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VoIP Inc. circus continues with racy video
VoIP Inc.'s chief accounting officer, Robert Stats, has resigned following claims in several forums--including fiercevoip--that VoIP Inc. had not paid employees their promised final pay check as of late last week. The latest brouhaha comes as the VoIP Inc. site has again been vandalized and a comical video been posted parodying CEO Tony Cataldo as a male stripper. Staats confirmed his resignation Friday to an investor forum, investorhub.com. But the rest of the company has been unreachable, so the claims about employees not being paid have not been confirmed. VoIP Inc. increasingly looks like a ghost ship with no one on board.
The homepage has statements such as "Destroying, Devistating (sic) and otherwise ruining the lives of our vendors for 5 years" and "Voip Inc. (sic) enables many to loose (sic) a lot of money and never return it." There is also a link titled "Statement of the Gullible" which refers users to an unsigned letter from Cataldo and ex-COO Shawn Lewis. The letter has not been authenticated and supposedly was sent to investors in the fall to update on "events that we believe have positioned VoIP for growth and profitability."
The letter talks frankly about the problems of the "turnaround" but then promises a network capable of handing 200 million subscriber lines. Cataldo and Lewis also told investors they believe the company is "on the path to listing on a National Exchange," saying, "We believe that those shareholders who have stuck with us through the tough times will be rewarded, as we feel we are entering a period of high value creation for the Company." Lewis left in December and has an agreement to be paid $115,000 in three monthly installments as well as $170,000 in stock.
The VoIP Inc. saga would be amusing if not for the investors, employees, subscribers and vendors who have either lost money or been left high and dry by the collapse of the company. The firm earlier this month abruptly closed its network business and told the SEC it expected to have to write off $24 million associated with that business.
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My Commentary
This company provided the network for Google's click-to-call, the phone promotions for Snakes on a Plane, America's Top Model and Scarface Video game and the Click4Me service I suggested Floridians use to call the voice bridge.
Long story short, ALL the people at the top mismanaged every possible aspect and sucked the company dry. A common story, but this one is more entertaining.
