Continuing the Lies (and other delays)

Almost immediately after Steven notified buyers of the “fire”, a group of victims joined together to share their information in order to get their games or a refund. It was from this group that the depth of the fraud was discovered. 

In the course of their investigation, they found Steven double sold at least 6 games and one PCB set, verified by comparison of the photos Steven sent. When asked, Steven replied that he had multiples of the same game. Steven claimed had 3 working 720 arcade games a fourth junk machine, 3 refurbished Chillers and 5 Ice Cold Beers. What, don't you?

However, he did mark some games as sold and told buyers that some games were no longer available.

Steven also sold games that he had access to, but were likely not his machines. On the same land as his warehouse, 29329 SE Orient Dr in Gresham OR, there is a second, smaller warehouse, leased by Kris Donohoo. Kris also collects, and sells, video arcade and pinball machines and is friends with Steven. Though not known at the time, later review of Kris’ Facebook and Craigslist postings showed some of the exact games that Steven sold.

On the left is a photo from one of Kris’ ads from 5/14/22 (since deleted), almost 2 months before Steven's listings. Notice the Bagman in the background, next to the Identification Medal vending machine and in front of a Spiders game. On the right is the photo Steven sent the buyer of the same game, with the Identification Medal and Spiders cabinets in the same position.

On the left is another photo from Kris’ ads. In the background is a Domino Man machine, with some slight damage to the lower front right corner. On the right is a photo Steven sent the buyer, with that same damage/wear visible.

On the left is a photo from yet another of Kris' ads. In the background, notice that there is a Journey, and behind the KLAX there sits a B&W vector monitor atop another game. On the right is a photo Steven sent of "his" Journey, next to which is a TRON machine with that same vector monitor still on top of the game. Also, if you look closely, you can make out the domino design on the control panel of Domino Man on the other side of the TRON.

When a buyer found Kris on Facebook and messaged him after the "fire", he mentioned the Journey photos he was sent by Steven, and this was Kris' response:

Additionally, Steven sold games he never even had access to, let alone owned. 

Above is a photo Steven sent the buyer of an Environmental Discs of TRON. However, he stole that photo from a seller's ad on KLOV.

In the course of the investigation, it was confirmed by the seller that the buyer who purchased that game still owned it, and it was not Steven.

Steven sent the above Zwackery game photo to two prospective buyers. The photo was taken from Jon Jamshid's (Exidy) video arcade game website. When asked, Steven stated he purchased it from Jon, but Jon has no memory of Steven purchasing that game from him.

The photos of the War of the Worlds and Choplifter games Steven sent were also taken directly from the internet.

The above two photos were sent by Steven to a buyer when asked if he had a Fast Freddie machine for sale. Steven also replied with the serial number of the game. The original owner of that machine was later found and provided those same photos (in full resolution) along with others of the same machine (including the serial number photo), which Steven did not provide. Apparently, Steven was interested in purchasing that game from the owner the year prior, but passed on it. The original owner then sold the machine at auction. After receiving the buyer's request for photos, Steven texted the original owner asking him if he still had photos of the game. The owner replied with the photos and within 90 minutes of receiving those, Steven texted the victim the photos, passing off the game as his own. These photos were not available on the internet.

One of the most egregious lies discovered was that some of the games were not original, nor even minor restorations. It turns out that Steven purchased quite a few reproduction games from Dan Sullivan and Steven was not informing the buyers that is what he was selling. Instead of having an original cabinet with original graphics, hardware and electronics, these games could have any of the following: a completely new wood cabinet, reproduction graphics, reproduction metal hardware, a new wiring harness, a multi-game or emulation PCB. None of these are inherently bad on their own, as the amount of non-original reproduction parts used in a restoration is a personal preference, and in some cases a necessity. But passing off a scratch built cabinet with these components as an original is unequivocally deceptive. Steven knew he was misrepresenting the condition and of these games, though he would later admit their origin in an attempt to claim how valuable they were as substitute games.

