A group of conservative investors in Tennessee is suing a California businessman for allegedly conning them into investing in Tea Party HD, a TV channel aimed at tea partiers, that they say turned out to be a scam.
Tea Party HD was founded by Bill Hemrick and Anthony Loiacono in 2010, but Hemrick and the other complainants claim that Loiacono never put in his share into the project and used the rest of the funds as his “personal bank account.” The complaint says he used the money “to pay himself, his family members and his business, Heads & Tails Inc., ‘exorbitant rates’ for the few projects Tea Party HD undertook,” according to Brandon Gee of The Tennessean.
“The alleged purpose of Tea Party HD was to be the ‘world’s first HD provider of news about the Tea Party,’” the lawsuit states. “In reality it was an investment scheme to defraud politically conservative-minded citizens who support the Tea Party mission.”
Also listed in the suit are Howard Luartes, Reinhold Holtkamp, Melvin W. Martin, James Hearn and James Huffnagle, who say they invested a combined total of $287,500 in Tea Party HD, after Loiacono projected that the venture would make $19 million in three years. The suit requests $19 million in punitive damages and a return of the initial investments.
If you are thinking you have never heard of this Tea Party HD channel, that may not be entirely true:
Tea Party HD is probably most famous for operating that camera that Michele Bachmann stared into — instead of the camera operated by CNN that was carrying the live broadcast — during her Tea Party Express rebuttal (to the rebuttal) of President Obama’s State Of The Union address.
You also remember that it was mentioned by Rachel Maddow on Friday.
Personally I believe that the very idea of being clearly seen through high definition works against the Teabaggers. The only way they have managed to earn any success at all is by keeping their true motives ill defined, and their financial backers/puppet masters shrouded in secrecy.
I imagine that talk radio is probably the perfect venue for the Baggers, as they can better hide both their identities, and motivations.
Of course even starting a radio station may be beyond their capabilities until they learn to swim against the tide of their innate combative attitudes and learn to work together. You know like...let me see if I can think of a good example...oh yeah, the OWS protestors!
We know how much the Baggers like being compared to THEM now don't we?
But let's face it that is never going to happen, because what REALLY defines the Teabaggers is that they are either constantly the victim of a scam, or the perpetrator of a scam, as evidenced by the successful fleecing of their members by Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich, Fox News, Tea Party Express, Mark Levin, Bristol Palin, Goldline, and the list goes on, and on, and on.
