Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
David Gothard, the man who always claimed never to be a patent troll but who was seen by many others, as a scourge on the digital signage industry, is currently in a Naples jail unable to post a USD 100,000 bond.
Local authorities arrested him in Beaufort, South Carolina, on a warrant in June and then transferred him to Collier County and then booked him into the Naples Jail.
Regular readers will remember that back in December 2014, Florida State Attorney General Pam Bondi sued Gothard and his associated businesses in Naples, alleging racketeering, theft and fraud – that civil case is still pending, Ed BUT he now faces a new criminal complaint brought by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation.
The Office of Financial Regulation has charged him with securities fraud, scheme to defraud and four counts of grand theft related to his business dealings in Collier and Manatee counties from 2007 to 2015.
While the civil case is still advancing, Gothard has asked for court approval to halt it until the criminal complaint is resolved. A hearing has yet to be scheduled on his request.
After Bondi filed the 85-page lawsuit against him Gothard told a Naples Daily News reporter it was “bogus” and vowed to protect his “more than 100” shareholders to ensure they get their investment returned.
Gothard’s arraignment in the criminal case was on Monday August 8, 2016 in Collier County court. At the hearing his charges were formally announced, and he pleaded not guilty. The Naples Daily News (which is covering this case extremely well) made mention that “dressed in an orange jumpsuit” he, and we quote, “appeared on a TV Screen from jail” – there is no truth to the rumor that Gothard / Activision / Activelight will be suing Collier County Court for using his patent.
Investigators with the Office of Financial Regulation and the Office of the Attorney General lay out their case against Gothard in an affidavit of probable cause, accusing him of collecting more than USD 100,000 from investors for his Naples-based business Activision TV Inc., then depositing most of the money into personal accounts at Chase and Regions banks.
Investors told investigators they believed their money was going toward the advancement of Activision and the purchase of company stock, not into Gothard’s pockets.
The Office of Financial Regulation began investigating Gothard in January 2015 after Steven Engstrom filed a complaint with its Division of Securities, which regulates the sale of stock in Florida. Engstrom, 63, told investigators that through his Bonita Springs-based company Ludlow & Associates, he wrote a USD 5,000 check made out to Gothard for 10,000 shares of Activision stock in August 2011 and lost all of the money.
Investors told investigators Gothard said he planned to go public with his digital advertising display business and that his patented technology would be placed in luxury hotels, grocery stores, drugstores and other businesses. The investigation found that Gothard and Activision were not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell stock and that the company never filed for an exemption from the federal registration requirements.
In their search for information about Gothard, investigators not surprisingly discovered multiple lawsuits filed by and against Activision involving patents and multiple civil lawsuits against Gothard and his companies about investor money.
August 9th, 2016 at 12:05 @545
Let’s hope his cellmate is well endowed and promiscuous.