Chronology
This chronology reflects the chronology of the iMind corporation and is constructed from employee memory, emails, and hearsay so it is by no means an official record. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.
This thing has gotten so long it needs an index--click on the section headings below to jump to the section on the document. If you get lost, just click on return to top.
1994 - Pre-iMind
1997 - iMind Research
1998 - iMind Incorporates
1999 - The First Year
2000 - The Second Year
2001 - The Fall
2001 - After the Fall
2001 - The Saga Continues
2002 - The Saga Continues II
The Case
The End
1994 - Return to Top
--/--/-- (Maybe sometime in 1994, but who really knows) Mark A. Popp
(aka Mark Popp, Mark Anthony Popp, or Anthony Popp) is purportedly a hot
dog vendor (with a cart)
in San Francisco. This information was provided by The Wife in late 1999.
Mark A. Popp later stated to one of his employees that he owned a fleet
of hot dog cars. I think The Wife's account is more accurate.
1997 - Return to Top
--/--/97 Mark A. Popp meets Owen O'Donnell in restroom. Owen was working for Stafford Capital, an investment company that had investments in several startups, including NextCard.
--/--/97 Mark A. Popp advises Owen that he is looking for a new job. Owen introduces Mark A. Popp to Daniel Schwenter, who at the time was working at NextCard creating business models for the fairly new company. Mark A. Popp goes to work for NextCard although nobody is sure to what capacity.
--/--/97 Mark A. Popp & Daniel Schwenter supposedly "find" iMind concept--eavesdropping during dinner at a restaurant. This is an unconfirmed rumor.
--/--/97 Mark A. Popp & Daniel Schwenter leave NextCard and begin to conduct market research for new company, the company is dubbed "i-mind."
11/--/97 Mark A. Popp
talks to Owen O'Donnell & Kristina O'Donnell regarding investment.
12/10/97 Fabian, at the behest of Owen O'Donnell, meets Mark A. Popp & Daniel Schwenter. Mark does most of the i-mind presentation on a beat up IBM Thinkpad laptop with Daniel adding statistics and points relating to financial data. Mark A. Popp proves to be a good speaker, but Fabian tells Owen the idea needs lots of work. The project moves forward and Fabian agrees to help on a part-time basis.
1998 - Return to Top
02/09/98 Ari Fainchtein Meeting at the Mill Valley Inn.
03/01/98 Company incorporates as I-Mind Education Systems, Inc.
Mark A. Popp uses his resume
to lure investors. Apparently, nobody (including myself) ran a background
check on this gem. Much later, SEC filings
(Interbet 10Q
08/18/97 and 8-K/A
01/29/98) would reveal that Future Vision 20/20 was really Interbet,
an online casino company--not a health and wellness software provider.
Funny, there was no hot dog cart
mentioned in the resume--perhaps this
is what he was doing.
04/01/98 Shoreline
Drive Offices
Smoke and mirrors setup in an attempt to attract investors. Ari works
on a prototype without direction from Mark A. Popp and without any kind
of system specs. Mike Paric develops the first i-mind logo, web site (using
"i-mind.com" domain), and sets up i-mind email addresses.
05/22/98 Offices move back to Mark A. Popp's home--his den to be exact.
06/01/98 Fabian
exercises 5,000 shares at $0.05.
Fabian loans the company $250.00, mostly so Mark A. Popp can feed himself
and his kids--mostly McDonald's.
06/20/98 Development Weekend at Mark A. Popp's home. In attendance were Mark A. Popp, Daniel Schwenter, Fabian, Woody Phillips, Ari Fainchtein, and Mike Paric. i-teach development truly begins. First mockup of portal concept created.
07/24/98 Fabian Leaves EDS.
08/01/98 Fabian starts iMind full-time
10/01/98 Relationship with Sun Microsystems begins.
10/15/98 Citrix Research
Done
Mark A. Popp is convinced that developing content is NOT necessary-
believes that Citrix
solves the content problem and allows iMind to use
existing software--in theory.
