- Joined
- Jun 27, 2014
It depends. In the case of the trans individual over whom the Allistar Pinsof scandal initially occurred, that was flat-out fraud. People invested for one thing, only for the person involved to take the money, run, and get gender-assignment surgery (before whining to Brianna Wu about how oppressed she was for having to face possible legal ramifications of this, something even Wu, to her credit, facepalmed over).
Wu herself faces possible fraud charges, but it's likely to be settled out-of-court, if not outright paid off by Wu's folks if Wu appears to be in any actual danger. Worst case scenario, she dips into her own finances, sells shit she doesn't need, and tries to make nicey-nice by settling any ongoing debts. The damage to Wu's actual credibility may be beyond saving at that point, but any actual repercussions from her actions are likely to be easily handled.
Something like Sarkeesian's a different beast entirely, however. She's been delivering on it (in the fucking loosest and worst sense of the word, being less than halfway done with her project after more than double its deadline has elapsed), but she can duck behind the argument of being able to deliver on it, but it taking longer than expected as her frontline defense against it. She can essentially try the argument that she isn't technically defrauding yet, since she is technically releasing content (at a speed we normally reserve for Sonichu comics, but I digress). If this seems familiar, it's because we saw similar from OPL when he wasn't able to deliver on his commissions on time (because there's some behavior everyone should strive to emulate). She has her Patreon to back up her initial cashgrab, so she's probably fine as long as she gets that video series of hers done within the next year or so. All bets are off, however, if she ever tries to Kickstart again. Her previous kickstarter supporters are likely to harbor a serious grudge and do everything in their power to thwart it. A lot of Sarkeesian's initial backers bought into it based on what was, essentially a falsehood - they were expecting in-depth analysis, not what was essentially a puff-piece with stolen footage, easily mocked by anyone with even a passing understanding of the content. These people now know she's a con-artist, and that will be an issue down the line. If she flat-out fucks off and/or simply never delivers on it (unlikely, but possible), it'll be a legal matter, but mostly a civil one - not a criminal case. How well it goes depends on how many of the initial backers are willing to get in on a class-action suit, I suppose. There's going to be a lot of Listen and Believers, of course, but anyone who got in on that Kickstarter not knowing who Sarkeesian was? They're fair game.
