Once again a video by SlopesGameRoom on Youtube intrigued me to do some detective work. This time we will be looking in more detail to the mysterious case of the Lightfreq Kickstarter scam.
To brief everyone the LightFreq Kickstarter project was one that was sure to succeed. The only thing stopping production of the quite nice looking Speaker bulb was the money to produce, everything else was set in place and there seemed like nothing could go wrong!
The project quickly reached over its initial goal and as the LightFreq Inc. company received the £300,000 in funds needed to produce the item......they disappeared!
If you haven't seen the "4 crazy Kickstarter gadgets" video by Slopes Game Room then i suggest you take a look first by viewing it below, or going direct to the Slopes Game Room YouTube channel. Also an indepth investigation with plenty of info is available to view over at The Next Web.
The project was hosted by a Devon Alli (also known as Devin) who was acting as the owner of the LightFreq Inc. company. And as backers started to realise something was wrong a few of them decided to start doing some detective work of their own. This resulted in a lot of detailed info from the Kickstarter user named 'Tal' who uncovered that Mr. Alli had been in trouble several times over for drink driving and theft involving money. Not only that, but it came to light that Mr. Alli was currently serving jail time in a state prison for offenses including fraud.
As backers hoped to find some way of getting a refund it was discovered that Mr. Alli was already in prison at the time the funds were sent to his company. This conflicts with certain KS rules and so backers were currently exploring that channel when i decided to take a look into the case.
What interested me is once again, "How does a company just vanish overnight?"....
I first checked out the LightFreq Inc. company and instantly found its company registration forms. It existed, it had a real company address with office space rented at the Pinnacle building in Atlanta, and had been featured in many publications with interviews given in person by Devin. Surely something this well promoted and established couldn't be a scam? But all other evidence pointed against it. So i decided to take a look at Devin himself.
Taking a look at the various social media links posted by the KS backer named Tal i was able to get a rough idea of who Devin was.
At this point i figured Devin had either a circle of friends involved in schemes, or he came from a wealthy family. As its easier to locate family members i took that route first, and luckily i came up with some interesting results.
It seems Devin is one of a few very successful members of his family. I didn't delve too deep into each party so it was difficult for me to determine the exact link, but from what i can gather, either his father or father-in-law is a very wealthy man with a long list of companies (all looking legitimate) ranging from the medical profession to casinos. Devins sister or wife is also a very successful lady with a long list of professions to her name.
At this point i could assume that Devin was the sibling that used his families wealth for other than gaining knowledge, and served more as a "quick cash" kind of guy! However, looking at Devins Linked In profile it seems he had spent 9 years as the C.E.O. of a large organisation called Venture Merchant Service until 2012. He also claims that he has spent time as a producer in the music industry.
One family member i came across seemed to fit in with Devins lifestyle. I decided to research him further and ignore the other members due to them being too well respected to be involved. But Alwyn Alli seemed like an older version of Devin himself. Flash cars, playboy lifestyle kind of guy. Now there was some confusion with various info i read regarding Devon using several other aliases, and the name Alwyn had come up as one. But it cannot be possible that they are the same person as besides the feature differences, there is also a 10 year age gap between them.
While trying to find a social link between the 2 it soon became apparent that Alwyn was also a member of the LightFreq Inc. team. Finding this quite interesting i decided to look further into it when i discovered something that took a turn for the worst....It seems that Alwyn was actually the registered owner of the Lightfreq Inc. company, and the person who closed the company, writing it off the register in Dec 2016.
At this point we hit a huge halt in what the KS backers are exploring in respect to a refund. Devin himself was in prison at the time the money was distributed to the company. But Devin wasn't the only owner, and was not the person who collected the funds. The company didn't halt while Devin was absent, and he wasn't the person to end the company. In honesty, other than Devins word, there is no record of him owning the company at all and therefore could of just been a spokesman, or even a stooge.
It was then that i decided to stop researching. The limelight is on Devin but he isn't the guy people should be looking for. His answers would be a tangled mess of excuses defending his innocence. Questions should maybe be directed to Alwyn himself? It seems he has more to do with the collection of the money than Devin. though as hes always been a silent partner then any contact with him may be extremely difficult.
To be continued....
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