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Comment RSSTrue.com Bankrupt and Owes $100M
Written by Pace LattinAugust 7, 2012 # 5:50 pm # Industry News, Specials # 38 Comments
Unfortunately more bad news that will affect affiliate networks and affiliates. Mega-advertiser True Beginnings aka True.com has filed chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in Texas Federal Court. True.com has long been a major advertiser in the affiliate space and made a name for itself in the industry for many of its overly sexy ads.
The really bad news is that, according to the filings it owes up to $100M to creditors in amounts from $1M to $10M. One can only assume that this includes several CPA Affiliate networks and publishers, many who had already entered into payment agreements with True.com after they failed to pay their bills.
A current search of CPA networks shows that more than a few CPA companies including EWA, ProfitKings Media and CPATrend are as of this writing, still running offers from True.com. One can assume that this bankruptcy filing has taken them by surprise.
According to the filing, there are at least 255 non-insider secured creditors owed, most of them unlikely to be paid what is owed, since the secure creditors, including the founder are owed as much a $61.5 Million.
The case is 4:12-bk-42061 in Texas Eastern Bankruptcy Court
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Written by Pace Lattin
Pace Lattin is one of the top experts in interactive advertising, affiliate marketing. Pace Lattin is known for his dedication to ethics in marketing, and focus on compliance and fraud in the industry, and has written numerous articles for publications from MediaPost, ClickZ, ADOTAS and his own blogs.
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I knew this would happen. I had dinner with an industry insider who told me over a year ago that the owner Herb Vest and his wife were partners in the company. Apparently she was caught fucking the pool boy and as a part of the revenge his plans were to “Run the company into the ground” so that she did not get anything.
I am also owed a nice chunk of money from TrueBeginnings, LLC back from 2010.
I guess this should be renamed “TrueEndings, LLC”
I found this site among many others pointing to the problems at this company!
I guess this “True Beginning” started with a “Happy Ending” with the pool boy. I guess everybody who works with True will end up with a shortage of Happy Endings….
I find it hard to believe it was just a matter of her doing the pool boy… sounds like a joke, come on. The reality is they´re screwed up and screwed up hard. $ 100m? That´s not peanuts, that´s for sure.
We were working with RevenueAds on True.com and we have not been informed to pause yet – we trust the guys over at RevenueAds as a valued partner to our business and utilized them with this merchant.
I’m sure if Rev Ads does not get paid, they won’t pay you either…dummy
I’m running through EWA and I’m not worried — EWA always pays on time — I’m scaling up spend as we speak!
That’s why you’re a “Newb”, idiot.
Lol@all the EWA newbies who believe ryan will pay them
Gotta love newbies.
And we ensure no -ve reviews for EWA even they fuck the affiliates !We got them covered !
I just asked my AM @ revenueads for a list of top converting offers and True was #3 on the list.. don’t think Ill be running that one lol! ten bucks says they been shaving leads like crazy or putting in BS fraud claims…
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We are having no issues running True.com but I know a lot of companies have had major problems collecting payment(s) in the past. It’s safe to say we are certainly NOT dependent on this advertiser. For affiliates this means Profit Kings Media has a plethora of dating offers that easily substitute True.com. Regardless of the outcome, we don’t bear the risk on our affiliates.
My Man Yousif. Love it
Running True right now at PKM with weeklies and no problems.
PKM will be the ones with the problems…maybe you should switch it to dailies.
How could they let it happen??? It used to be one of the strongest companies in the Net.
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Damn, you will believe anything anyone tells you I bet.
Whats next? Mate1 is really a spaceship manufacturer? Singlenet is a mob front?
You should go back to school or something because your bullshit-o-meter is broken.
Bankruptcies are public record, this is not a “conspiracy” theory. Get a grip.
Sorry to tell you, as the person wrote below, this is a federal court filing, it’s not yet April 1st.
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Fucking the pool boy doesn’t make Mrs. Vest a bad lady if you are the pool boy… perks abound…well running your company into the ground because your wife is a cheater sounds screwy to me but vengeance can take lots of forms…
Yes and in this form vengeance, which is usually never the best option, takes on a form of severe selfishness. I guess the employees don’t matter, nor do the creditors.
Wow, more and more companies going under.
Hopefully this is the last one.