11/01/98 Paradise Drive offices are cleaned and painted. Mark chooses to paint the walls the same purple that is represented on this site along with hot pink accents--really scary. Mark A. Popp and Fabian do most of the painting work. Mark A. Popp blows up on Daniel Schwenter for not assisting in the painting of the offices--huge emotional outburst. Daniel may have been threatened physically by Mark behind closed doors.
11/15/98 New version of i-mind logo created.
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11/16/98 Paradise
Drive offices open.
There was no Internet connection, office network wiring project was started,
and the phone system was salvaged from the previous tenant. The office
consisted of only 4 Employees - Mark A. Popp, Daniel Schwenter, Fabian, and The Wife. Servers consisted of a loaned Sun Ultra-60 web
server. T1 Internet connection was ordered.
12/--/98 Owen starts. Immediately Owen starts calling colleagues and contacts to raise money for the company. He ultimately would raise over $2MM for iMind before being fired by Mark A. Popp on 8/13/99.
1999 - Return to Top
01/04/99 Payroll Officially
Starts for Employees
5 Employees - Mark A. Popp, Daniel Schwenter, Fabian, The Wife,
and Owen O'Donnell.
01/15/99 T1 Internet connection active. Office network wiring completed. Web site moved in-house. Citrix relationship was officially started.
02/01/99 Nova
Southeastern University relationships started.
Relationships include
Dick Goldman, Chris Gentile, and Steve Thompson.
02/08/99 i-learn@nsu plans started. Sagemont High School development started. This development project was billed to Sagemont at $150 per hour and included Fabian's consulting in network architecture, server room design, and equipment capacity planning. Chris Gentile, Dick Goldman, and Brent Goldman relationships started.
03/--/99 Vicki lawsuit threat. Vicki was Mark A. Popp's first assistant and happened to be of Jewish descent. The letter from the lawyers claimed that Mark made Anti-Semetic comments in the office prior to firing Vicki without cause. The dispute was settled out of court for an unspecified sum.
03/--/99 i-Mind Education Systems sign goes up in Paradise Drive
03/26/99 i-learn@nsu opening. Concept for iMind Learning Hub begins with Dick Goldman & Mark A. Popp.
04/29/99 North Bay Angels mixer.
05/01/99 Microsoft Exchange Server installed.
05/04/99 Department of Education Meeting, St. Francis Hotel, SF.
05/26/99 North Bay Angels Open House Presentation--some additional funding secured.
06/15/99 David Occhinero leaves shortly after a dispute with Mark A. Popp. Immediately, Larry O'Brien becomes Director of Engineering.
06/20/99 Florida condo leased on Owen O'Donnell's credit because Mark A. Popp's credit was fucked up with a bankruptcy on his credit report. Rumor has it that the only reason that Mark A. Popp chose the location was because of its close proximity to the Gumwrappers strip club. Mark A. Popp was "in love" with one of the strippers there. Also around this same time the location of the iMind Learning Hub in Pembroke Pines was secured next to movie theater.
06/22/99 - 06/24/99
NECC Conference
Smoke and mirrors demo using Citrix server and Sun clients shown at the
trade show. 19 employees.
06/29/99 "Black
Tuesday" coup goes down. Martin Longo, Laura Minnegrode, Omer Cohen,
Patricia LeClaire, and Alan Weiss are so frustrated with Mark A. Popp's
flighty leadership, insane timelines, and verbal abuse that they choose
to take their complaints to a member of the board, a female Sun Microsystems
VP. Apparently, nobody told them that Mark A. Popp and Daniel Schwenter
controlled the board and complaining would be fruitless. The Sun VP told
Mark of the communication. Martin Longo, the leader of the coup, was forced
to resign, and Laura Minnegrode, Omer Cohen, Patricia LeClaire, and Alan
Weiss quit on principle.
07/26/99 Sun Microsystems
Corona Demo at Sun Microsystems
Mark A. Popp, the con man, is conned into using thin clients at his learning
centers. Using PC's would have been easier and cheaper, but Mark was convinced
that the relationship with Sun was more important than anything at the
time--bad move.
08/02/99 Mill Valley
office move (Tiburon Blvd.)
