Crazy Uncle Auctions Prevails Over CJDave False Claims
 

CJDave and Crazy Uncle Actions (CUA) Final Resolution.

It has been a while since I last posted here on Net54 - hopefully the community can understand that I was unable to make any public comments due to the ongoing litigation between myself and CJDave, or David Ostrove.

Dave Ostrove was recently convicted of money laundering and embezzlement by a Suffolk County jury and sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years in jail for stealing over $8 million from his employer, the Schecter School of Long Island, a Jewish private school, where he took advantage of his position of trust as the CFO for the past 11 years.

He used this stolen money to live a lavish lifestyle buying luxury cars for himself and his family, purchasing five beach houses on Fire Island NY that he rented out and made over $600k in income, and purchased millions of dollars in memorabilia and coins which he then sold/laundered via the BST section on this site, as well as my company, Crazy Uncle Auctions, and other auction houses. Dave was living this lavish lifestyle while the Schecter School was cutting student programs and struggling to keep the school open.

Dave Ostrove is a professional con artist who practiced his craft for over a decade by lying and cheating children out of the full benefits of their education. To quote New York State Supreme Court Justice John Collins who presiding over his trial and gave him the maximum sentence: “Mr. Ostrove is a charlatan and brazen thief.” Dave used his well-honed con artist skills to write over eighty false posts on this website about me and my company as part of an internet smear campaign to extort money from me and, when I refused to knuckle under, to threaten to destroy me.

Dave Ostrove then used embezzled funds to hire lawyers to sue me in November 2020, making even more outlandish claims than his Net54 posts. He accused me of stealing $1.3 million of his memorabilia, damaging all the consigned items returned to him, and selling items in our last auction under a “reserve” that he concocted. Even though I successfully sold 512 of 760 memorabilia items he consigned and returned the unsold items, Dave fabricated a list of 785 items he accused me of stealing – more than the total of items he ever consigned to me. The math never worked. But that didn’t stop Ostrove and his attorneys. He included over a hundred items on the missing list that I sold in our June 2020 auction and paid him for, and he included duplicate “1/1” items and items which were sold or consigned to other auction houses.

The more information Dave manufactured, the more it became obvious that he was falsifying the documents and that his theft claims were simply not true.

Eventually we moved forward to Arbitration where a panel of three retired judges presided over this dispute between CJDave and me for over three years. During that time, Dave Ostrove avoided answering questions; refused to provide documents, then produced false and fabricated documents; refused to permit our expert to inspect the supposed damaged items until the Panel ordered him to; dropped his damaged items claims; refused to be deposed; took the Fifth Amendment multiple times (mind you he was the plaintiff making the allegations); changed lawyers twice after he was indicted and arrested; and never showed up for the trial of his claims.

On the other hand, I provided the Panel proof there were no missing items as Dave claimed. I proved that Dave had consigned many of the so-called missing items to other auction houses after I returned the unsold items to him in July 2020. I proved his fraud by matching the PSA or SGC serial number on the scans.

In fact, two years after the litigation began, and after he had been arrested for embezzling millions from the Schechter School, Dave was arrested for the second time and charged with 10 additional criminal counts when he was caught trying to sell/consign dozens of memorabilia to a memorabilia store in violation of a forfeiture court order – including many items that I returned and were on the bogus missing list.

Again, I had the scans with the serial PSA / SGC number or JSA certificate that matched these items he was attempting to consign. I was also able to prove that none of the items I returned were damaged with the help of a third-party memorabilia expert, so any posts about CUA leaving items out in the rain was proven false so convincingly that Dave dropped his damage claim rather than face the facts. These are just a few examples of the many facts proving Dave Ostrove’s claims were false which were presented to the panel.

Two days ago, the Panel dismissed Dave Ostrove’s claims with prejudice. The Panel stated that Dave Ostrove’s claims had no basis in fact or in law, and his public posts about me and CUA were “false and defamatory.”

