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Comments
That's a recursive sin ;-)
After this turn of events, it looks like I can stop hoping to get my seedbox back.
Only after this?
Jesus Christ you are helpless.
It became the last nail in the coffin. Up to this point, the property was still glowing;)
Of course I found a replacement long ago. Just lazily watched the situation.
No. There is still a change HostSolutions will come back. Remember: people love it when it's cheap. I even dare to conclude: people are willing to forgive everything, for the right price.
There is a problem with hope. Some people will send his ass to court, and sue him until there's nothing left. He f_cked with customer's privacy, and that is one big NO.
You can bet your ass I'll sign up again with HS. But this time I'll take measures, so the next hacker's email will say rusty shackleford instead of my real name (☹️)
Holy shit guys, I leave for Christmas and come back to this on Hostsolutions !!!
What a saga !!!
Does he have a new site btw? I remember he made a new host that sent out emails.
how's the perfume business ?
The real mystery is how this guy could afford to own multiple commercial buildings in prime locations, data center, data center infrastructure and lay down 475 KM of fiber with all his companies (including perfume business) operating constantly at a huge loss and bringing less than 400 thousand dollars in turnover during their entire existence.
He doubtlessly had good local connections with the right people, but beyond this, I would guess a lot of "creative accounting" (which -- if correct -- would mean that he paid many fewer taxes than he should have).
If I say so, you seem to know a lot for someone who joined only on April 8th
Isn't it obvious?
Sure, but here's the thing - while it's generally easy to falsify income and most tax authorities in Eastern Europe do not care because corporate income taxes are marginal, if you falsify turnover (revenue), you're in huge trouble. Tax system in Romania for small enterprises works on a revenue basis (you pay 1% of revenue in lieu of 16% income tax). It's not 90s anymore. Unless you accept cryptocurrency (idk if cociu did that) or have a real offshore company (definitely not), tax authorities nowadays can just look up your bank records and bust your little scheme instantly.
You have 1 million USD a year revenue and 5000 net loss - sure, creative accounting.
You have 40 000 USD a year revenue (that's what he had, right? Most years were way lower than that) and 5000 net loss - meh, maybe your business is not doing so well after all.
My bet is cociu or his family is old money. A lot of shady deals and outright fraud were made during the communist downfall in Romania. Profits from them were further invested in legitimate businesses, mostly low-tech enterprises like restaurants or hotels/rental property, but I guess his hosting further down the line was an exception. Did he seem competent to run it? Clearly not. What is his background even?
I've literally read the entire saga overnight.