Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Criminals and Innovation

It seems that Maksym Pashanin and Denys Pashanin rented Ms. Cory Tshogl's San Francisco condo through AirBnB and now refuse to leave. The brothers rented the one-bedroom unit in late May for 44 days but paid for just a month. After occupying the unit for 30 days they gained tenants' protections under California law. Tschogl, a San Francisco rehabilitation therapist for blind and low-vision people, is facing thousands of dollars in legal expenses and an eviction process of up to six months.

The brothers Pashanin have, not so coincidentally, also, as principals of Kilobite Inc., raised some $40,000 on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter for a video game that never materialized, leaving behind scores of angry donors. Kilobite Inc. took to Kickstarter in November to promise a June delivery of a zombie game called "Confederate Express," but has produced only a demo. Instead, Kilobite recently launched a new Kickstarter campaign, seeking $25,000 for another game called "Knuckle Club."   

Maksym Pashanin has sent Tschogl texts threatening to press charges against her for blackmail, negligence and malicious misconduct, including his claims that the tap water hurt his expensive espresso machine and exacerbated his brother's ulcer, Ms. Tschogl said, providing copies of the messages.

The emerging peer-to-peer markets have created unique opportunities and risks in which people trust Internet strangers based on reviews by other Internet strangers. It seems to have attracted the shameless as well.
Every new circumstance creates opportunity.

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