Sunday, January 13, 2013

Citadel: Questions for potential investors.

Someone I respect with far greater business sense than I have forwards this list of questions for potential investors. He wrote this a couple of months ago, but with all the free publicity Drudge is giving this "investment," it seems timely:
re: KERODINA
Potential investors: I see from his website http://www.kerodinapress.com he’s hawking the 2012 Potomac Lifestyle Charity Guide http://www.kerodinapress.com/2012.htm and charging hefty advertising rates http://www.kerodinapress.com/potomac_charity.htm. Ask him which charities. And what their cut is. Ask who will give him references. Somebody with an established and credible operation. Ask him if his Charity Guide is recognized: http://www.potomaccfc.org/Forms/2011%20CharityList_Potomac_FINAL.pdf. Then ask him what happened to the 2011 Charity Guide http://www.potomacdoctor.com/. Ask him for a list of satisfied customers. Ask him why Kerodina Press doesn’t show up on a Better Business Bureau search using his zip code. http://www.bbb.org/us/Find-Business-Reviews/name/Kerodina/20877/ Go ahead and fill out the form if you’d like them to look into this.
If he’s going to expect trust for this new venture, why would he object if investors asked for specifics about old ones? If they were successful, that would bolster his credibility for being able to pull something off and his trustworthiness for doing what he says he will.
Why would you invest a dime without verifying his business reputation with those who have dealt with him and with those who can assure you he gets a clean bill of health? Wouldn’t you do this with anyone asking you to invest a substantial sum of money, especially if there were legitimate questions and concerns about his past actions and current motives?
Let's see, Citadel is up to what, 80 or so people voting on K's site poll about it now--and he says get one of 3,000 lots before you're shut out? How many of those 80 have $ to pony up? And for those who do, no, you don't get a say into the finances or get to review anything auditable. Rail against the SEC as the corrupt fed racket that it is, but at least it provides for reviewability.
Potential investors need to do some due diligence here, but all we have available to us requires doing a bit of searching. Are there other investment “opportunities” he offers that we can look at?
I see from his website he’s hawking the 2012 Potomac Lifestyle Charity Guide and charging hefty advertising rates. Ask him which charities will benefit. And what their cut is. Ask who will give him references. Like somebody with an established and credible operation. Ask him if his Charity Guide is recognized by anyone. Then ask him what happened to the 2011 Charity Guide.
Ask him for a list of satisfied customers. Ask him why Kerodina Press doesn’t show up on a Better Business Bureau search using his zip code. Go ahead and fill out their form if you’d like them to look into his charity guide.
Then look at the complications arising from other business ventures and relationships. Look at his perceived reputation with questioned business practices, including a spaghetti network of domains that seem to do nothing but exist or overlap. Look at his ongoing lawsuits, and his threatening to sue if anyone uses a picture of a model from one of his other businesses. Look at how some writer forums point out his charging to read manuscripts in his publishing business is not something reputable agents do. Look at his insistence that he got a raw deal when convicted, his taking over and commercialization of the Three Percent “brand” which he had nothing to do with creating, his attacks on the guy who did, and then ask yourself if this is someone who has earned blind allegiance and hard-earned money without complete transparency.
Ask him about his enemies list, and how all his relationships with anyone who can think for themselves seem to blow up into ugliness. Then look at some of the creeps he surrounds himself with, like thug “Bill Nye” who wishes people dead from cancer, acts like he’s superior to “frat boys” and thinks posing to show everyone his Popeye forearms makes up for his shriveled soul.
If K is going to expect trust for this new venture, why would he object if investors asked for specifics about old ones? If they were successful, that would bolster his credibility for being able to pull something off and his trustworthiness for doing what he says he will.
And by the say, what’s with all the aliases? Sam Kerodin, Christian Kerodin, Sam Kerillion, Christian Hyman, Sam Hellesponte? Who typically employs multiple “AKA’s”?
Why would you invest a dime without verifying his business reputation with those who have dealt with him and with those who can assure you he gets a clean bill of health? Wouldn’t a prudent person do this with ANYONE asking you to invest a substantial sum of money, especially if there were legitimate questions and concerns about his past actions and current motives?
Instead his position is if you don’t like his non-prospectus, keep your mouth shut and just leave him and his supporters alone, or he implies he’ll sue? Why is that not a surprise?
If this exercise pans out in his favor, he ought to thank us for giving people a metric by which to assess his past performance as a standard of reliability. In the mean time, if anyone knows any financial/securities specialists, lawyers, etc., you might want to ask them what they think about this whole business venture and what issues they think need to be addressed before they’d invest their own money in it.
Who would want to go live in a community run by this guy? Not that there’s a chance in hell he’ll ever even have a viable firearms business (and wait till he threatens to sue a gun magazine for a product review he doesn’t like), let alone his Citadel.
Caveat emptor.