Pillow room for employees was setup. The new offices had excellent Feng
Shui according to the Feng Shui advisor. There was a lot of sage burning
at this location--it always smelled like burnt weed. 13 Employees.
08/13/99 Owen O'Donnell fired because he questions Nordstrom's charges that were charged to the company credit card. Mark A. Popp expensed personal charges as a business expense. Owen brings up the fact that it's wrong--bye bye Owen. Around this time, Mark A. Popp and Daniel Schwenter gave themselves huge raises--they go from $90k to $175k per annum.
08/28/99 Annual Company Picnic. Actually, this was the only company picnic held in the company's history. Daniel's wife and kids make an appearance and it's pretty obvious that she hates Mark A. Popp with passion. 20 Employees.
08/31/99 Sagemont Middle School "implementation". This wasn't so much an implementation as it was the installation of some servers and a promise for working software which never came.
09/07/99 - 09/10/99 Citrix iForum Conference. Attendees were Fabian, Steve Dunphy, & Dave Martin. Citrix relationship with iMind is strengthened. Fabian voices concerns over running all Windows-based educational content through Citrix. He felt that the company should stick to the original plan to create content. Again, Mark A. Popp thought the relationship was more important.
09/24/99 iMind purchases imind.com domain from college student for $3,000 to go with new corporate identity. The same identity that this site is based on which was created by Hornall Anderson. Marianne Mullins was integral in getting this done. Mark A. Popp says he wants to make iMind International--nevermind that iMind needs a finished product first.
12/10/99 iMind Learning Hub, Pembroke Pines Sunray thin-client implementation complete.
12/17/99 Infamous Christmas party at Buckeye Roadhouse in which Mark A. Popp gets shitfaced drunk and acts like a fool in front of the whole company. Leah Wong & Caroline are both manhandled by Mark A. Popp at the event with several eyewitnesses. Both ladies quit shortly after--the party being the last straw. There were rumors that the company prepared checks and settlements for them on the way out.
2000 - Return to Top
01/01/00 - 02/16/00 Pembroke Pines Launch & FETC trade show preparations are under way.
2/16/00 iMind Learning
Hub "Launch", Pembroke Pines, FL
Press release states that iMind is also releasing its products at the
event. In truth, the products were in the pre-alpha stage (i.e. glorified
demos).
2/29/00 FETC Trade Show. iMind is one of the sponsors of the event. Sponsor room goes dark for first day as Sunray technology fails. 40 Employees.
03/24/00 Mark A. Popp Buys Jaguar with company funds. Company loaned Mark A. Popp $62,000 without interest and a really long repayment term--nice.
04/10/00 Mill Valley
to Corte Madera - The Midnight Move
Mark A. Popp did this move against everyone's wishes to try and impress
visitors from Citigroup. Employees were left without adequate workspaces
(cubicles), phones and Internet access.
04/11/00 CitiGroup meeting--no funding from meeting. Apparently, midnight move did not yield intended results.
04/11/00 - 04/20/00 Employees slowly migrate back to Mill Valley in search of resources like phones and Internet access.
04/21/00 Dave Bortolin joins the ship through executive recruiter. This recruiter supposedly partied with Mark A. Popp extensively and drugs were rumored to be about--white lines!?
05/05/00 - 05/06/00
UCLA Focus
Groups
Fabian and MJA go to UCLA to perform focus groups. MBA
students question iMind business model based on the products. They didn't
understand the business model and thought the sales projections for the
products were inflated. Nonetheless, they performed the focus group and
yielded a report to management.
05/11/00 - 05/13/00 CUE Conference, Palm Springs, CA
05/14/00 Mother's Day. Mark A. Popp mandated that all administrative employees move back to Corte Madera or face disciplinary action. Apparently, he was lonely in the Corte Madera offices by himself--poor baby! Maggie Sherrod and Lafayette Howell start at around this time.
05/25/00 Larry O'Brien resigns. In an out-of-character phone outburst, Larry tells Mark A. Popp to "fuck off." He sends a Final Status Report to Mark A. Popp.
