A journalistic investigation into a $2,000,000 crowd-funding scam that ultimately failed.
Former podcast co-host and friend, Mike Kennedy, twice successfully crowd-funded Retro Magazine and attempted to bring a video game console to market via the same method.
Not having the knowledge or funds to do so, he approached industry professionals to obtain a realistic timescale and cost. Not willing to wait for either, he asked "What can we do with Smoke and Mirrors?"
As respected professionals walked away, he turned to lesser able and less scrupulous engineers to help him defraud his way to $2,000,000 in crowd-funding revenue.
Being behind the scenes, the author, and others, knew that the endless 3D renders and multiple fake prototype consoles were far from genuine, one of them being displayed at the World's premier Toy industry event, the New York Toy Fair.
After failed crowd-funding attempts and more engineers, further fake prototypes were exposed and paid for by siphoning funds from the successfully funded Retro Magazine and from investment by friends and family members, who would go on to lose their investments and any potential claims on the company as several new companies were registered and the assets transferred to them secretly and illegally.
Magazine writers went unpaid, subscribers went without their magazines and business partners were further defrauded as the empire fell apart, forcing Mike Kennedy to sell his yacht, his home and move to a Motel in a different state.
The author has a wide variety of first hand sources for the information in the book and attempted to warn potential customers that all was not as it seemed.