Zev Brenner With Heshy Goldstein about Hotel scam

Cheiny

Sun, Apr 02 2023, 11:58 pm

amother Snowflake wrote:

His story does not add up. He's a master manipulator. What must have happened is that they did not sell as much as they thought they would, and it wasn't worth it for them to continue. I personally know vendors from his previous events that did not get paid.

Just a few weeks ago I kept getting email after email from him, asking if we wanted to join the program…

Last edited by Cheiny on Mon, Apr 03 2023, 10:48 am; edited 1 time in total

OceanRider

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 12:00 am

This interview did him more disservice than good.
The way he tried dodging questions. Naming people who voiced legitimate concerns and questions as people having “emotional issues”, and his general demeanor and body language wasn’t that of a scammed business owner.

He was too chill, too smug, too easy throwing the ball back on others. Too defensive yet confident.

I feel sorry for everyone involved.

Mevater

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 12:13 am

Cheiny wrote:

Just a few weeks ago I kept getting email after email from him, asking if we wanted to join the program… it smacked of desperation.

Didn’t listen to the interview… did he show any proof of his reporting the hotel to the authorities?

From what I remember he said the hotel had the right to cancel him, once they didnt get payment when they were supposed to.

I was thinking there have to be clauses in a contract that deal with major money, about how the hotel would have to contact him before they toss him to the dogs and go ahead and take reservations from others. Goldstein was being too accepting of the hotel's behavior. It didnt sound right.

Cheiny

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 1:12 am

amother Lightblue wrote:

I know him personally. I used to work with him. He is as a very smart, nice, genuine person. There's no way he could be deliberately dishonest ch"v. If yes, I would be shocked. I'm sure whatever he's saying is true He's under alot of heat.
While I do feel sorry for him, I definitely feel more sorry for all the people who paid into the program.
I'm really hoping there is someway to get back their money.
What a nightmare situation.

Did you listen to the interview?

NechaMom

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 1:27 am

Cheiny wrote:

removed.

Won’t it be easy to get to the bottom line?
It shouldn’t be hard for professionals to track whether money has been wired from his account to an unknown one.
It’s a clear yes or no question.
And why the hotel didn’t check up on him before giving away the rooms makes no sense either. They did have their deposit and contract. Shouldn’t they send an email to check what’s going on before nulling the contract?
I also don’t understand why he’s talking about the bad reviews on the hotel. What does it say about him booking it then?
So many questions...
So sad for all involved!

NechaMom

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 1:36 am

Rappel wrote:

I know nothing of this man's story, but sour grapes is an old, old pattern, and I smell some sour grapes

I also never heard of him until this scandal and it does smell sour, but we should give him the benefit of the doubt. Innocent until proven guilty. We don’t have any proof in either direction. Impossible for us to know anything for sure. I’m sure the truth will come out sooner than later!

WhatFor

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 2:34 am

NechaMom wrote:

Innocent until proven guilty is a standard for the American legal system. It means the state can't deprive him of his freedom until he's proven guilty. It has no bearing on what the average person should believe or how they comport themselves with respect to his business.

Based on his own words, I now know three things.
1. A bunch of people paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars for a pesach program he didn't deliver on because he "was scammed".
2. Based on an article he wrote a few years ago, he tried to run a shavuot program but "was scammed" again and it fell through literally at the last second at which point he dodged the event. He claimed he knew from the beginning that one of the guys was a scammer (whose fault it was entirely) and that he didn't trust this guy's kashrut (but decided to use him for the program anyway, for reasons that was another person's fault.)
3. Now based on what he says in this podcast, there was yet another previous pesach program that was a disaster because he "was scammed".

All I can say is, don't give this guy money if you want something in return. He's clearly at huge risk of "being scammed". And I hope someone reports this to the FBI so all those people have a chance at getting their money back.

WhatFor

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 2:40 am

amother Snowflake wrote:

And then he says all the products that they purchased are being sold for half price now, and when a caller on the show asks where they can purchase the items for half price he gives some shmuky answer.