Without a doubt, this was one of the most stressful and distressing experiences I have ever dealt with in my life, and hope none of you ever go through anything close to this. I hope that some of you in the Net54 community remember me as a reputable person who would never steal or do any of the horrible things that Dave falsely accused me of on this board. This hobby has plenty of bad characters and hopefully the resolution of this matter does something to clear my name and expose Dave Ostrove as a lying con artist, thief and money launderer who couldn’t care less about the damage he caused to me and my family.

I also ask Leon if you can permanently ban Dave Ostrove and remove his past posts under Net54 ID: CJDave. Dave has shown no respect for any of its members or to you by trying to sell items purchased with stolen money via the BST board, posted false claims about me and CUA using the Net54 board for his own personal gain, and now is a convicted money launderer and embezzler. Leon, I leave that decision to you, hopefully you agree with me that you do not want people like David Ostrove in the Net54 community.

I do not plan to provide any further comments about this matter and want to move forward with my life. In the spirit of having a picture in every post – here is one that is worth a thousand words.

Wow what a total scumbag. When a POS steals from kids, you know they're bottom of the barrel. Very sorry you had to go through this nightmare and hopefully you fully clear your name.

What a story, sorry you had to go through all this. Are you still still running that auction?

WoW! :eek::eek:

What a sociopath. Maybe even a psychopath.

So sorry you went through this.

Whoa
 

Man you had a lot of stamina and guts to hold on and prove your case instead of knuckling under and hoping it would all just disappear. He messed with the wrong guy!! Tons of respect for you in seeing it through to the end.

Welcome back, and what a nightmare.

Hope you have closure now, and you can leave all that garbage in the past.

Good luck!

I Am Stunned
 

First, thanks for sharing. I am very sorry you had to go through this and am glad you still have your mental health.
I followed this case when it first was detailed on Net54 and based upon all this stunning news can only conclude that he "used" this young man as a way to "launder" the stolen money from the school. He knew all along it wasn't his money to begin with so by making all these claims and suing he was trying to clean the money IF he won in court. Just stunning. And that poor school. I want to cry. This has all the makings for a 60 Minutes or 20/20 report.
You have the right attitude. Move forward. Life is short. Smell the roses. I wish you nothing but health and peace.

Reading that old thread in hindsight is rough. Could only get through the first page so far.

This guy was really creating an alternate universe for himself and everybody else involved in that thread.

Crazy thing is. He's already stealing from the school. Why would he make so much more noise for himself while he's trying to launder it?

There's so much arrogance involved here, it's almost impossible to measure.

Easy decision to immediately ban him. He didn't edit any posts he made as of now, concerning anything written. Generally, deleting posts or threads, is almost never done. Karma....
.

Probably the right choice. Evidence of his shittiness should remain.

Be nice if you could put a permanent link to the Newsday article under the banned notice by his name. ;)

....or to any one of the dozens of other similar articles, including more detailed local notices, that can be found by simply Googling his name.

Congrats Aaron in your victory. Great outcome!


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Something along the lines of this would be a great idea.


Brian

+2

Proof that every post by CJDave was a lie
 

Leon -

I respectfully disagree with your decision to not delete all CJDave posts, so I would request that all of the threads started by CJDave be locked.

My full name because I'm speaking ill of a (banned) member.

Doug Goodman


PS - even his "normal" posts were lies. He tried to sell a Roger Clemens stadium giveaway as opening day, when it was actually from the second game of the season.

That was a crazy thing when it was going down in 2020. I know it had to hurt the auction as I remember people being scared away from bidding. I did bid on a few items and won a 1915 Zeenut Fred McMullin card for a steal price...I paid and it was sent to me with no problems very fast.

I know one of Dave's collection areas was 1919 White Sox and I think that card might have been one of his...

Glad you were able to have your day in court and it went they way it should! If you start an auction company back up I will sign up

Yeesh, kinda had a weird feeling about that thread and stayed well away. It had the vibe of one side quietly prepping a case and trying not to ruin it and another sounding like a foghorn of distraction while completely avoiding the steps an innocent player would have took.

It is interesting how quickly a Red Scare panic set in to some and others just waited for their stuff.

