This is all a bit too much to handle honestly...
While I am content to keep 10 shares in the auction site... there are a few things which are going to haunt this venture for a long time...
1. Justin, you may have the LLC and Trademark because you filed first, but any case opened will reveal through investigation what the timeline was and how things transpired... there is a possibility that 10% allocated is not enough and a suit would reward the plaintiff with a much more substantial amount... do your due diligence and get some representation to at least give you a bit of sound legal advice regarding this before you get too far in to minimize the damage.
2. It is now public record that you used funds generated by shares you sold that were allotted to you at the beginning of the project. With you filing an LLC AFTER the fact, you still have some liability to have used those funds responsibly for the company and not personal maters. What is transcribed in the Skype conversation is very worrying, and damaging... should someone bring a suit against you or bring a government entity into the picture, you will be hard pressed to show you used the raised funds accordingly, and may find yourself dealing with even more of a mess than just arguing over ownership and profit sharing. Again, you need to seek out some legal aide to define your position and help you understand these mistakes and what you can do about them.
3. Bitcoin is taxable, which means what you spent needs to be reported properly, and if you are not attempting to claim the physical property you spent the funds on as part of the LLC, you will be fined or at least audited and then possibly fined. Cashing out Bitcoin requires that you pay taxes on it, especially since you were not an LLC when you did so. With the controversy of what has happened, do not be naive enough to think someone is not going to report you in hopes you do get audited and caught with your pants down. AGAIN, seek legal aide ASAP for your share holder's sake.
With all that said, I hope this goes well and an amicable solution can be arrived at... there is nothing worse than bad publicity before a product can even get off the ground.
~Daemon
Interesting points raised Daemon...
Am I correct in thinking that in this case, one person hired another person to program the website and that it can be described as her project (ie a boss hiring a rent-a-coder)?
Am I also correct in thinking that after the boss and the rent-a-coder fell out without each other, the rent-a-coder hired to program the website for reasons not fully explained has filed to register the name as Trademark first, even though he was an employee of the boss and a part of the project. And somehow he has access to funds as well?
If I have it wrong, someone please feel free to inform us all.
If I have it correct, then it would seem difficult to comprehend that in essence, somehow, a rent-a-coder has taken over a whole project (including investor funding) which he was supposed to be hired just to code. In that case the boss would still own all copyright code (except for the original sub-standard turnkey template website).
Probably best for everyone to stay clear of this project because if there is money involved then surely the project owner/boss would not let this go. I see a possible litigation on the horizon and would advise everyone to NOT invest and furthermore I would advise everyone who has invested to do the following things:
1) Ask for your money to be returned
2) Ask exactly how your investment is/was being used and 'invested'
3) Write to the person who originally started this project and ask her if she were still in-charge of the project how would your investment be used and 'invested'
4) Under no circumstances invest nor re-invest in this project until there is clarity as to who owns it and where it is going. You will probably have to wait for the outcome of a court case since neither party seems to be backing down.
I have hired coders to work on my projects in the past and made it clear that I own the code they write. If any rent-a-coder decided he was going to take over one of my projects because he did not like my strategy then I would remove him and continue with another rent-a-coder. If any rent-a-coder stole my ideas, registered a similar domain and/or trademark and then used a copy of my purchased code to create a competing website, I would not hesitate to go to court. I am not saying that anything like that has happened here but the situation is dire especially as far as withdrawals of investors funds is concerned and that could open up a whole new legal issue.
Stay away from this guys, at least until the law makes it clear who owns which part of this project and then use your initiative and decide if you feel on a moral basis you can invest and/or use the website after you know which party will be running it.