Thursday, November 13, 2008

Affliction afflicted (updated)

So Todd Beard, one of the guys who runs Affliction, has a criminal past. Probably easy to paper over when you run a relatively obscure clothing company. The trouble he's having is he got into a publicly regulated business, promotion of MMA events, and publicly trashed his highest-profile business partner outside of Donald Trump, Randy Couture. So Kim Couture got a temporary restraining order, and shit has hit the fan, spraying everywhere.
Now, he's got another huge issue: turns out he's a felon, and people with gaming licenses, like Donald Trump, can't work with felons. Whoops! Showtime has also just signed on, or is in the process of signing on, to run a PPV for Affliction. Will this cause Showtime to bolt? Of course, they did work with Jared and Gary Shaw (and still do in boxing, I'd imagine) so who can say.
I'm wondering if drunken Todd Beard wishes he'd stayed in the t-shirts-only business. When he was raping drunken frat boys for $60 an enzyme-encrusted, imported-rhinestone-having tee, no one pointed out his wife-punching felony-riddled past.

I-love-hyphens.

UPDATE: Apparently, Beard was involved in a boiler room telephone scam. I had a job like this for four hours in the 90's. My friend "Tom" called me up, said "Dude, you need money, come work for me", so I showed up on a Tuesday (I was unemployed at the time). He set me in a chair next to one guy, and I listened in as he convinced an older lady to buy a $1,300 makeup kit in exchange for two "vouchers" that were good for "First class travel on any airline". He then kicked her over to my friend ("friend") "Tom", who talked her up even higher, though I didn't get to listen. After a couple more calls (I made one or two but got nowhere, which is apparently normal), we took a lunch break. I told "Tom" I couldn't do it, it seemed too scummy, but I'd gladly still smoke his weed. He said take care, unconcerned. A couple weeks later, they were raided by the federal government, maybe in the same sting operation, and "Tom" went to jail and owed over $100K in fines. He was the top closer who brought in the most dough. I'm just glad that my initial reaction was to feel sick to my stomach...
If this is the shit Beard was up to, he deserved to go to jail. It's exactly like robbery, except you do it on the phone.

3 comments:

Reverend Clint said...

You have been infected and inflected

kentyman said...

Your affection has been affected.

garth2 said...

i cunt hear you, i have an ear infuction...

 
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