If you have heard of me you have probably heard that I am a scammer and a fraud. If you haven't heard of me this is a post to set the record straight once and for all.
In August 2014 I decided I was going to launch an ambitious start-up called Banx. After starting with BTC mining this new company was going to be a powerhouse in the Bitcoin world.
Fast forward to December 2015 it was a massive failure. Why?
I screwed up. How did I screw up?
- I relied too heavily on technical people who let the company down
- I put too much trust in my abilities to fight a decreasing Bitcoin price at the time
- The project was way too ambitious for the money we were able to raise
- I put too much time into trying to get one £250,000 investment option signed
- I fucked up
- I tried to grow things way too quick for the money invested.
I set out to raise $1 mill. I soon realised that wasn't going to be enough so doubled the Banx available, increased the holding of everyone by 100% so no one was effected.
I concentrated on raising investment more than I should have. I should have taken it slower and got one project up at a time.
Despite what people say I have NOT scammed anyone. I fucked up but have NEVER scammed anyone.
Intention is everything. It was never my intention for this to fail and it certainly was NEVER set up to scam or hurt anyone.
How many reading this have experienced failed businesses?
I have two major failures in my business life. This is one of them .
You will read a lot from a lot of haters I have online. Many of them continue to re distribute as much as they can about me. I have had threats of physical violence, constant abuse and trolling on social media.
I understand that people are pissed off. I understand that people are disappointed but I do not understand the levels some have stooped to.
The bottom line is that despite the ambitious plans Banx only managed to raise just short of $500,000. Despite what people think $500,000 is bootstrapping a business like I planned over an 18 month period. Chasing the investment to keep going was a major downfall of mine. Like i said I am the first to admit my mistakes.
I have a few people making claims I have received way more than this. This is simply not the case.
I'm an entrepreneur and an optimist. maybe my optimism got the better of me that things would turn around.
Categorically I thought everything was going well up until end of September 2015. I 100% believed this was going to be a success. I never took investment money in knowing things were going to fail.
It's easy to call people a scammer when you don't know the full facts.
So what can I be accused of? Fucking up a tech startup in a very difficult time when the main element of the company was a declining Bitcoin price.
I overreached and took my eye off the ball of growing what we had to work with at the time. I hired to many people too fast and I took the word of people who said they knew what they were doing in the early days of the startup when in fact they didn't.
I hold my hands up to screwing up. But I will NEVER accept people calling me a scammer.
If you google my name you will see a lot more about me. So much so I felt the need to write a book about my life to set some of the other untruths about me straight.
Google me. You will see I did run a massive network of adult sites, I was very successful until I overreached and tried to go to the next level and lost everything. You will also see that I decided to try and pay my debts off from that failure by growing weed. You will then see I got caught and spent two years in prison.
I have no moral issue in either of things, some people may have. I do however ever have a high moral code that I still too and that included being honest, open and never intentionally screwing anyone over.
You will also see posts about how I have suffered with major mental health issues, something I have been very open about. I have however had my haters questioning the validity of that.
I even felt compelled to ask my doctor to write a letter confirming this as one particular Banx investor and hater questioned if I had in fact ever had a suicidal thought.
I don't write this for sympathy I write this to be open and honest.
If you would care to read about my life prior to Banx feel free to download my book here
Addressing the scammer accusations.
Scammers don't publish their home addresses
Scammers don't invite people to join them in their offices
Scammers don't use their names when trying to continue to turn things around
Scammers do take the money and run.
I have not, I am still here turning things around.
I could have just closed Banx and said 'sorry folks, it didn't work out' I didn't. Instead I personally offered to convert everyones Banx to another Bitshares asset that eventually the companies running my new and future businesses will buy back using the buy back model.
Again, I felt a moral issue with just closing it down so I decided the only thing I could do is close Banx down and start again. I am doing that.
90% of the people who held Banx converted. The others who didn't are mainly the ones you will read stuff about me from.
That is their choice. I cant do any more than I have done.
Despite all of this I have my supporters. Some of those supporters are heavily invested into me and fully back me in my future plans.
I am launching my new business as soon as possible. In the meantime I am launching products and marketing them to build my customer lists back up. I am a marketers, love or hate it but I am an entrepreneur and marketer.
