"Conan update - some financial troubles" Topic

As lifelong fan of Conan, I couldn't help myself when Monolith opened its Kickstarter campaign. Theoretically, the pledge manager should have been opened in March -Monolith set October to start sending the goodies. At as of today, the backers hadn't recieved the pledge manager. I was a little bit worried. Yesterday, I received the last project update:

"Hi guys, as the title suggests, I'm going to start this update by addressing a very awkward subject that some of you may have heard of. For the past few weeks, we have been working to resolve the issue with Amazon payments who decided to block our account, and therefore, we have been unable to access any of our funds.

The exact reason to why they did this is a bit vague on their behalf, but we are certain it stems from the fact that to run a Kickstarter, you need to have an American company. Therefore, we created Monolith US. However, we have no "physical" presence there. No offices, only a P.O. box. This, added to the fact that we used Days Of Wonder's bank account and that there was a very large sum of money at stake meant that they decided to take their time in making sure we were who we said we were. It may also be that having $3.3 USD million sit in your bank account for a little while longer generates no small amount of pocket change, but I digress.

It took a LOT longer than it should have to find a resolution to this issue and the team at Monolith is feeling very let down by all this. It has not only forced us to push back the pledge manager until the issue was resolved, but also meant that we were unable to perform refunds for some of those who requested them. We recognize that the full extent of the issue should have been made known to you all sooner, but multiple times over the past few weeks, we were assured that the issue was on the cusp of being fixed, only to be let down again.

In any case, the good news is that this issue is now RESOLVED. We will be receiving the money soon, which means the Pledge Manager should finally be arriving shortly after and we will be able to refund those who requested it. We can only apologize for this situation which, unfortunately, was totally out of our control. We have not sat idly by however during all this. We scraped together what funds we could to get ahead in production and therefore pieces like the Overlord's Book of Skelos is currently coming off the production line and we should have some images to show soon."

While I appreciate Monolith being open about its troubles, I believe that they should have informed themselves about the possible problems beforehand. I find disingenuous by its part their affirmation that the situation was out of their control. When I give money for a project, I expect that the managers had the issue under control, including the legislation regarding the access to the funds.

I would be cautious attributing too much blame, if Monolith is indeed being honest here. Cross-border transactions in seven figures will set off all sorts of alarm bells in today's world, from drug laundering to sex trafficking to terrorism. If customs can hold up a small box of soldier or paints, just imagine what a $3.3 USD million bank account would attract in the way of attention.

"If customs can hold up a small box of soldier or paints, just imagine what a $3.30 USD USD million bank account would attract in the way of attention."

Indeed it does. A trifling $10,000 USD for individuals will as well. And as pointed out, holding the money has some uses as well.

IMO, Monolith should be shopping lawyers right now, if only as CYA.

I got the same notice and didn't think anything of it. Amazon is notoriously cautious, and I've heard horror stories very similar to this that have nothing to do with Kickstarters.

Yes they should have mentioned it sooner, but they probably thought it would just clear up quickly and were as surprised as anyone how long it took to clear. Just yesterday I talked to a guy who paints miniatures because someone put in their Pay Pal description that he was paying him to create scale models of a terrorist training camp for a moderns game. He got a call from the Feds within a day asking serious questions about the purpose of said miniatures- and this over a $200 USD transaction being done privately between two individuals.

It's a different world we live in now.

I'm pretty sure you need more than a PO box to have a US company. I believe you also need a registered agent and a physical address. While I'm sure the story above is simplified, there's probably plenty of blame to go around.

I find nothing disingenuous about the post at all. If you had funded some other kickstarters, you'd have encountered this problem already. Amazon has, in the past, kept money back until certain conditions are met.

If that problem has happened before, why wasn't Monolith aware of it? One thing is to deal with an accident, which you can't foresee (your top sculptor sprain his wrist and can't sculpt for three weeks) and those that can be pre-empted by reuniting all the information you can regarding the platform you are operating with. What I find annoying about Monolith post is that they are trying to put the blame on Amazon instead accepting their responsability on the delay.

