Richard Garriott Swindled Out Of $561,927
How crazy-rich is Richard Garriott? Rich enough that he didn’t notice — at least not right away — that he had been swindled out of over half a million dollars.
It looks like Garriott got taken by a magician. According to court documents obtained by the Medford Patch, a victim named as R.G.—”who resides in Texas and has other people pay his bills”—had 134 fraudulent transactions totaling more than half a million dollars.
The credit card fraud happened via Hank Lee’s Magic Factory, a Medford, MA shop owned by Harry Levy that the magic-loving game designer has done business with before. The fake orders were made via PayPal and supposedly sent all over the world. Court documents reveal that some orders showed a shipping address that matches that of Britannia Manor II, Garriott’s palatial, for-sale estate.
Worse yet, Garriott appeared in DVDs that were being sold at Hank Lee’s Magic Factory while this fraud was happening. It looks like the massive amount of fraud happened in bits that were small enough to fly underneath Garriott’s radar.
Levy filed a guilty plea in the court case, with the agreement that he won’t face stiffer identity theft charges. He could still face up to 20 years in prison on the charges.
And Justice was done!
Stiff Lord British? Very bad idea. He’s lucky he wasn’t thrown through a red moongate naked and hog tied.
Or forget the fantasy stuff. Didn’t Garriott start out with SCA stuff? I’d worry about getting run through by a suspiciously sharp replica sword.
Now that’s one sweet looking RG picture. I wonder how long that shit was going on for. I hate looters almost as much as mooches… maybe even moreso.
It is a sweet picture of RG. His facial expression reminds me of Solid Snake laughing with a cig in his mouth, playing compulsively with the safety switch on his rifle. Mischievous, even Lokian in their demeanor. Intimidating and a bit frightening if you’re shy at meet and greets. Queue 007 music performed with period medieval instrument samples. The beggars dance for change (as in spare).