05/26/00 Larry O'Brien's
Last Day
General staff meeting to explain Larry O'Brien's departure. The meeting
was them followed by the "Shakedown" meeting referenced by Steve
Thompson's resignation.
05/29/00 Memorial Day
05/30/00 Steve Thompson
resigns
in classic Shakespearian fashion.
Fabian resigns
citing management abuse and unethical business practices. Departures leave
iMind with 60 employees. Fabian predicts 20 employees will follow out
the door within a month. Fabian also warns iMind board member and North
Bay Angels investor, Kathy
Dell (Kathleen Dell, KD Ventures, Tiburon, CA), that Mark A. Popp's
lack of professionalism and unethical practices would drive company into
the ground. Kathy chooses to take no action against Mark A. Popp.
05/31/00 Acqua Hotel meeting with Dave Bortolin. He tells the staff that he will take over daily operations and assures employees he will shield them from Mark A. Popp. This proves to be bullshit as Mark never relinqishes full control.
06/09/00 Mark A. Popp sends email announcing new term sheet from our investment bankers for commitment of 10 million plus in funding, finalization of Riverdeep contract, July 11th training of 1000 NAF teachers, and search for new CFO & CEO. Training teachers on using a product that isn't really built!? That's just crazy!
06/12/00 Lafayette Howell stripped of Executive Director of IT title.
06/13/00 iMind appears on the front page of www.fuckedcompany.com -- see link.
06/14/00 Lafayette Howell named Executive Director of Professional Services; embarks on a multi-million dollar customer service call center project.
06/14/00 iMind posting removed from www.fuckedcompany.com after iMind System Administrator, Dennis Miller, verbally threatens Phillip Kaplan of legal action.
06/15/00 In response to key employees leaving and low morale Mark A. Popp pledges a 401K plan, an expanded health benefit package and $5K for internal recruitment of key positions.
06/20/00 Rebecca Wambach sends out email promising paperwork on stock option plan. Company mistakenly offers several employees non-qualified options (NQO) with 5 years to purchase. The options paperwork was jumbled several times throughout the company's history. At one point the company name was misspelled and they had to be redone--again. Three different law firms worked on this and in the end they were all stiffed for fees. The options paperwork was not completed even as the ship went down.
--/--/-- At around this time, Ken Tachibana becomes the Chief Technology Officer and Citrix is abandoned as part of business model.
07/02/00 Larkin
Brooks Dies
40 Employees. Turnover since Memorial Day reaches 20 (see 05/30/00).
07/06/00 Grief counselor
talks with iMind employees about Larkin Brooks. Ex-iMind employees show
up to event including Fabian, Dave Martin, &
Bruce Ford. Debi Farey would later be reprimanded by Mark A. Popp for
inviting iMind "outsiders".
07/07/00 Larkin Brooks buried in Montecito, CA. Mark A. Popp sends Dave Bortolin to represent company at funeral. According to several sources, Mark was indifferent about Larkin's death and was perturbed that her death would somehow impact productivity. I speculated that he was upset that all of the attention shifted away from him.
07/26/00 A slew of educators and two trainers are hired. Around this same time, Mark A. Popp gives himself a raise to $250k per annum.
07/28/00 - 08/03/00 Republican National Convention. Mark A. Popp attends.
08/03/00 Mark A. Popp officially returns to daily operations despite promises. The truth is that he never relinquished control of the company.
08/04/00 iMind Tactical Team consisting of Alice Prager, Ed Kim, and Nelson Shim all quit citing unethical management practices. What a surprise!
08/14/00 - 08/18/00
Democratic National Convention. Mark A. Popp attends.
08/22/00 Jim Dougherty is hired as VP of Business Development, Howard Miller is named as Interim COO. Miller resigns one month later after argument with Dougherty over fiscal responsibility.
08/23/00 Dave Bortolin resigns. Steve Dunphy and Jessica Beringer follow his lead one week later.
08/24/00 Mark A. Popp proposes that iMind pursue the consumer market with a TutorPro Lite version--crack smoke. This was such a bad idea that nobody in the company followed his lead on the proposal and the idea was well, ignored.