Aaron CUA
 

Congratulations Aaron. So Glad that this is behind you.
I met Aaron several years ago. He invited me to his home in NYC where we traded and talked cards. He was a True Gentleman . I didn’t believe the allegations against him when they were posted on Net 54 in regards to his Auction. It was not the Aaron that I knew.
SO Glad that the Truth prevailed and His name is Cleared.

Best Regards
John Perrotta

Ouch, that's a roughie. Thanks for sharing.

Sorry you had to endure that.

Leon - one issue with the posts being allowed to stay is that then there is at least one thread here that is going to be full of lies that will make people question Aaron's integrity. If we keep the posts, which I understand for wanting a record, maybe you could edit every post so that it starts with a statement saying that CJDave was convicted of fraud, all allegations made against AJR are untrue, and link to this thread? I would hate for the old posts to cost AJR any business, friends, or cards he wants.

I guess the "CJ" in his screen name stands for Complete Jack-off.

That is a good idea, and this is just a suggestion, but editing the title of that thread (or any related thread) with a bold lettered disclaimer could accomplish the same thing as editing each post, and would be less cumbersome for Leon.

Cj
 

Holy crap, I sold this guy sooo many cracker jacks over the years. I had no idea he was a scum bag low life.

Didn't that auction have some other issues, why may be why some may have given some credence to Ostrove's claims?

That is my recollection as well
 

That said, No one deserves to be on the receiving end of what was shared above. Glad to hear you cleared your name as it related to the CJDave false accusations Aaron.

Sorry you and your family had to go through this awful experience. Glad it's finally over for you!

Yeah, I'd opt for taking down the guy's posts about the OP given what has transpired. Just seems like the right thing to do from a community standpoint.

I agree about taking down the fraud's posts. However, there are 401 of them over quite a long time. If they are all deleted it will screw up a ton of threads. So, looking for options as this is posted...

In looking at his posts a little more, It looks like a few of his threads might be the main culprets. Maybe moving those to that private area could suffice?

.

You did a great job not responding to his BS allegations and handling it the correct way. It must have required a great deal of discipline. I hope you sue him for defamation. You'll have many willing witnesses on this board.

You could always add a disclaimer to all his posts by adding a signature line that appears on all his posts like you have with your name.

"Noted Extortioner/Con-Artist" maybe?

Just seems wrong to destroy evidence of this guys existence/sliminess.

With just the slightest bit of context present, I think the victimized auction house here, comes out ahead.

Maybe they should be the final arbiter here, after a Pow Wow with Leon possibly?

Welcome back and sorry to hear what you went thru.

Same for me, he bought a bunch of CJ's from me many years ago. I feel a bit dirty knowing where they went now....

I don't want longterm liability here :). I met someone at their table, just walking by, at the National last year and it was one of the known trimmer/fraudsters outed on Blowout. Of course there was a several hundred post thread here too, and he was none too happy about it. I think I told him I would take it down if he told me what happened, he told me he scammed someone or something like that, and I changed my mind LOL. He asked me why, and I said after hearing what the situation was I didn't think taking it down was the right thing to do. So, I actually think just hiding the few threads might work... but still open to other ideas or more thought on the possibilities given.
LL

You had no idea his $$ came from ill-gotten gains. Don't feel dirty in any way as you acted properly.

Leon:

I don't know what to do in this case BUT I might in the thread which ended up accusing the aggrieved party of something which discovered to be false, adding a post at the beginning of the thread with the fact we know now several years later

That way, nothing is deleted, everything is kept as it was in real time but with the perspective of what developed to be the truth several years later so people can read the thread and see how dangerous accusations can really be

Thank you
 

Thank you all - appreciate the support.

Aaron

1) Lock account
2) Insert a disclaimer with links to his convictions as well as a link to this thread.
3) Make it all bold red.
4) Close any thread that shows no new posts in last 30 days.
5) Leave everything said intact.

Some things done
 

All good suggestions in this thread.

This post below was a good summation of possibilities, so here are some things done.

1. He was banned immediately.

2. The last post in the thread, that is now locked, has a magazine cover of him and his fraud. That can probably be duplicated at the top of that thread too? Maybe into another thread if need be. Link to this thread is easy.

