2019 was the year of many scandals in the music industry. Two notable ones are definitely that of Benji Rogers and Lance Benedict.
Rogers was in charge of Pledgemusic that took millions of dollars from artists and fans and wound up liquidating much of the company with no criminal and civil penalties in Europe. There was a rumor that the USDOJ was going to open an investigation into Rogers and Pledgemusic. No word as of this writing if they are.
Perhaps the biggest scandal we’ve covered with such an elaborate trail of fraud and deceit is Mr. Lance Benedict and his make-believe fantasy guitar company called TTM Guitars. Benedict promised his investors significant returns and the bedroom YouTube players he recruited endorsement deals that were nothing more than a pay to play scheme. Benedict had no intention of doing anything legit as he’s stolen over $300K from his investors and customers. He illegally dissolved his corporation even though he only was supposed to have 39% minority interest when he had Chris McKenna invest $100K and another investor approximately 50K that made them 61% majority owners. The problem is, Benedict never put them on the LLC and just dissolved it. Lawsuits are pending.
Benedict is playing chess with the various state and federal agencies and law enforcement that are investigating him. While all this is playing out, Benedict goes and files a trademark for this very web site’s name and put up a website about how great he is. He even went as far as have someone video record an individual who he believed was me bringing groceries into their apartment. Mr. Benedict’s sociopathic thinking doesn’t realize he had the wrong person. Charges for Cyberstalking are pending.
Benedict has formed a new corporation in Florida called TTM Musical Instruments. Benedict’s thinking he can start new fraudulent activity. Still, he’s not aware that Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement are now very aware of his schemes and quite interested.
These are your two scumbags of the year for 2019!