One of those products launched last week and is called Steem Cash. This product gives people all the training they need to start posting on the Steem platform. This have even been called a scam. We charge $9 for the product (which we give to affiliates for bringing us the sales) and to date we have had 1117 people buy this product. That is 1117 people now introduced to the steem platform. We mentor, make videos and train people every day - people that chose to find a value in that.
Sort of how others choose to find a value in a digital token - everyones choice - right?
I have had a load of abuse here on this platform and have been censored. People chose to believed everything that is written about me and lies told.
I have been lucky to work with Michael Taggart on this product. Michael and I have known each other for just over two years and I view him as a friend. He is a great guy who has helped me market things I have been trying to do with Banx in the past.
To confirm Michael Taggart has never been a part of Banx other than helping me to market it when it was going well.
What you will see from me is that I will continue to bring value to people I sell products to. I will launch more products and those people will be introduced to my new business once it launches.
I will work my ass off to turn things around and I will do my very best to turn business around for everyone involved.
Despite anything that happened to me I will NEVER GIVE UP. Never...
So that is the real story. There you have it. I have posted many times on this before, shot many videos about it and answered many questions in the past.
I only wish to look forward and carry on working hard and focusing on turning things around for me, my family and all the investors that still believe in me and my abilities. I am looking to show and prove that I can provide a value and make up for my mistakes and screw ups by learning from them and helping others learn from them as well.
Best Regards
Mark Lyford
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08797622/filing-history
Lyford didn't close anything down.........yet!
there you go, Banx Capital Ltd is alive with Marky boy as director, I have physical proof of deposits being made into the accounts of this company,however, as of today Lyford has filed Dormant company status, yes, that can change when the accounts are filed, the problem is Lyford will not & cannot file any accounts so we'll have to wait & see what action if any he takes, he's timing it out for a forcible strikeoff, I am submitting all of the information that I have developed to Companies House & the Insolvency service in an effort to prevent the closure,
given that Banx Capital Ltd was the recipient of Banx deposits why is it still a live company if Banx has been closed down?, maybe Mark can answer that?
Just a thought Mark, there is a proper & just way to bury this subject for ever,give this some thought,
without a doubt, every investor I have spoken to has said that with clarity they could & would let go, they would accept a failed start up, I am also speaking for myself here,
so, assuming that the majority of investments were deposited into Banx Capital Ltd (i understand that some payments were deposited with you personally, even some paypal payments)
If Banx has really failed then all you need do is formally liquidate Banx Capital Ltd, the investors can all file a claim with the liquidator, we get to examine the books, we see the cash flow,the disbursement of funds, you know, wire transfers,cancelled cheques etc etc, everyone will see exactly what actually transpired, the process would suck in any other entity which became embroiled due to your intermingling of funds ,
something tells me that you & I both know why you will not do this, am I right?, if I am then every single investor that you have should be really scratching their head.
what appears to be the case now is that you are following your time tested method of either declaring a company as "Dormant" so no accounts necessary ,or you just fail to file any accounts or respond to companies house & they forcibly dissolve the company, that's what you're doing with Banx Capital Ltd isn't it?, it is what you have just done with Mark Lyford Ltd isn't it?
why not clear this up Mark, liquidate Banx so we can all see what a stand up guy you have been & we can all get on with the rest of our lives
just one other thought to close, who is the one guy who didn't invest a single penny?, that's right Mark Lyford, who's the guy who got all of the money?, right again, Mark Lyford, every investor should be very suspicious of your motives & intent
Everyone makes mistakes. You never ran, or hid your identity, how to get ahold, and communicated everything the entire way. Maybe you were too transparent. Either way, you didn't run even when it all burned down, which is partly why I stood by and defended you as a person.
Just continue to provide to the community here valuable assistance, help, training, stories, perspectives, etc.
People here will hate. They will vent. They will come and abuse you.
It's already happened and will continue.
Just conduct yourself and your actions with positive intent and guided by love Mark.
Everyone makes mistakes. It is what you do with them going forward that measures the person.
You will be ok.
Exposing scammers is not abuse.
Continuously beating a dead horse IS.
Making new threads on a near daily basis is.
absolutely fucking wrong. Prime example was Mr Homero Joshua Garza of GAW Miners.
so the truth is, there's no truth but some repeated stuff from your side. I knew what was coming when I read the title.