09/01/00 Acqua Hotel Part II - Mark A. Popp vows that he and Daniel Schwenter will give back shares to company (at the time they both held 2.25 million shares), reduce strike price on all issued shares to $0.50, and promises full vesting of options if company is sold. Randy Poliner was on speaker phone to verify funding. Also new building at One Nellen Avenue was announced, along with Daniel's "retirement."
Immediately after the meeting, staff members called HR to recieve new stock option price and terms in writing. Apparently, Mark A. Popp made the announcement without notifying HR or Daniel Schwenter. In true iMind fashion, Daniel stalls the distribution of options paperwork. Or could they not get it right--now we'll never know.
09/--/00 Anonymous employee writes classic email after a failed sales tripand also resigns shortly after--you know who you are. Thanks.
09/11/00 Money generated from tutoring kids at Learning Hub is used to make payroll. Jimmy Norton was tutoring kids with books and flash cards even though there was $250k worth of computer equipment at the center. The Sun thin-clients were clumsy and the software did not work. This is essentially iMind's only tangible revenue to date.
09/18/00 Financing round including Bank of America Securities and Antares Capital Partners announced via e-mail. iMind escapes death once again.
10/20/00 Daniel Schwenter's retirement party. Mark A. Popp vows to give Daniel trip to India--all bullshit. The trip never came.
10/23/00 Mark A. Popp comes up with idea for FETC "Bug" promotion. Budgeted at $250k.
10/24/00 Two separate companies take legal action against iMind for the names of both products - Integrator & TutorPro. Company management is nonchalant about the whole thing. Nobody takes steps to change the product names.
11/01/00 Debi Farey's review completed by Kathy Berry. Review states that she be reprimanded for allowing ex-employees to show-up for Larkin Brooks memorial grief session on 07/06/00
11/10/00 Drinks at the Cantina for all employees to celebrate Credit Suisse's interest in investing in iMind.
12/27/00 Eddie Johnson from Credit Suisse visits iMind headquarters with his family.
2001 - Return to Top
01/05/01 Mark A. Popp files another $4,000 expense report. According to sources, this isn't even one of the good ones.
01/10/01 Term Sheet
with Credit Suisse to be lead investor in Series C Financing executed.
Announcement via e-mail. Note: this is only the term sheet. Story runs
in Silicon Valley Internet--Parks
Takes Dual Role at iMind.
Ronald S. Parks would resign less than a month later.
01/11/01 - 1/13/01 FETC Part II - iMind sponsors the event a second time and slow Internet connection hinders show. The "illegal" bug promotion in full-effect without required Florida state bonding. In all, $145,000 were spent with nothing to show except $60,000 that showed up on Jody Buie's credit card as the ship sank weeks later.
In an email, Alan Kluger is pissed that Mark A. Popp isn't sticking to his promises--I don't blame him.
01/15/01 Elizabeth
advises Mark A. Popp via email
that the ticket that Ron Parks bought for the Presidential Inaugural cost
$4391.00. Ron insisted that the ticket be charged to Mark's Amex. It looks
like Ronnie knew the bank had no more moolah before the trip. Of course
he didn't quit until the beginning of February.
01/20/01 Presidential Inaugural. Mark A. Popp attends and spends about
$50,000 in the process. Mark A. Popp, The Wife, Mark A. Popp's mother,
Jim Doc, Jim Doc's fiancee, Maggie Sherrod, and Ron Parks roll up in a
limo. Mark loses his digital camera and blames Maggie for it--he had it
the whole time. Throughout the event Mark A. Popp & Jim Doc are in
classic form--drunk and intoxicated in front of Credit Suisse and dB Brown
representatives.
01/24/01 Pizza lunch held for all employees to show PowerPoint of Inaugural and FETC trade show. It is announced that iMind will recieve $20MM-$30MM from Credit Suisse, but the deal was far from closed.
01/26/01 Daniel Schwenter
sends email
to Mark to consider $6,000 per game luxury SF Giants box seats. Nothing
like looking at SF Giants luxury boxes as the ship sinks. The luxury box
they were shopping for was going for $6,000 per game! Can you say dot-com
excess.
02/04/01 Dennis Miller apartment fire.
