were lots of acquisitions as well.

The crypto market collapse could have some role. The hack could have had further damage than was reported.

We already know funds were commingled. Who knows where they went.

All I know is Epik is unable to pay their existing debts for some reason.
They are radio silent, so we can only speculate.

Brad
"Unable" is too gracious. I think more like "unwilling".
 
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@MayChen.com -- Do you know how long has Brian involved or around epik operations? Publicly, his employment seems to have been announced in September, but your post mentions talks in August. I'm curious how much involvement Brian had in Epik prior to September, trying to figure out if he's learning all things epik at once, or if he had some time to mingle with epik staff prior to him becmoming CEO.

It seems like Biran is getting hit with a curveball every day, and his actions to dig epik out of a hole, only appear to be digging epik into a deeper hole than appeared to be when Rob was at healm. Any insight any current or former epik could share would be great.
I first heard his name in July on the email thread re Namescon. But never talked with him until August. My first impression is that he does not respect people( or just women). He asked Lars set up a meeting with me on my day off without asking my availability. I requested to change time got rejected. But 5 mins before the meeting happen, Lars told me Brian had a more urgent issue to attend.
 
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"Unable" is too gracious. I think more like "unwilling".
It could be either.

Brian Royce doesn't even seem to be aware of some of these debts including the $1.5M reportedly owed to Domain Empire.

If you take him at face value, who knows what other unknown debts are out there.

On the other hand, he could just be playing dumb about these unknown debts.

Did Rob Monster drive the bus off a cliff then hand Brian the steering wheel, or did they both help drive it off the cliff?

Brad
 
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It is likely just the filing date. The actual Masterbucks LLC that was formed in Wyoming was filed on 09/12/2022.
The 9/15 date in Washington was either the filing date or date it was processed.

The Washington filing makes the relationship between Masterbucks LLC and Epik clear.

It is a complete joke to try to separate these and pretend they are not related.

Agreed.

I'm just trying to figure out how this move could have happened. Could this have been filed by the chairman of epik holdings (who I believe is still Rob Monster) or was the filing orchestracted current Epik CEO who is Brian Royce?

Because in my non lawyer opinion, it would appear whomever at epik is attempting this shuffle, while simultaneously issuing an abhorent aboutface in the tune they were responding to the trustPilot resposes, this could further amount to intentional infliction of emotional distress.

California Civil Jury Instructions (CACI) No. 1600. Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress - Essential Factual Elements

CACI Nos. 1602-1604, regarding the elements of intentional infliction of emotional distress, should be given with this instruction. Depending on the facts of the case, a plaintiff could choose one or both of the bracketed choices in element 2...

A cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress exists when there is

(1) extreme and outrageous conduct by the defendant with the intention of causing, or reckless disregard of the probability of causing, emotional distress;

(2) the plaintiff’s suffering severe or extreme emotional distress; and

(3) actual and proximate causation of the emotional distress by the defendant’s outrageous conduct.’ A defendant’s conduct is ‘outrageous’ when it is so ‘extreme as to exceed all bounds of that usually tolerated in a civilized community.’ And the defendant’s conduct must be ‘intended to inflict injury or engaged in with the
realization that injury will result.’ ” (Hughes v. Pair (2009) 46 Cal.4th 1035, 1050-1051 [95 Cal.Rptr.3d 636, 209 P.3d 963])...
 
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It could be either.

Brian Royce doesn't even seem to be aware of some of these debts including the $1.5M reportedly owed to Domain Empire.

If you take him at face value, who knows what other unknown debts are out there.

On the other hand, he could just be playing dumb about these unknown debts.

Did Rob Monster drive the bus off a cliff then hand Brian the steering wheel, or did they both help drive it off the cliff?

Brad
He's lying. He saw those posts on trust pilot and ALL those people had reached out to him previously. He knew full well about all of them. He is lying.
 
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Agreed.

I'm just trying to figure out how this move could have happened. Could this have been filed by the chairman of epik holdings (who I believe is still Rob Monster) or was the filing orchestracted current Epik CEO who is Brian Royce?
It clearly seems to be some scheme to separate Masterbucks from Epik.
Epik's debts predated the existence of the company though.

No one could have even done business with Masterbucks LLC, as the company did not exist.

You can't just magically spend a couple hundred bucks and create a new LLC that absolves you of existing debts. That is not how it works.

The entire thing does not pass the smell test.

Brad
 
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Look what I found on Youtube:

This type of thing is so fucked up.

Rob Monster with all his godly talk, co-abundance, rising tides, helping others, don't hurt people, and all the other positive stuff...

There is no way you could treat people like this if you have even the smallest amount of compassion and empathy.

While people are suffering he is not willing to show his face. Pathetic.

Brian Royce is no better. He is also not willing to interact with people who are owed money.

Also, he is running the ship now as they are still looking for new suckers to use the "escrow" service.

Brad
 
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