Hey Mark,
As someone who was new to all this, just reading the user backlash to Steem Cash and the responses, it is refreshing to hear your comments on it. People were throwing around the scam word but no one was backing it up with any solid information aside from pointing out that Banx failed.
Everyone fucks up, I failed my first business but luckily I didn't have to worry about investors =P While I have no idea who you are in person, you do show that you are willing to be open about yourself and your past which is cool. Best of luck to you and Michael.
Did you take nearly 1 million pounds from investors with no evidence of where the money went? Did you inflate a share price to entice new investors with false profits? Then when investors money stopped coming did you then turn around and say your business failed?
Don't judge a book by its cover and very well thought out marketing plan.
Let's ask him a very simple question. Here it goes.... Mark Lyford, why are so many people trolling you past and present?
Agreed, which is why I have been making the assumption of innocence on his part until either news or some investigation comes out saying otherwise. I am not trying to defend his actions, or his business, just trying to say "good luck" to him and his difficult future ahead of him.
From my own perspective, I got burned on a bad investment by buying into "The DAO." I knew it was risky, and I knew it could fail, but hoped it could turn into something fruitful. If The DAO funds weren't refunded to investors, I wouldn't have cared enough to do anything about it. It was a risk I was willing to take for the potentially high returns. Plus, I failed to do my own "due diligence" as I bought in with the assumption that the Ethereum team backs it, so it must be cool.
NOTE: I know The DAO and Banx are two completely different scenarios, just trying to illustrate a point on risky investments (especially in the crypto space where too many coins end up dead). The first year I started investing and trading I learned one of the biggest lessons I will never forget:
Don't risk money that you aren't comfortable losing
That's a very fair response, however Mark cannot and will not provide any evidence to contest what the 'trolls' are arguing.
I want to point out that I also had a significant amount of BANX and lost a significant amount when it failed. Yet I still chose to work with Mark on something to bring value. Because I know him as a person and made that choice, unlike many people that are here repeating things they read somewhere.
@marklyford
Mark, I was never involved and so I don't know all the details and I don't really care to know. I don't want to waste my time on it. But I will say this ...
Now that you have posted this the best thing to do is move on and don't answer any more questions. You said what you have said now leave it and move on.
Anymore communication just keeps the whole thing alive. No matter what is said the best thing to do when being attacked is to ignore the attacks and simply flourish and prosper.
I will leave you with this thought ...
Blame is the negation of responsibility. It's an effort not to be responsible.
Anyone investing in anything made the decision to do so. If it goes bad there really is no one to blame but yourself.
There can be a lot of tit for tat but the truth at the end of the day is that if you put money into something you do so knowing that you can lose it.
I have found that anyone blaming anyone else is really just demonstrating how they are not responsible for the part they played in the situation.
Also someone that is hell bent on proving another wrong usually you will find that they are guilty of the very things they are accusing you of.
Move on mate. Flourish & Prosper. You create your own tomorrows.
Best,
Tony
if there wasn't a case of misrepresentation I would totally agree with you, however,bogus share price, artificial manipulation, fake profit statements, the list is endless, Banx was a fraudulent operation employing inducement & fabrication, you can't expect folks to be happy with a scenario such as this, it is actually illegal & for good reason
I have been saying the same to him. Good advice @tonypeacock
dear dear me, where to begin?, let's start with this,
"Categorically I thought everything was going well up until end of September 2015. I 100% believed this was going to be a success. I never took investment money in knowing things were going to fail."
so why in Feb of 2016 a full seven months after you admit that you knew that "things were going to fail" did you attempt to trick me out of $250k worth of inventory?, I have the emails Mark, they are dated,they cannot be faked or manufactured to present you in a bad light , it is simply a fact, you tried to extract 250k worth of product from me in exchange for 250k in Banx shares, can you imagine how I would feel today had I done that?, as for you, you'd be on here gloating, feeling sorry for yourself,presenting yourself as the victim in all of this,
this is the first snippet, i'll pick through your bullshit post & balance it with some reality.