Within a couple days of the "fire", Steven agreed to send out one originally purchased game (APB) to a buyer who called him out as a scammer almost immediately (perhaps to stifle these claims and divert the negative attention):

Steven also made a deal to send out alternate titles for two others games to a second purchaser, substituting “HUO” Twilight Zone and Batman Dark Knight pinball games in place of the HUO Medieval Madness and NIB Godzilla LE pinball games originally purchased. Additionally, he agreed to send a Journey arcade game to a third buyer. Steven seemed to suggest it might be a different one than the buyer purchased, but it turned out to be the original one purchased (not Kris' from the photos above), perhaps because Steven forgot which of "his" Journey games he had sent photos of. When those purchasers finally received their games, they were less than happy with the quality; the games were not as described and the substitute games were not considered of equal value to those originally purchased.

About a week later, a fourth buyer made a deal with Steven to have him ship a game, Blasted, that the buyer highly desired, which conveniently happened to not be damaged in the "fire". However, in order to receive it, the buyer essentially had to agree that it would be at Steven's discretion if, and when, Steven ever sent him any of the remaining 5 games he also purchased, or a refund. When the buyer received the game it did not work properly.

From that point, Steven began various meandering and unbelievable stories on the fate of the other 70+ games and parts purchased. Steven told so many half truths, and complete lies, it would not be possible to recount them all, but here are a few:

Originally there were approximately 80 games in the warehouse, then 150 to 175, then only 60-70 games, then over 100. As noted earlier, first they were all too damaged to sell, then only some were damaged, then most or all had some damage, but it was only light water and/or smoke damage. 

About a month after the above 5 games went out, after much back and forth, a fifth buyer was able to convince Steven to allow the buyer's local friends to come by and pick up some of the 14 games he had purchased. When the friends arrived, they were harassed by Steven's representatives at the warehouse, but they were allowed to pick up two of the games (Frenzy and Viper Phase 1), which happened to be the lowest value games that buyer purchased.

Steven stated he planned on filing an insurance claim to get reimbursed and refund buyers, but that would take time. Although buyers were under no obligation to do so, that seemed to be the only option as Steven repeatedly claimed he had no money. As buyers became more anxious, Steven cooked up a scheme where he claimed he was going to clean the games himself and have the insurance company reimburse him for his labor time. As noted, Steven made a point to mention a couple times, specifically, that all games were at least smoke damaged and thus were not ready to be shipped, all the while waffling between which games would be ready to send when cleaned and which games were just too damaged.

Steven also changed his story that the games were insured, to the games were not specifically insured, but as the contents of the building, they would be covered. Then Steven stated that he, personally, did not carry the insurance, but the building owner did, in the amount of $1 million,  and all would be taken care of. Yet Steven claimed that neither he nor the owner had a copy of the policy and the insurance company, Strand Insurance, would not provide one. Steven also claimed that the insurance company made him an offer to settle, but it was much lower than the true damages (according to Steven the amount was enough to cover refunds to buyers for the games, but not enough to cover what he felt were losses to his property) so he refused the offer. Then the insurance company was sending the building owner the settlement check, but for whatever reason the owner did not want to get involved. Steven was also unsure if the owner would actually relay the funds to him, so he refused to allow that. Then Steven received a final denial from the insurance company on the claim. Oh yeah, he wanted to take on the insurance company in court, too.

One of the victims filed a report with the National Insurance Crime Bureau to look into Steven's myriad claims of coverage and possible fraud. An investigator called regarding the report and stated that no insurance claim had been found in their database from Steven or at the warehouse address.

All the while, Steven repeatedly asked buyers if they wanted to take the games as-is or if they wanted a refund. Problem was, none of them knew what "as-is" entailed. Steven repeatedly stated he took photos of the games shortly after the "fire" (for insurance purposes, of course), but that he could not release them to buyers per his legal counsel; without any concrete information, buyers had no idea which option to choose. Unsurprisingly, when asked which games survived and which games could not be shipped, no consistent answers were provided.

As this dragged on, buyers could only demand refunds or the games. Steven kept repeating he did not have the money, that buyers would have to take the games as-is, wait for him to clean the games or wait for the insurance settlement. When buyers stated that they just wanted a refund, his delay was to ask them to be patient and tell them their game(s) were in good condition and just needed to be cleaned, but he had other games to clean first. For buyers that simply wanted their games, he asked them for patience and told them he had either not verified condition of their games yet, as he was working with other buyers first, or they were too damaged and payment would be refunded, but he first needed the insurance settlement to do so, and there were others he had to refund first. If a buyer sent him a low amount of money, Steven told the buyer he wanted to pay back the bigger spenders first. If a buyer made a large purchase, Steven said it was easier for him to get the smaller refunds out of the way first. Sometimes Steven would switch it up and claim he wanted to pay back those who sent payment first. Yet none of the buyers bought that as Steven was frequently asking what items the buyers purchased and for how much, so there was no way he recalled the dates of purchase. Seeing a pattern? Wash, rinse, repeat... for months.

