Talk:Reed Slatkin

Slatkin "founder" of Earthlink

I wouldn't name Slatkin a "founder" of Earthlink. He gave them money, but had no clue about what they were doing, he funded many startups, only ELN was a success. Even Andreas von Bechtolsheim isn't named a "founder" of Google (he gave them a $100000 check to start), although he did of course understand what they were doing. I suggest a different wording: ... an initial investor in Earthlink.... But this is just a comment, so I won't do a change myself this time. --Tilman 15:49, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

The article says "Co-founder", not "founder". The source is this. I just pass along what sources say, I don't try to interpret. wikipediatrix

That response is disingenuous. The source is not correct so repeating it doesn't make it any more "correcter." The founder of Earthlink was Sky Dayton and Slatkin's participation extended to investing in the start up.

Sources that cite Slatkin as "Co-Founder" or "Chief"

1. CNN referred to Slatkin as "Earthlink co-founder" -- Staff (March 27, 2002). "Earthlink co-founder charged with fraud, money laundering". CNN (Time Warner). 
2. St. Petersburg Times also used the phrase: "Earthlink co-founder" -- Staff (May 1, 2002). "Business digest". St. Petersburg Times. pp. EARTHLINK CO–FOUNDER ADMITS FRAUD. 
3. The Wall Street Journal used the phrase: "Earthlink Co-Founder" -- Tkacik, Maureen (March 27, 2002). "EarthLink Co-Founder Slatkin Admits to Fraud in Ponzi Scheme". Wall Street Journal. 
4. The Washington Post, using an article with information from The Associated Press, referred to Reed Slatkin as: "Earthlink Chief" -- Staff; The Associated Press (June 2, 2001). "Earthlink Chief Signs Agreement". The Washington Post. 

• These sources are included in the list below, to be used to expand the article... Smee 09:24, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

Scientology settlement

The segment about the 3.5 million payup has too many details. IMO, it should just be told that scientology paid up as a settlement, and that the Slatkin money had flown to several (named) scientology entities. It doesn't matter who the attorneys were. --Tilman 15:49, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

The last sentence reads: "The $3.5 million being returned by the church groups was the result of a negotiated compromise, Scientology attorney David Schindler and Alexander Pilmer, an attorney for Neilson, said." I don't think it's a big deal to include this sentence in the quote, especially since it's the source for the "3.5 million" figure and I don't like breaking up sentences from direct quotes. wikipediatrix 16:34, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

I think we should be breaking up that big blockquote anyhow, and citing to the original article (Reckard, E. Scott (2006-11-08). "Scientology groups to pay back $3.5 million". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2006-11-09. ) instead of the Associated Press article that got its information from the LAT article. As for the information in that particular sentence, I would strike a balance with something like "Attorneys for the Church and for the bankruptcy trustee called the $3.5 million a "negotiated compromise"." -- Antaeus Feldspar 04:29, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Why so complicated? It's just a settlement. And any settlement is a negotiated compromise between attorneys of both parties. --Tilman 05:42, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't think all settlements can be described as "negotiated compromises". For instance, if I say "You can give me $100,000 by the close of the business day or my lawsuit against you is filed tomorrow morning" I'm not really negotiating or compromising. If you say "how about $95,000?" and I tell you "$100,000 or nothing" then I'm actually refusing to negotiate or compromise. I don't think the names of the attorneys are significant but I do think how they describe the arrangement is. -- Antaeus Feldspar 16:38, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm fine with referencing the original LA Times article. Last night, when I originally added the info, Google News only showed the mercurynews.com AP story. I still don't see the big deal about whether or not to include the rest of these details, though. I think this settlement is obviously important enough to merit the amount of space and blockquotage I gave it. wikipediatrix 16:55, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Citations to be added to article