Phil I have the emails too and you are lying, you are talking about emails from Feb 2015 NOT 2016. So once again you are inventing 'facts' in your own head. I announced the closure of Banx in Jan 2016. So PLEASE stop lying and deliberately trying to make me look bad.
check again Mark, Feb 2016, you ask me if I am coming over (US to UK that is), bring product is what you said, it was $250k, do you want to discuss the $425k from August 2015?, if I had believed you ,you would have hammered me for $675k, i'd be the one jumping off of a tall building
"You will also see posts about how I have suffered with major mental health issues, something I have been very open about. I have however had my haters questioning the validity of that."
you have proven that you're only sick or down when you need to hide, you have not disappeared due to depression in ages, you were MIA for 3 months at the end of 2015, as you have already admitted, this was when you knew that Banx was a dead duck (yet you still accepted investors money during this period", you fobbed many people off with the hopeless EA lifeline, you even stated that anyone accepting your offer was in effect giving up all claims against Banx (not legally possible Marky but that's another story), all of a sudden your depression magically lifted & you have not used it since to buy time or sympathy, undoubtedly you will use it again,
once you understood that I wasn't buying the EA bullshit & that I was actually pursuing you, you sent me a fake doctors note explaining that you had considered self harm, in other words leave Marky boy alone, how low are you prepared to go?
Don't talk to me about low Phil. Two observations:
My GP has no issue with confirming the letter you have seen is genuine. His name is Dr. Thompson his phone number is +44 01530 414131 he will gladly confirm the letter is real. He has been made aware that you even have the cheek to think I would fake something like this and is ready to act when needed.
You clearly have no idea about mental health or depression with your comment. With the amount of abuse you and your people have given me in the last few weeks I'm lucky my new medication works well and it doesn't effect me like it did in January.
Keep posting replies like this and I am sure people will see you have a much deeper personal vendetta against me than a failed investment.
I have suffered from depression for 10 years. I wrote it about it in my book you read. You really are the lowest of the low for suggesting I invent depression and fake doctors letters.
It's a good job I have learned to turn the negativity you and others give me and turn it into making me work even harder to prove you are lying and wrong.
You should be careful with your comments Phil.
no need to be careful mate, it is not a vendetta at all that's you playing the victim again, simply looking for a correction,
the term is theft Mark, it is not & never was a failed investment
so I am not going to be careful, so, I invite you to sue me, the sooner the better mate, let me know
remember our conversation (I have it recorded so may post the audio), you told me that you were my "enemy for life", well, OK bring it on
I have seen very many doctors notes submitted into court as evidence in all kinds of circumstances, bankruptcy,criminal & divorce, by far, your letter is the most unprofessional example that I have ever seen, terrible composition, it is ambiguous in the extreme, in fact its sole purpose is not one of delivering a certified medical opinion it is simply a tool designed to dissuade injured investors from taking a legal shot at you , once you managed to convert most of your investors from being Banx shareholders to being EA "Token Holders" your depression magically lifted, I do hope that it doesn't return if any of the token holders figure out that they have been had
"That is their choice. I cant do any more than I have done."
you can do a lot more Marky
2.once & for all, explain in simple terms just how the deposits into Banx were handled, in other words, which entity were the funds dispersed to?, you as an individual?, Mark Lyford Ltd?, any other entity under your control or not struck off at the time? (as most seem to be, just check companies house for a full list of Lyfords failed enterprises)
how about explaining your visible BTC expenses via Banx, such items as online gambling, porn.......er other thing also, it is documented Marky, it all links back to your address, let me guess, it was someone else in the office?
you have a lot of explaining to do, those funds were investors funds that you you used as your private piggy bank
Scammers don't publish their home addresses
Scammers don't invite people to join them in their offices
Scammers don't use their names when trying to continue to turn things around
why would you make this statement? the address you issue isn't your address, the one with the number "33" is a decoy address, you don't live there, it is a filter,
the one you should issue to all & sundry is the farm address, you know the one where you have the loft & pigeons, you kept that a secret until we tracked you down just to be able to mail you a letter.
Once you had my investment you didn't communicate any further, I visited the UK on 3 occasions to try to meet with you, you wouldn't respond until the day that I was flying out then you'd send a brief message saying that you had been busy, so much for meeting people at your office.
You changed your name by deed-poll,
You are a proven blackmailer: @r4ken
Actual Proof = https://steemit.com/steemit-abuse/@sirwinchester/re-warning-scammer-with-reputation-score-7-user-moonflower-is-fake-yet-a-7
Proven where? And you are making claims you can provide no evidence of. I have proven your blackmail.
i heard that in a Bond movie