02/07/01 Word leaks that Ron Parks is resigning as CFO. Official announcement next day. Full moon. Scary. No CFO. Cindy Cumberland, the controller was on vacation in Europe. Acting controller was snot-nosed 22-year-old kid answering the phone as creditors called relentlessly in an endless beatdown of collection calls.
02/09/01 Jennifer Huddleston promoted to VP Corporate Finance & Strategy.
02/09/01 Payday, or so the employees thought. At 3:40PM the employees were told in the conference room that iMind would miss payroll. Over the next couple of days, employees learn that iMind had not paid the employee health insurance premium and the last two installments of 401K plan--that's just criminal.
Meanwhile, investor packets continued to go out. The company tried desperately to raise money through a bridge loan from previous investors. The investor packet was classic. It was stated in the packet that the company had great software (big lie), clients (bigger lie), and had signed contracts with school districts (biggest lie). Nonetheless, despite the fiction, nobody came to save iMind.
02/13/01 Board Meeting Minutes from the day's board meeting.
02/14/01 Mark A. Popp checks himself into hospital and stays overnight. There is speculation that this "act" was part of his innate ability to shift attention away from his incompetence and attempt to gain attention and sympathy. Who knows? Board Meeting Minutes from the day's board meeting.
02/16/01 Mark A. Popp weeping uncontrollably at the Cantina restaurant with Jim Doc. They then drive to the iMind Mill Valley Condo. Mark continues the sobbing and is given a verbal beat down by Randy Poliner who tells Mark he'll lose all his iMind shares. The shares were worthless anyway. Geez, big baby. Board Meeting Minutes from the day's board meeting.
03/02/01 Rumor has
it Mark A. Popp and his family are packing to leave the Bay Area.
03/03/01 Shortly After, Mark A. Popp leaves for New York to live at his
mom's house--this was later confirmed. That's a pretty serious downgrade.
The life of Mark A. Popp comes full circle. I am sure it's only a matter
of time until he's back to his old tricks in New York.
After the Fall - Return to Top
iMind went into bankruptcy proceedings in March 2001 under the control of Randall Poliner of Antares Capital Partners. It's major assets were frozen and liquidated for pennies on the dollar. A few employees sued the company for final monies owed--paychecks, expenses, and 401k contributions--and eventually some settled for half of what they were owed.
Dick Goldman and Chris Gentile mulled the possibility of buying the iMind intellectual assets from Antares Capital Partners but after consideration decided that the risk was too great to restart the company in dot-bomb market conditions.
The Saga Continues (Continuing News) - Return to Top
Just when I was ready to give up on this story and call iMind officially dead, I received a call from an anonymous source in New York that gave me the following information regarding Mark A. Popp:
12/12/01 Anonymous source in New York reveals that Mark A. Popp is back to his old tricks. Mark A. Popp (or the "Fat Bastard", as my source sometimes refers to him) has left a wake of victims in New York as follows:
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- $3K from two separate high school ($6k total) buddies to give them business plans for web company ideas. The business plans were useless, since Mark A. Popp has no idea on how to write one and probably recycled iMind's business plan--badly. The two victims are still reeling from this.
- $2K from a couple of guys trying to start a web design company. Again for a business plan that was worthless. He also talked them into stealing a site from a large company (Computer Associates) and pass it as "original". The guys were sued and had to close shop.
- $3K (in rent) from a high school buddy's company. Luckily the guy's business partner smelled through Mark A. Popp's bullshit, found this site, and stopped him (fired him) before additional damage was done.
2002 - Return to Top
01/27/02 Anonymous source in New York reveals that Mark A. Popp is no longer living with his mom. Instead he is now renting a house nearby with The Wife--when will she learn. Mark A. Popp is driving a limousine to make ends meet--he's gone from iMind to iDriveYou (the link isn't his company it's just funny), but it's better than iDogs.
07/15/02 (Posted 11/01/02) Mark A. Popp is listed as the contact person on a press release for a company called [removed]. I assume he's found a job at another dot-com doing something in the marketing or sales department. The company should consider itself lucky he's not the CEO!