So why do KS need to have an American company presence? I've done other KS that were only European based (no USA connection that I was aware of)? Is it something that Amazon stipulate if you use their payment system (after all they get a big enough cut acting as bankers as it is)?

So it's Monolith's fault that Amazon flagged the account?
Monolith tried to do everything right in the first place, even having Days of Wonder in the U.S. help out so as to avoid this very issue.

It is resolved anyway, so what's the problem?
This just sounds like you don't have a lot of patience, which is something you need to bring to any Kickstarter you back, no matter what schedule they give you.

Sit back, have a beer, relax and Conan will come to you.

I think this group is very serious about putting out a great product and making a company out of it.

And I like their product! Otherwise I wouldn't have trusted them and put my money in funding their project!

It is resolved anyway, so what's the problem?

My problem is that I lose confidence very fast in those who are unable to recognize that they made a mistake and try to blame others for their errors, not that I lack patience. This KS is not my first rodeo. I am aware that delays are to be expected (if the game comes in October, as promised, I will be delightfully surprised… not that I expect it before January 2016, though; I backed the project aware of that potential delay). But what I want from a company whose project I am backing is that they don't try to explain those delays by blaming the supposedly irrational policies of other companies.

If that problem has happened before, why wasn't Monolith aware of it?

Because they wouldn't be aware of it unless they had participated in that kickstarter.

My problem is that I lose confidence very fast in those who are unable to recognize that they made a mistake and try to blame others for their errors

Are you saying that they shouldn't have gone the kickstarter through Amazon route?

While I appreciate Monolith being open about its troubles, I believe that they should have informed themselves about the possible problems beforehand. I find disingenuous by its part their affirmation that the situation was out of their control. When I give money for a project, I expect that the managers had the issue under control, including the legislation regarding the access to the funds.

Let's be clear here, this is an Amazon policy, not a legal issue.

Also let's remember that Amazon has had an extra $3.3 USD million in it's bank account, gaining interest every day. The interest from that is nothing to sneeze at. It serves Amazon's interests to be thorough in dealing with large transactions; in part to avoid being a party to money laundering, but it also serves their interest to be slow. The longer they hold the funds the more they make.

But what I want from a company whose project I am backing is that they don't try to explain those delays by blaming the supposedly irrational policies of other companies.

I see the argument that Day's of Wonder should have been more upfront about the cause for the delay (although I am also a backer & honestly I was not bothered at all). However, they have stated that the pledge manager was delayed by technical issues without specificing the exact cause.

Amazon clearly has far more than $3,300,000 USD in assets, so there was no worry that Amazon would take the money and go under. That takes away a significant reason to push to hard to demand the money quickly. Indeed, pushing too much for a quick transfer of funds can seem suspicious, so there is a reason to avoid doing that. Stating the problem was with Amazon publically risks offending Amazon, and depending on who at Amazon is in charge of this particular transfer, that has at least the potential to delay the transfer further if for no other reason than out of spite (and who hasn't dealt with a spiteful middle-manager at some point?).

Delays has also happened with Reaper and many other KS projects, and as far as I remember, those other KS did not retroactively inform backers of the exact cause. If anything Days of Wonder seems more open than other companies about the causes for delays.

I lose confidence very fast in those who are unable to recognize that they made a mistake and try to blame others for their errors…blaming the supposedly irrational policies of other companies.

The problematic policies do seem to be completely those of Amazon, not DoW. As far as it appears DoW acted properly, prudently, and reasonably.

Would you rather them say, "Amazon refused to transfer the funds for a month, but that's our fault somehow"?

On Kickstarter it states that they are Monolith Board Games LLC of New York, NY. I searched New York State corporation records and couldn't find them. I also checked Delaware (a common state for incorporating) and didn't see them there.