23 comments:

Jenny said...

So wait... this guy is looking for a bunch of Americans who believe in "independence, self sufficiency, and patriotism."

... who are willing to pony up the cash to lease land in this little medieval village he's building...

... so that he can sit in his castle-factory on the top of the hill and play lord of the medieval manor while other people pay off the mortgage?

Talk about a failure of the market selection process. At least the Ren Faire guy was marketing his site to people who wanted to play medieval peasant.

Ain't never gonna be anything but a website. Anyone with the cash to live back of nowhere and the American independent streak to strike out for the Idaho boonies ain't gonna bite on that deal.

Anonymous said...

thanks for posting. I knew this citadel smelled like shit. I live in the same county. razor

oughtsix said...

Stay on this pos like odor on offal, Mike.

From the first days of your battle with him, I smell the same rat you do. I can't understand the gullibility of many others in the "Liberty Sphere" who continue to support, defend and link this mole.

Caveat emptor, indeed. Should read, "Run! Run for your lives!"

Anonymous said...

man am I glad you posted this. Finally word is getting out about this "snake oil" project

Anonymous said...

Sammy The Reich's Leader claims to have over 200 sheeps already signed up and some 20 acres of land purchased, not to mention the firearms factory manufacturing 1911s and EBRs like crazy.

My little research on this Fuhrer makes my head spin. I'd need a few secretaries just to keep the hundreds of companies and copyrighted names and www addresses in order.

If this dude is not working for the big G, I'm Jim Klein.

I sure hope the people of Idaho and the rest of the Redoubt states are not that stupid as to allow herr Fuhrer and his minions in.

When there was a dialogue initially on one of his blogs about the rules and punishments of the Citadel III, plenty of patriots told herr Fuhrer that they rather skip this concentration camp. Naturally, all comments were deleted.

Dank u wel, Mike, for exposing this "patriot" for what he is - a fascist POS, and a felon at that.

Tino

Anonymous said...

Heres what I'd like to know. How dose a convicted fedeal felon get into the gun biz? How did he manage to get arrested on airport property with a truck load of guns and not go back to prison? How has he used 4 diffent names on court Docs. without being charged? How has he managed to commit AT LEST 100 counts of mail fraud or wire fraud without charge? Who is protecting him and why?

Anonymous said...

Seems like it would be easier to have all 200 families buy up existing condos in the same neighborhood. They could then get elected to the board and have majority support when changing the village rules to fit their agenda. But, living with like minded individuals is not really their ultimate goal. What they want is something like the Branch Davidians had in Waco or the Jim Jones compound. We all know what happened to them.

Anonymous said...

I noticed this morning that survival-blog remove the citadel link. interesting

Anonymous said...

Seems odd too that the citadel president ms. violet has just disappeared. She lives up in this area where the citadel is to go. Her blog is gone, her image, maybe she had a come to Jesus moment. The 3 arms co. even made up fliers for there new gun shop in St. Maries. The flier was pulled sometime ago and the address they gave does not show up. I remember the phone # 855-III-arms

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this as some people were quite surprised to learn of the controversy only recently.

http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/01/the-iii-citadel-controversy.html

KingOfDebauchery said...

Mr. Vanderboegh,

It looks like you might have gotten a little 'click happy' with this post. It seems that you accidentally pasted the text multiple times.

No need to post this, it's just a friendly fyi.

:)

Anonymous said...

One of the oldest proverbs in the English language goes: "A fool and his money are soon parted."

Anonymous said...

just got this

http://www.survivalblog.com/cgi-bin/mt5/mt-search.cgi?search=citadel&IncludeBlogs=2&limit=20

someone just got thrown under the bus

Abaraxas said...

