In November 2014, James planned to hold an event called the “Bitcoin Summit in Tokyo.” In October, Roger Ver, who was to be the keynote speaker, stumbled across this website and contacted me through Facebook:

I told him yes, James still owes me money and has also ripped off others for millions of yen. Roger sent an e-mail to James and CC’d me:

Thursday, October 23, 2014 3:56 PM Hi James, Can you tell me what you know about http://jamesyellowleesowesmemoney.info/ ? I’m having some serious concerns about the conference in general. Thank you, Roger Ver

James sent this reply to Roger, who forwarded it to me:

Oct 23, 2014, at 4:23 PM Hi Roger, It has been posted by a disturbed person we had to let go a few years ago due to sexual harassment, sleeping on the job and not showing up for work.

It is being dealt with and should disappear very soon.

The Conference is coming together. There will be fewer in attendance that we have been hoping for but I think, with discount, 50 people will be possible.

Will you be at Bitcoin Meet up this evening?

We can discuss it then. James

Which was surprising to hear, because all the e-mails I’d received from James since he laid me off in March 2011 were amicable, apart from the one he sent after I finally ran out of patience and went public on LinkedIn.

Anyway, Roger wasn’t buying it.

Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 17:09:28 +0900 Hi James, I’m sorry, but there seems to be a bit too much information on the internet complaining about you written by multiple people, Japanese and foreign:

http://jamesyellowleesowesmemoney.info/

http://bbs.jpcanada.com/detail.php?bbs=9&msgid=4354&ntopic=0

https://ablogg.jp/qa/1/

https://www.facebook.com/richard.pavonarius/posts/1441605289423036

https://www.facebook.com/richard.pavonarius/posts/1439145569669008 Myself, CZ, and Yuzo don’t feel comfortable participating in the conference while these issues are still outstanding. Please take care of them by the end of this month, or we will all formally withdraw our participation in the conference. I plan to attend the meet up tonight, but I will be a bit late arriving. Roger Ver

“CZ” is Changpeng Zhao, who at the time was CTO of Chinese-based exchange OkCoin. “Yuzo” is Yuzo Kano of Bitflyer.jp.

James, perhaps a little panicked, hit the reply button on the last e-mail I sent to him back in June 2014.

James Yellowlees

To me Oct 23, 2014

Rich,

Can we talk?

James From: Richard M. Pavonarius

Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2014 7:43 PM

To: James Yellowlees

Subject: I heard you were paid a visit James, I heard that the families of four former CEA clients visited your apartment building and you had to call the police. What’s your side of the story? Rich

I replied to him, CC-ing to Roger and a number of other victims of James:

To James Yellowlees

Oct 23, 2014

No, we can’t talk. Put the money in my bank account. Pay my legal fees. Pay Yuko for the work she did. Give everyone in the ジェームズイエロリーズ被害者会 their money back. I’m tired of dealing with you and your complete lack of integrity.

The next day, James sent an email to my wife, asking her to contact him to settle:

差出人: “James Yellowlees”

日時: 2014年10月24日 9:15:24 JST

宛先: “‘Ryoko Takahashi'”

件名: RE: Payment 高橋さん こんにちは。支払いの残りを早く済みにしたいので、一度話し出来ますか。

宜しくお願いします。

ジェイムス

She didn’t reply to him, but she sure gave me an ear-full. My wife was already tired of dealing with him way back in 2011. A few days later, James e-mailed her again, this time threatening legal action if she refused to settle.

差出人: “James Yellowlees”

日時: 2014年10月29日 18:43:34 JST

宛先: “‘Ryoko Takahashi'”

件名: RE: Payment 高橋さん こんばんは。出来れば、話し合いで解決したいと思います。

返事がなければ、リチの以前の職場での行動ぶりと会社に対してのダメージと現在の

行動ぶりとダメージに対しては

別な裁判になります。

宜しくお願いします。 ジェイムス

I replied to James,

Harassing my wife won’t work.

My last e-mail to him went unanswered:

Forgery is a crime, James. Why are you stealing millions of yen from clients? Gambling debt? I can’t understand your motivation. You can’t possibly be happy or feel proud of yourself. Richard

The forgery was about a bank statement he sent to one of his victims. It’s another story.

In the end, all the people scheduled to speak at James Yellowlees’ Bitcoin Summit pulled out of the event. I don’t know whether he cancelled the event or not. It’s still listed on Global Daigaku’s Facebook page.

Roger Ver explained how he met James Yellowlees.

Hi Rich, I don’t really know much.

I met James for the first time about 2 months ago by chance in an elevator.

I don’t think he knew much about Bitcoin until heard about them from me.

I’m well known in the Bitcoin community, so I think he saw a chance to use me to make some money by running a conference.

I just want to tell the world about Bitcoin.

James then setup the conference details on his own, and I was super surprised when I saw he was trying to charge $1000 per attendee. I don’t know any more than that at this time. I do hope he pays everyone he owes, but I am thinking that won’t be likely since he hasn’t replied to me yet regarding the issue. I’ll let you know if I hear anything else, Roger Ver

If you know James, please help convince him to pay back everyone he has ripped off and start making an honest living. He’s causing many people to suffer, including himself and his family. I hate dealing with this. It stresses me out and I’m tired of it.