And you thought your Fan From Hell story was bad.
on September 27th, 2009The story of GameUniCon beats them all. Well, so far, that is.
A video game convention becomes a big money pit for the Game Universe shop in Framingham, MA. The store manager claims he got rooked for big bucks by John Keough, who is now in the hoosegow, arrested for a home invasion robbery. According to this post by Jamie, store manager of Game Universe:
“John Keogh is a compulsive liar. Prior to the event he told us we had over 300 players signed up…hotel being paid off, and god knows how many other lies…
From what I understand, John Keough owes:
Hotel payment: $49,000
Prize Money: $10,000+
Game Universe: $20,000
Band’s fees: ?
None of the staff was paid, including us.…Our agreement with him when running this convention is that he would be financially responsible for the event and would use our connections and name to get gamers to come…he said he would take $10,000 of his own money and $10,000 of his company’s money and run this event. HE NEVER HAD THIS MONEY.”
On September 29, Keough was arrested, and held on $500,000 bond. And boy, was everyone surprised to find out he was a felon:
Keough has a criminal record and served a 3- to 4-year prison term in Plymouth County for armed robbery related to a bank robbery, Brackett said.
(Assistant District Attorney) Brackett said the woman, a teacher who lives there with her husband and children, saw the defendant wearing a mask and carrying a gun running through her yard before he broke into her home.
Once inside the house, Brackett said he pointed a loaded .38-caliber pistol at her, told her to get on her knees and bound her hands before forcing her into a bathroom, where he bound her feet.
Cornered, he held police at bay, fled across state lines, then took a dive in a river.
Keough is the president of Keough Enterprises and Keough Gaming. The convention took place on August 21-23. Apparently, Keough sought alternative financing.
Our sincere sympathies to the good people of Game Universe. The store may not survive this black hole of bounced checks and broken promises. And armed robbery.
Game Universe has no money and is on it’s (sic) deathbed…I love video games, I love the community. I have made so many friends running this store and Mass Madness and I am so lucky to be able to do something I love for a living. I am so sorry this happened to everyone and if I knew John was a friggin Con Artist I swear to you we would never in a million years thought of running this convention with him.
Mr. Keough is innocent until proven guilty, yadda yadda.
The message board thread has many additional posts by others claiming to have lost money to Keough, including references to a scheme to sell energy drinks.
That’s really rotten for the store — so sorry for them.
It raises a big question about how stores, vendors and creative talent can be sure they’re dealing with someone on the up-and-up regarding a newish convention. Googling the person when approached, that’s for sure. But I wonder if there is some other way. Most conventions are legit, of course. But still, it’s rough to hear stories like this.
With the internet, it’s easier to research this stuff now.
Still, fandom is exceptionally vulnerable to this sort of scam. As we both know.
As a pro, it’s exceptionally difficult to find out if conventions are OK, especially if they have no track record. Lately, more pros are emailing each other to ask and compare notes.
One of my favorite pros in the world asked me about this guy Rick Olney who kept trying to friend him on Facebook. I told him to google, and then run like hell.
Yeah.
For instance, the first Long Beach Comic Con is coming up this next weekend. Big question mark for some, I suppose. Apparently the folks running it had been connected with Wizard, particularly in their first attempt at an LA con (which, in fact, was held at Long Beach). But what sold me even more on the possibility that this time it would be “gotten right” is that they were working with Ryan Liebowitz of Golden Apple in planning. Ryan has maintained a lot of his father’s contacts, plus built his own. AND, at the last two Wizard LA cons, GA’s booth programming was almost better than the con’s!
Still… rough when a business gets so entangled that it ruins them.
Let us know how the Long Beach Convention was, Scribblerworks.
Their web page and list of vendors looks impressive.
Even if I didn’t have other reasons for going, I’d go since Berkeley Breathed will be there touting the IDW collection of BLOOM COUNTY. I was at UT when he was doing “The Academia Waltz” (and punch myself every time I remember how I skipped buying the collections of THAT), so I’ve been a fan “from the beginning.”