Back to School, But Not for Long
I kicked off this year with a return to the classroom. My thought process was something like, "I can't really do anything else right now, so why not go back to school and finally finish those degrees I started ages ago?" Plus, it seemed like a good way to keep a low profile while the whole "Federal Case" nonsense blew over.
Unfortunately, that wasn't in the cards. Around springtime, my lawyer informed me that the government was gearing up to press charges against me, and soon.
Of course, I'd been hearing that for the past three years. But I wasn't exactly thrilled about the prospect of being hauled out of class in handcuffs, so I decided to leave school after the first semester.
The Investigation Heats Up
The government really did ramp up their investigations, dragging my former employees in for marathon interviews lasting 60, 70, even 80 hours. Here are a few of the questions that were relayed to me by people who shall remain nameless:
"We just want to know where all the money is?" (Um, they had all my bank records, so what money could they possibly be referring to? Maybe the millions that were allegedly involved in the Walmart Theft Ring?)
"When did you notice Doug was having financial problems?" (Why is that even relevant in a Copyright Infringement case? Maybe because they were looking for a specific date, like October 3rd, 2014, when the Walmart Theft Ring was taken down?)
"We find it hard to believe that Doug was selling his own TV show discs." (During the 2017 "raid" on my house, they found thousands of single discs from the Replacetvdisc.com project. Again, not sure what this has to do with Copyright, except that a large number of TV show DVD box sets were stolen in the Wal— [you get the picture])
Uncovering a Hidden Connection
Speaking of the Walmart Theft Ring, around this time I discovered another conviction that actually happened back in 2016. Jason Robinson was sentenced to 3 years in federal prison. The details released to the press were very vague; you had to dig a little deeper in the PACER system to find out more.
Associated cases are sometimes linked in the system, but not in these two cases. The only connection I could find was in a memo on the pacer system about joint restitution with Anthony Berry. I'm not saying the government was trying to hide the connection… Well, actually, I guess I am.
Next Time: Johnny Pockets rides again on Ebay, and lostmoviefinder.com finds Kunaki!
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