Steven's statements served two purposes. One, they delayed action by the buyers. Of course most buyers wanted the games, otherwise they would have never purchased them in the first place. So if there was a chance games would be shipped, some would just wait it out. But as time went on and those buyers decided they would rather have a refund, Steven would remind them they already said they wanted the games and the discussion just ran in a circle. But more importantly for Steven, if he could get the victims to buy into this loop, it would make it seem more like a civil matter if law enforcement were asked to investigate. If Steven's narrative even had a hint of being believable (a fire beyond his control, him doing his best to go through and prepare the games, some buyers offering to wait), there would be no way law enforcement would ever get involved with that; they would just tell the victims to take Steven to court.

But whatever was going on, Steven wanted the victims to know he was doing his best... except for those that didn't believe him and were demanding answers. If only they would all just be patient.

And if he didn't like what the buyer was saying, Steven would tell them they would get their games/refund last, or would receive nothing.

Over the ensuing months, Steven occasionally texted photos of ‘cleaned’ games that were ready to ship. However, many of these were games that had not been purchased. Perhaps they were games Steven did not want and was OK with letting out of his collection, hoping buyers would accept these as substitutes. Some photos are included below.

Steven knew this was not the cabinet that had been purchased, but sent the game anyway. When it was picked up for transport, he asked the buyer to contact him upon arrival, knowing there would be an issue, but said nothing at the time. And once again, a photo from one of Kris's ads (from 8/13/22) showed where Steven pulled this junk cabinet from.

In mid October, Steven sent three games, unannounced, to a second buyer and a single game to a third. When the buyers received them a couple weeks later, none of them were the games they originally paid for; Steven had simply written the names of the originally purchased games on shrink wrap over random arcade cabinets that were in horrible condition (damaged, covered in mold) and were missing monitors, control panels and game boards. Both buyers refused to accept shipment.

Arabian (which Steven misspelled as ARIABAN) somehow became an empty Stargate cabinet, covered in mold, with Yie Ar Kung Fu sideart. The Universal Lady Bug upright morphed into an empty cocktail, Bagman into a Tuni upright and Discs of TRON into an Assault. When confronted, Steven claimed those were the games paid for, but then later claimed it was a joke.

The joke was on him though, as he was later forced to repay STI for the transport charges on the refused shipments, reportedly in the thousands of dollars, before they would do any further pickups from the Gresham location. Of course he paid STI before he refunded a single cent to any of the buyers.

At the same time, Steven also sent three games to a fourth buyer (Pac Man Battle Royale, The Walking Dead and Injustice). All three games were agreed to by the buyer, with only one of them an original purchase and two as substitutes. Although the Pac Man Battle Royale was shown with the oversize marquee in the FD pics, the marquee was missing from Steven's "cleaned" pictures and the game was received without it. Classy.

All the while Steven sat idle, doing nothing to remedy the situation, buyers continued to frequently contact him about updates and his progress. Some told him they were considering legal recourse and one did contact a law firm for services. Early on Steven told them to contact his lawyer. The first handful of times he mentioned this, he provided no name nor contact information for his legal counsel. Eventually, Steven provided contact information for Terence McLaughlin of Carlton OR, but by that time his identity had long known from public records searches related to the investigation. Terence told one of the first buyers to contact him that he was not representing Steven in this matter. Later, when contacted by other buyers, Terence claimed he was retained by Steven for this matter, but when asked to find out more concrete details on refunds or shipment of games, Terence never contacted them back. The buyer who sought legal advice was told by his counsel that for weeks they had been trying to contact Terence, but he never returned a call. One buyer was told by Steven that Terence was a friend and was doing him a favor in dealing with this situation. No surprise that Steven's lawyer wasn't very helpful in resolving this matter. One buyer bypassed all the hassle and filed a small claims court case against Steven in late September.