2000 people on 20 acres. Do the math. It will be Soviet style barracks, not nice homes.

Also, they tried to make their site's registration private but left a few fields in. This resulted in revealing some info about who owns the site or runs it. Some Eastern European outfit.

http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,93258

TJIC said...

A quick 'whois' to find who owns iiicitadel.com yields:

WhoisGuard
WhoisGuard Protected ()

Do the same for any reputable company (Amazon, Google, either of my two humble brands, etc.) and you get a name and a mailing address.

SCAM.

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:27am

Can you (or anyone) provide more details on the airport thing? My google skills aren't producing a result

Anonymous said...

Mike, I'm surprised that Big K hasn't contacted you with a cease and desist from telling lies on him, or threatened you with lawyers.
Oh, my, whatEVER shall you do??!!

B Woodman
III-PER

Anonymous said...

This was the funniest piece I found today:

http://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=837926

Kerodin & Wife
RapeSafety.com
Holly Kerodin & Chris Keodin
15732 Crabbs Branch Way
Rockville, MD 20855
PHONE: (301) 721-0006

-----

A bunch of "wenches" found them out in a few posts, Kerodin et all trying to sell their non-existent magazine: http://www.wench.org/showthread.php/89162-New-Wench-Magazine-What-do-you-think

One of many gems from the forum: http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/

http://www.plainsite.org/flashlight/case.html?id=500244

Q.E.D.

Tino

Jim Klein said...

"If this dude is not working for the big G, I'm Jim Klein."

Hey Tino...whatever wild trip you're on, could you manage to leave me out of it?

And if you have even a drop of evidence for this extreme charge--one which is laid against Mike regularly--then set it out. I'm sure everyone here would be interested.

Or are you like the others...just make insinuations that spring off the top of your mind? These are great times for stuff like that; I'm sure you're very proud.

Ed said...

I almost convulsed from laughter reading the details after Googling "kerodin citadel location details":

"and on the cost calculator page " Every Citadel home will come with a 2,500 gallon water tank, a one year supply of food for either 1 or 2 adults, 1 or 2 AR15-variant rifles and 1,000 rounds of ammunition per rifle, a generator, a composting toilet, a vault, a protective Safe Room. If you are bringing more than 2 adults, additional ARs, ammunition and food will be added for a tiny fee. Remember, your home requires zero down payment, zero interest, no background check and no credit check... and your Lease is for Life.""
You give me enough money for a concrete bunker and I too will provide an AR-15 and ammo "for a tiny fee". How tiny is tiny will be my decision, but compared to the cost of the bunker, it will be tiny. Of course, there is no mention of what will fill and replenish that water tank, provide fuel for the generator and remove the compost from the toilet, or where the nearest source of food replenishment will be. Does the term "company town" mean anything to you? BTW, don't drink the KoolAid. Lifetime leases can be so ... limited.

Anonymous said...

You are a reasonably educated man so this observation is for Mr.K`s fan`s who I know come here looking for thing`s to cry about. Webster`s New Collegiate Dictionary ; ' agent provocateur '; one employed to associate himself with suspected person`s and by pretending sympathy with their aim`s to incite them to some incriminating action. Twice within the past year the gentleman in question has asked his follower`s to : sign their names to a blog site , and : assemble at a predetermined location. Guy`s seriously , times being what they are , how fucking stupid is this ?.

Anonymous said...

I notice none of the people attacking you on this, especially K, have addressed even one of these legitimate questions, but instead are attacking you with childish insults and laughable threats. History shows us you can't save people from themselves, especially those who hate & destroy those who try.

Rollory said...

Mr. Vanderboegh, I have been rather harsh in your regard in the past, and on some topics I still strongly disagree with your publicly stated positions, but in this matter I owe you an apology. It is very clear to me - based on the sort of information discussed in this post and comment thread - that I was wrong about Kerodin and you were right all along. I am sorry I defended him in the past. These questions are the sort of thing NO legitimate business has cause to fear, and it is mind-boggling that so many supposedly sensible people are choosing to overlook them in the interests of the nonexistent unity of a group of internet blowhards.

In my defense I can only say that when I was defending Kerodin, I thought I had good reason. I was wrong.