3. Highlighted in some color, not sure if red shows up best. Maybe larger letters and bold with some little stars or something :)
Might be overkill but if it's more alerting, so be it.

4. It looks like all of his posts that were pertinent to the issues have now been locked.

5. Nothing has changed.

Still open to further discussing.

thanks all. (sorry you had to go through this, Aaron)

Reading through the main thread, a lot of us were fooled into believing Dave and taking him at face value. Dave's side of the story was pretty much the only side we were given, for the most part, and therefore, some of us were in support of him at that time. I think that opinion would've been reasonable, had he been 100% truthful.

Anyway, I don't think Leon can or should do anything about that, but I do hope Aaron understands. I apologize to Aaron for whatever supportive comments I made to Dave.

Thank you Net54
 

I want to extend my thanks again to the Net54 community for your support after the revelations about CJDave (Ostrove). Many of you reached out individually, and the conversations we've had have been incredible, sparking some really exciting plans.

After four years of turmoil, being welcomed back into this community has been a tremendous relief. I'm excited about the future and look forward to more great conversations and opportunities with all of you. Let's keep moving forward together!

This is such a sad story. I was new to the hobby when this case first came to light with the false claims about Crazy Uncle Auctions. In fact, my first auction house purchases came from the Crazy Uncle Auctions. My experience was great. I purchased three very nice cards that were promptly delivered. When the false fraud posts started, I posted that, speaking from my experience, I saw no problems. Crazy Uncle Auctions had delivered as promised. There were some opinions offered by others then that were harsh. I am very happy that justice was eventually served. Thank you for the update!


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I have to admit I believed the hype and formed a negative opinion about you based on superficial comments.
I'm impressed you stuck to your guns and came out victorious. Props to you and a refreshing resolution in our current crazy world.

Leon, be careful of any and all potential liability arising from any Board topic. You never know what kind of snake is in the woodpile. As you know, I had to close down the Full Count board on legal advise due to several adverse comments made, which, however remotely, might have exposed me to some potential liability, e.g. hosting a facility where slander was taking place.

John, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 provides limited immunity from defamation cases to providers and users of interactive computer services. Basically, someone shit-posting someone else on your site does not make you as the site host liable for their defamatory conduct unless you have an active role in editing it. There are nuances, but the whole idea was to prevent a shut-down like you were advised to do.

+1
When this new, non-network54 forum (we changed hosts in '09) first got off the ground I would get Cease and Desist letters from lawyers, concerning what other members said. I was threatened but knew Section 230 fairly well. There were at least 5 instances where I told a lawyer they had no clue about the law. A few I hung up on, a few I laughed at and told to EFF off and all of them got yelled at :) . After I said, go read section 230 of the Federal Communications and Decency Act, they didn't call back. Precisly it defines who a publisher of information is. And a publisher isn't the site owner, unless the site owner is saying it. And, yes if the owner changes someone elses post, to mean something different, they can be responsible too. It's been a few years since I was threatened for what someone else said on the forum.

ps...good for you on hanging in there, Aaron. I wish you all the best!!

Did you go all Les Grossman on them?

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...s-grossman.jpg

I will rain down an un-Godly f***ng firestorm upon you! You're gonna have to call the f***ng United Nations and get a f***ng binding resolution to keep me from f***ng destroying you. I'm talking scorched earth, motherf****! I will massacre you! I WILL F*** YOU UP!

It was more like "you're just a f'ing dumbass, so study section 230 and get back to me, asshole!!" and hung up. With a few I drew it out a little bit, knowing they didn't know their ass from a hole in the ground with regards to this law, otherwise, they wouldn't have sent the freaking C and D to start with.

Adam, thanks, very helpful to know there is a law protecting hosts of forums like Leon's and mine. I think I need a new lawyer. Alas, too late in the game for me to try something again and why would I since we have a much better model in Net54.

Some lawyers are happy to get paid to send more or less bogus cease and desists, and they often work.

I don't blame them for taking the money. Back then, my guess is, they didn't really know. I probably helped a few of them learn that law :)...

.