If you backed this Kickstarter project for a 3D printer, you will be shocked to find that your money has allegedly gone to fund the building of a house instead of actually funding the project.
Rylan Grayston, CEO of the Canadian company Rinnovated Design, provided backers with an update on Wednesday that reveals why exactly its product, "the first $100 3D printer & scanner," has not yet been shipped to those who supported the campaign.
Grayston and fellow Rinnovated Design co-owner David Boe asked the public to help them build the small and affordable 3D printer on the popular crowdfunding site. Called the Peachy Printer, the company raised $651,091 of its $50,000 goal when the Kickstarter campaign, which went viral at the time, ended. The 3D printers were expected to be shipped back in 2014.
However, that never happened.
In the new update, Grayston alleges that Boe actually stole "hundreds of thousands of dollars" of backers' money. He makes this big announcement in a video that is said to have been filmed in 2014, and that was just released on YouTube on Wednesday.
The video features Boe himself confessing to the crime, saying that he took approximately $250,000 of the Kickstarter money to fund the construction of his new house. However, Grayston said that the amount is actually more than $320,000.
It was Grayston who was in charge of the technical development, previously borrowing $10,000 of Boe's money to get the project ready to launch on Kickstarter (the 3D printer also ran a successful Indiegogo campaign). Boe, on the other hand was in charge of finances and had sole access to the money.
Grayston states that the Kickstarter campaign launched before Peachy Printer was a company, so they did not have a corporate bank account. Instead, Boe had all the funds go into his personal account. This might seem like a dumb move on Grayston's part, but since Boe owned 50 percent of the company, no red flags were yet raised.
You would think that, once the company found out that Boe had allegedly embezzled the money, it would immediately inform its backers. However, we are talking about this news two years later. Grayston states that this is because the company had been coming up with plans to deal with the situation as delicately as possible.
According to Grayston, Boe agreed to repay the money, but only paid $110,000 before going back on the agreement. The last time he received money was on March 2, 2015.
In the video, Boe states that he is sorry for his actions and is trying to make things right, but in an interview with BCC, he has a different tune. Boe now claims that this video was "taken under duress, extreme duress."
Grayston informs backers that he still expects Boe to pay the company back in hopes he can still ship the 3D printers to customers, but he is relying on the money to make that a reality.
Kickstarter is investigating the situation.
Source: BBC