Yup. The first words out of my mouth when the podcast was over was "... and not a single question was answered."

In response to the person who wrote "he's a master manipulator", I find it difficult to believe that most people who watch that podcast would be persuaded. He gave zero tangible facts or proof of anything. And then tried to say he doesn't owe an explanation when, um yeah you do! When you disappear hundreds of thousands of dollars of clients' money, you've got some 'splainin to do. And if you market your business to the public, then yeah, everyone gets to ask.

NechaMom

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 2:47 pm

WhatFor wrote:

I actually meant as far as LH.
I would hate for rumors to spread if he’s indeed innocent.
Even though the red flags are there I would wait to hear the full story before accusing him of doing it intentionally.
I’m sure we’ll find out if there’s proof of this wiring to the wrong party. It shouldn’t be that hard to verify. I do feel there’s a chance that he was scammed.

amother

Vanilla

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 2:57 pm

I don't know anything about this guy but I work in the cyber industry and things like this happen more than you think. I have worked on projects and hacked into emails and then sent emails from those accounts (all with approval from the company but individual had no idea). There are many large companies who lose millions to scams.

amother

SandyBrown

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 3:02 pm

Son's Atlantic City Trip to Parents for Passover Gets Canceled. Now He's Out Thousands

A family is left hoping for a Passover miracle after spending thousands of dollars on a retreat that is not going to happen. The group that organized the trip claims they are a victim of fraud, while the hotel claims there was a breach of contract. So who’s to blame? Lynda Baquero reports.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/new.....j19Y4

NechaMom

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 3:04 pm

amother SandyBrown wrote:

This doesn’t answer anything.

NotInNJMommy

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 3:07 pm

What I see is that one should be most judicious in choosing where to drop $$$$ and trust in commitments for these types of retreats, especially for Pesach where the impacts are HUGE if something falls through. This particular business venture doesn't have a reliable track record that I'd personally feel comfortable relying on, but maybe others have a different risk posture.

amother

Charcoal

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 3:08 pm

His body language and responses make no sense for someone being scammed.

Whenever someone asks a legitimate question he doesn’t want to answer, he calls that people good for nothings and mentally unwell.

He says he only has to answer to people who paid for the program. So why is he even coming on air for strangers to ask him questions?

Let him get his act together and return emails to all the people who want their money back.

He couldn’t answer who the FBI agent was, he kept repeating that he has a very small staff, so there is no one else to verify this story with, when a caller wanted to know about getting his money back, he answered something to the effect of them being allowed at a later program.

This guy is a thief. Plain and simple.
If I was one of the clients I would band together to have the FBI check him out.

I feel so sorry for any people who signed up and now are out of funds for Pesach.
Let alone the headache of having new accommodations.

amother

Charcoal

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 3:09 pm

amother Vanilla wrote:

Which is why he thought this would be a good cover story.

groovy1224

Mon, Apr 03 2023, 3:16 pm

NechaMom wrote:

I actually don't doubt his story. But what I find so troubling is the lack of responsibility. When you are handling large sums of money, especially on behalf of other people, it is literally your job to take caution with it. Anyone in the business world should know about this very common type of scam, and if you don't, you don't belong in it.

He did not offer to help his guests find alternative accommodations, he softly chastised the ones who failed to purchase travel insurance when, by his own admission, he had neglected to purchase insurance as well. He blamed other people who didn't warn him about wire fraud because they were too embarrassed. He set up a program in a hotel that is apparently known to be rundown and under poor management. These things didn't bother him when he had hopes of a successful program but once everything went south he was real quick to say well the hotel is obviously under bad management.

He also lied on the interview by saying his program was fully booked. I know they weren't because I was trying to help someone find last minute plans for Pesach just last week and I reached out and got prices for different types of rooms, so there were clearly still space left.

So do I think he's lying about being scammed? No. Do I think that makes it any better? Also no.