LOL @ TrueEndings:
Apparently she was caught fucking the pool boy and as a part of the revenge his plans were to “Run the company into the ground” so that she did not get anything.
Is this true?
They should’ve started selling ad space like Plenty of Fish.
I wonder if this is indicative of other dating offers who only make money from their members and don’t sell ads?
Small margins and only one revenue source is never good business.
I was running True through Clickbooth ————–
NOT ANYMORE!
#FTC&Bankruptcy=nonpayment
At least ClickBooth deactivated the offer on their network the day before this story was even posted here. I ran their Chat LP but wont’ be running any true.com stuff anymore, anywhere, there’s plenty of alternatives with similar EPCs
Doesn’t seem made up, I read in the Dallas Morning Journal that Herb Vest file for bankruptcy, and it funnily states he is owed $61.5 million by his own company. Something seems fishy here.
Like he almost did intend to lose $60 million on purpose. Either that or he tried to “do a Vonage” and try to blast advertising to build name recognition and kept trying despite it obviously not working.
Well this doesn’t surprise me one bit. I’ve never been a fan of theirs. However, it is my understanding that because they are in Chapter 11, they will likely pay current affiliates while trying to work out a settlement plan on old debts. Kind of scummy, but that’s how it works. They likely kept the affiliates they viewed as critical vendors current moving into this. I’m not a bankruptcy lawyer, am not giving advice and don’t condone their behavior, but it might actually be safer now if you want to get in bed with a company that operates the way they do.
The only offer that can’t go broke is Justhookup. we all know why.
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‘Cause you’re on it?
WTF are Herb’s expenses?
Is he just dippin out w/ 60 mil?
Vest has been stealing from the company from the beginning! Spending $250K on renting yacht for a month on several occasion.
The man is crazy and put the story about the pool boy out because he was the one cheating with one of six nannies. The wife came home form a concert and Vest had a company employee there at 11 pm to set her up. He had her arrested for senior abuse.
The man cheated his own mother and two sons out of millions. Embezzled from son’s trust fund, which was set up for them by their mother from the money Vest owed her for their divorce and cheating her out of her shares of HD Vest. Stalked his ex- fiancee for 7 years…even after he married the woman he cheated on her with and went on to have children with the girl half his age through medical help because they never had sexual relations. He kicked her out with nothing. So he doesn’t have to pay child support told the courts a bunch of lies so he got custody of the twins. He hasn’t seen his sons or meet his own grandchildren.
His dating site was a rip off and sued for fraud. He wasn’t paying the vendor for the click. No one adversities on his site. The first clue was when his marketing for a safe site and to end divorce turn to sex ads and porn.
Get your documents into the court ASAP! Maybe you will get lucky and get a judge that wouldn’t pay Vest first. This is the first time Vest has file. He is 70 now, so will take his money and run.
This is not good news!
who knows if the pool boy story is true, but if you were around when true first came out – you will be remember they were a little crazy – Paying $65+ for a free sign up. Taking out full page ads in the NY Times, bashing I think date.com – and a ton of over crazy shenanigans. BTW who is Dummy in comments love it.
They could most likely sell the domain for over $100M….
Man, this economy is hurting everyone. You’d think true would’ve been able to weather the storm.
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Wow time to fire the accountant.
I saw this coming years ago that’s why I left the company back in 2009.
Wasteful Spending, Deceptive business practices, & Low Morals should be added to the list of reasons why this happened.
I have so many bad memories of this place.
Just for better understanding here…I’m curious about what exactly went on to make you head for the hills in 2009. Wasteful spending, I think I understand (please correct if I’m wrong) – Herb made a ton of money from selling his old company, plunked it into a massive advertising campaign.
But deceptive business practices & low morals? What were they doing? Not giving customers refunds or not paying vendors. I can’t get very good perspective on that just from reading bankruptcy press releases.
WonderWells Fargo bought nothing but a scam and lawsuits. They dumped that turkey. As for wasteful spending. Buy a company car for $400K Mercedes that Vest kept at his home and used for personal, or how about the expensive restaurant dinning he billed to the company. The many household employees with benefits on the company payroll. Paying lawyers to handle his personal legal problems out of company funds. The man should be in prison.
Everything he does is a fraud and don’t doubt the bankrupcty papers are full of fraud. Wonder how many of the vendors are his companies.