09/15/02 MJA advises me that in true iMind fashion, the copy used at the North Bay Angels site refers to iMind as "Amanda" in the second sentence. Funny as all hell.
10/25/02 (Posted 11/01/02)
Received call from Mark A. Popp's lawyer,
Roland
E. Bye. Roland asked me to take down the "Mark Popp" portion
of my website or his client would sue. Apparently, nobody has told Mark
that defamation is "lying" about a person's character.
Immediately, I got the feeling that Roland hadn't actually read the site. The iMind Parody site parodies all of iMind, not just Mark. He really couldn't provide any detail on what content his client was opposed to.
Anyway, I responded by saying that I would not change my site based on a phone call and if he would like to send me a letter of complaint detailing his client's legal position I would review it with my counsel and respond appropriately.
Roland said he was prepared to sue if I didn't take the site down. I replied, "if you and your client think you have a case then bring it on. I am prepared to defend my First Amendment rights. If you choose to not send a letter and file then so be it."
Did Roland check the background of his new client? Probably not. Apparently, he doesn't know that law firms that were retained by iMind were stiffed for tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. I sure hope Roland gets paid for his time.
Would Mark step out from the corporate shroud to air out iMind dirty laundry? That doesn't seem like a good move. If he does, there's a team of pissed off lawyers and investors in San Francisco that would love to contribute to my defense. Mark should concentrate on reminiscing about the good ol' days.
I have truth, integrity, the First Amendment, and supporters on my side. So let sleeping dogs lie and bye bye Mr. Bye.
I will post anything I receive here--should anything happen.
12/04/02 Well, so far, I have received nothing from Mark's lawyer. However, a reliable source tells me that Mark Popp is (or was) the CEO of a another company, [removed]. This is proof positive that many individuals do not do proper due diligence. It is also a testament to the human inclination to believe things at face value. Apparently, fools are born every minute.
12/05/02 Received email from Mr. Steven Baker, CEO of Alliance Security Products in New York. He explained to me that he was doing a business deal with Mark A. Popp and a new company. He wanted more information, but I explained that the iMind Parody site contains everything I know. I also put Mr. Baker in touch with Doug Hannah, who has his own litigation going on against Mark A. Popp.
01/07/03 (Posted 04/13/03) I was served with a Civil Summons for a lawsuit. A company, [removed], in New York and Mark A. Popp sued me in Federal Court in the Eastern District of New York for purportedly defaming Mark on this site. Apparently, this site caused the company to lose out on some investments. Needless to say, I immediately setup this legal defense fund.
The worst part of this whole thing is that the lawsuit was filed in New York instead of California. I suspect that Mark A. Popp knew that California was the proper venue--that's why a lawyer from Santa Ana called me earlier (see entry on 10/25/02).
I took a lot of due care and diligence in creating the site to ensure that between sarcasm, comedy, and opinion the truth about the company would be told. I wanted to parody the craziness of the iMind and to make sure that there would be a record of what happened for posterity.
01/22/03 (Posted 04/13/03) According to a lady named Rita, from the California Employment Development Department (EDD), iMind stopped paying State Disability and Unemployment Insurance in late 2000. EDD is currently conducting an investigation to determine if iMind principals, Mark A. Popp and Daniel Schwenter, were responsible.
02/21/03 (Posted 04/13/03) Reached settlement with one of the plaintiffs in the case. Mark A. Popp is now the only plaintiff. My counsel and I have already lined up a witness list and sent a letter to the judge asking for a pre-motion conference to discuss transfer of venue of the case to California. I would be more than happy to see this thing all the way through here in California.
06/25/03 (Posted 06/29/03) The ridiculously frivolous defamation lawsuit that Mark A. Popp filed against me for maintaining the iMind Parody site is officially over. And yes, I have emerged victorious--I will be able to maintain the iMind Parody site in perpetuity to chronicle the iMind story until the end of human existence. Pucker up and kiss my ass, Mark!
I would like to offer my sincerest gratitude to all that contributed to the legal defense fund and provided me with moral support and encouragement. Thank you all.
The End
© 2001-2003 Fabian.