1. Ebner, Mark C.; Andrew Breitbart (2004). Hollywood, Interrupted. John Wiley and Sons. p. 135. ISBN 0471450510. 
2. Staff (May 11, 2001). Litigation Release No. 16998. Securities and Exchange Commission. 
3. Malonis, Jane A.; Paula J. Haynes (Foreword) (May 2002). Gale Encyclopedia of E-commerce. Thomson Gale. pp. "Earthlink, Inc." – 223. ISBN 0787656607 , ISBN 978-0787656607. 
4. Masters, K. (2001). "This Man Made $500 Million Disappear A head-smacking tale of unbelievable fraud involving Hollywood big shots, Scientology, Silicon Valley, and a multimillionaire mystery man named Reed Slatkin". Esquire. pp. VOL 136; PART 4, pages 132–144. 
5. Palmeri, Christopher; Christopher Schmidtt (May 28, 2001). "The Reed Slatkin Case: Did the SEC Drop the Ball?". BusinessWeek (McGraw-Hill). 
6. US Bankruptcy Court Opinions - IN RE SLATKIN, (CDCal. 2005)
7. US Bankruptcy Court Opinions - IN RE SLATKIN, (CDCal. 2006)
8. Staff; Associated Press (February 23, 2004). "Bookkeeper sentenced for part in Reed Slatkin fraud case". San Diego Union Tribune (Union-Tribune Publishing Co.). 
9. Staff (September 6, 2002). "A Suit Claims Banks Aided Slatkin in Investment Scam". Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones & Company, Inc.). 
10. Novack, Janet (June 7, 2004). "Make the IRS Share Your Pain". Forbes Magazine. 
11. Staff; Associated Press (November 8, 2006). "Scientology groups to pay back $3.5 million from Slatkin scheme". San Francisco Chronicle (Hearst Communications Inc.). 
12. Farrell, Greg (December 18, 2001). "Report: Scheme took in $600M". USA Today (Gannett Co. Inc.). 
13. Staff; Associated Press (September 14, 2004). "Settlement reached in investor-related Ponzi scheme". San Diego Union Tribune (Union-Tribune Publishing Co.). 
14. Staff (March 27, 2002). "Earthlink co-founder charged with fraud, money laundering". CNN (Time Warner). 
15. Berkowitz, Ben (April 30, 2002). "From Start-Up Hero To Admitted Swindler". CBS News (MMII Reuters Limited). 
16. Touretzky, David (September 6, 2002). "No". sp!ked-IT (spiked). 
17. Staff (May 1, 2002). "Business digest". St. Petersburg Times. pp. EARTHLINK CO–FOUNDER ADMITS FRAUD. 
18. Tkacik, Maureen (March 27, 2002). "EarthLink Co-Founder Slatkin Admits to Fraud in Ponzi Scheme". Wall Street Journal. 
19. Adair, Bill; Paul De La Garza, Mary Jacoby (June 3, 2001). "100-million rebate checks being prepared for mailing". St. Petersburg Times. 
20. Adair, Bill; Paul De La Garza, Mary Jacoby (June 3, 2001). "Van Susteren and husband invested in Scientology member's scheme". St. Petersburg Times. 
21. Staff; The Associated Press (June 2, 2001). "Earthlink Chief Signs Agreement". The Washington Post. 
22. Wenig, Gaby (January 11, 2002). "Fraudulent Friend: A quadriplegic is one of 800 victims in an alleged investment scheme". The Jewish Journal Of Greater Los Angeles. 
23. Rafter, Michelle V. (May 28, 1998). "EarthLink Connects". The Industry Standard (TheStandard.com). 
24. Learmonth, Michael (March 19, 1998]]). "Missing Links". Metroactive (Metro Publishing Inc.). 

Some are archived in full online...

• Note that some of these news sources have archived full versions of the articles online. These citations should be incorporated to expand the article. I may do this at some point later. There are also 179 hits to utilize, at Google News (Here is the link)... Smee 08:14, 28 April 2007 (UTC).

At this point the section "Ponzi scheme" is irrelevant, there are no details regarding the scheme itself, and the information in that section could be easily worked into the intro/biography sections (making the whole article better in the process). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.191.59.164 (talk) 13:26, 15 December 2008 (UTC)