Ok, I am making progress on the License verification front, but nothing solid to report as yet.
I am having some trouble getting the domain privacy company to understand the current situation (the keep telling me to contact the domain owner via their form - which I have of course already tried). However, I am persisting on this front for now.
I have also been checking out some options for engaging a Private Investigator in the area where Tom's driver's license indicates he lives. I have found another PI who works only 20 min away from Tom's address and charges $80 per hour plus travel. The first PI lived an hour away and charges $100 ph with a minimum of 4 hours billable. A third PI has not returned either of the 2 emails I sent to them in the last week.
I am thinking that if the license is legit, we could contract a PI to pay Tom a visit and (gently) try to ascertain what's going on. I am hoping that a number of shareholders would be willing to chip in and help me pay for this. I imagine that it might take 2-3hrs for this initial work - so the cost would be $160-240 in total. If we could get 25 shareholders to put in $10 (~0.017 BTC @ $580/BTC) each, that would cover it. I would be happy to use some kind of Escrow if that's what everyone wanted.
What does everyone think about that idea?
Sorry, but I think if you have his first and last name, and the location where he lives, you do not need money.
Instead of sending a PI to "gently" speak with him, you can send flowers to his home making a simple call to a delivery.
It's cheaper.
PD: Text for flowers card: "From your shareholders"