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Originally Posted by BobC
Didn't specifically address your point about "nudging" before, but can definitely see (and know) that can happen. Would have thought the government could have just gone in and got any records and data they would need, but maybe they didn't have enough to get a judge to sign off on a search warrant?
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I think it's entirely possible that the FBI came sniffing around for exactly these records. Search warrant or not, I'm not sure it would matter. If the feds contacted eBay, asking about records pertaining to PWCC, then that very well could have prompted a response like this. And they wouldn't have even needed proof of PWCC themselves doing the shill bidding to want to cut ties. They already know that the consignors shill those auctions. That's all they needed to craft the email they sent out. Cut ties and blame it on the "individuals associated with PWCC". I think there is certainly a strong possibility that this is precisely what happened. What leans me more toward the other theory though is just the timing of it all. It's been years since the FBI opened its investigation against PWCC. Perhaps they're just this far behind because of covid, but as others have recently pointed out, they did not have a presence at this year's National. And it might not be entirely coincidental that this email came on the heels of PWCC having successfully launched their competing auction platform. Or perhaps it's actually a combination of both. Perhaps they were contacted by the FBI quite some time ago and PWCC was just on their last straw, and the fact that they were so brazen to now want to take eBay's business away from them and bring them to their own new platform was the straw that broke the camel's back and they just thought, enough is enough. We're done with these clowns. Or perhaps it was something else entirely. Perhaps someone slept with someone else's wife. It wouldn't be the first time lol.