Wine Pop + Paul Kimmage Fund – Lesli Cohen's response to Aaron Brown's assertions

Yesterday Aaron Timmer Brown (aka Tim Brown) made a number of claims in his response to my post – Aaron Timmer Brown – the fraudster involved in Wine.Pop.

Below is the reply from Lesli Cohen, Brown's former business partner in Cyclismas:

'I don’t even know where to begin with this.

1. As a journalist, you don’t have to reveal your sources to Aaron. He’s a sputtering bloviate and cites specious facts in support of his delusions.

2. You can be sure that if Aaron is involved in a venture, he is pulling strings behind the scenes. He never takes on a minor role in anything, ever. 

3. The money was stolen, it was proved in a court of law that he unlawfully took possession of it (the definition of stealing), and if, as he claims, the funds aren’t missing, then where are they and why has he refused to return them in spite of promises to the contrary on his ridiculous KimmageFundRefund.com blog? https://kimmagefundrefund.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/refunds-to-commence-january-2014-refund-request-extension/ There were two separate litigations in Massachusetts. One was my lawsuit against Aaron to dissolve the Cyclismas partnership and seek the reimbursement of embezzled company monies, and the second was the class action lawsuit for the return of the Kimmage Fund. Aaron’s claims that Bill violated Wisconsin judicial ethics is a lie. Further, Aaron’s claim that the Cyclismas business was not an established business is rubbish. We had a website, salaried employees, a weekly Internet television show, a PayPal account, and as Cyclismas, had conducted monetary business transactions with several leading companies in the cycling industry. That is considered a legitimate business pretty much anywhere in the world. The primary reason the lawsuit was filed in Massachusetts is because that is the state in which I reside. When Aaron retained a Massachusetts lawyer to represent him and then filed countersuits against me, he acknowledged and accepted this fact as a legitimate legal action.

4. Aaron didn’t withdraw from the case; his attorney realized her client was not going to pay her, and that his fabrications and failures to provide truthful information to the discovery process made it impossible for her to represent him. She repeatedly requested of the court to be removed as his counsel, only to have the court refuse as this would allow Aaron to slip away from the process and hide in Spain out of the court’s reach. And this business about my request to provide the names and addresses of the donors is a complete lie. I didn’t request that information as I already had it as I was the curator of the donation process for the Kimmage Fund. Aaron was NOT the custodian of this campaign. He had very little to do with it except for illegally taking the money donated and using it for his own purposes. Further, I never said I didn’t want responsibility for maintaining that information. I already *had* that responsibility. It boggles my mind that Aaron can continue to make up such blatant lies like this and repeat them with a straight face. It reminds me of Donald Trump, another great sociopath and compulsive liar. Honestly. This paragraph has me shaking my head in dismay and outrage: "Based upon the well-known activities of the plaintiff in the case, there was no guarantee of that information remaining safe, nor court censure for any violations. This lawsuit filed was nothing more than a smokescreen to engage in defamatory activity of supposed illegal conduct."

5. The basis for the campaign to raise funds for Paul Kimmage’s defense was so that he would have money available to defend himself, no matter when. There wasn’t an endpoint to when or how he could use the money we raised. It’s true that we paid the initial legal bills, but Aaron stole the remaining money before the UCI dropped their suit against Kimmage. There was no way for Aaron to know whether or not Paul would need money in the future. Aaron’s assertion that it’s my fault that he took the money because I didn’t agree with what should be done with the remainder of the fund is fucking ridiculous.

6. Blah blah blah.

7. I did not harass any of the wineries for two years. Just ask them. Two years ago I didn’t even know Aaron was involved in the wine business in Catalunya. 

8. "Additional steps." Idle threats. What a windbag.'