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Capital management problems cause closure of Capital City Fur Con

Edited by Equivamp as of Sun 28 Jun 2020 - 18:14
Your rating: None Average: 3.8 (8 votes)

Capital City Fur Con has closed any future gatherings after its premiere in January 2020 due to financial mismanagement. Staffers came forward to discuss the issues caused by the chair’s fiscal malfeasance, and guests have reported that honored guests who were promised compensation were left out in the cold.

The greatest grievance, though, is that it is alleged that the charity they were raising money for, the ALS Association, also were not given their money. ALS has gained infamy in the fandom due to the disease that took the late Tony “DogBomb” Barret, and many conventions over the year have been raising money toward research for a cure since.

More information can be seen on Global Furry Television’s coverage on the below video which is transcribed below.

Capital City Fur Con, a convention based out of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the United States, has recently announced closure. This was followed by a heavy backlash on social media claiming severe fund mismanagement and deception.

After the announcement on [the] closure, former staff asked for evidence that it had donated to the ALS Association, their first 2020 edition’s charity partner.

Two hours later the convention posted a receipt from the ALS Association, on it stating a donation of $217(US). However, afterwards, many pointed out the email listed did not belong to the fur con but instead belonged to Made Fur You, a fursuit maker. The picture was deleted afterwards.

Subsequently the convention’s Telegram chat as well as their Twitter account became inaccessible. This led to much more discussion and disclosure of evidence regarding the controversy on social media.

A furry named Dixie tweeted that when she asked CCFC directly for the donation amount to update her furry convention charity sheet, the furry con told her they donated $4,000(US) to ALS. However, contrary to that, a fur by the name Tripp Wubb on Twitter, who claims he’s a former staff member at CCFC, accused the furry con’s chairman, Nitro, of not releasing funds to their charity partner, failing to sponsor rooms for staff and the Guests of Honor, as well as money embezzlement.

Shadow the Wolf, a CCFC attendee, claimed in a recent YouTube video that the convention has made empty promises to Guests of Honor: “Now a lot of what happened was people who told that they would be Guest of Honor showed up at the con and surprise, they were not Guest of Honor. People were told that their rooms were going to be [compensated], their rooms were not [compensated]. They were told they would have certain positions or dealer’s den spots, things like that at the con. They showed up and surprise, surprise those things didn’t happen.”

And also says that the staff is not to be blamed for the controversy, but [the responsibility falls with] Chairman Nitro, “Everyone out there, please do not harass the staff of Capital City Fur Con. Understand this, the staff, they do not have access to the con’s finances. They do not have their names on the deals or the legal documents or the leases, [etc]. That was all Nitro. All in his name.”

Another fur by the name of Boozy Badger sent in a Tweet that some furs told him that the fur con owed the hotel roughly $15,000(US), in addition to images of an internal Telegram chat where it was being discussed. He added that one of his friends who was a CCFC guest told him that the fur con also allegedly intended to use the charity funds to pay for the hotel.

Currently staff are seeking compensation, and GFTV will continue to follow the story’s developments.

Further Developments in Deception

After the posting of the video, the convention chair has continued to try and save face online. They presented another receipt allegedly proving that they made a donation to the Pennsylvania branch of the ALS Association. However, Boozy Badger breaks down why it is likely that the receipt provided was crafted using an outdated template found on Google images.

  • The tracking number on his evidence receipt matches the Google Image receipt.
  • The logo used at the bottom of the receipt is an older version of the ALS logo no longer used on their receipts
  • While the template has a place for a date under the tracking number, there is no date on the con's alleged receipt
  • The labels on the left margin for "Donor Name", "Street Name", "City" don't line up with the labels on the right side. Mind the gap between the "City" and the "State" values that is way too wide as a result of this scrunching.

Even with this alleged payment, another problem came up where a Pennsylvania furry organization by the name of Keystone Furry Event received an inquiry from the ALS Association wondering about the donations from Capital City Fur Con. The two are not affiliated, but given that the convention had shut down its website and social media pages, the organization probably didn't know where else to turn. In the conversation it was noted by the charity that they had signed an agreement with the convention.

If this is true, that would spell major legal trouble ahead if the money raised in their name was used elsewhere in breach of that agreement.

Comments

Your rating: None Average: 4.7 (3 votes)

What makes this heinous is that it can have a chilling effect on donations to charity for many future cons, particularly those that are fledgling. I saw many generous bids in a video of the charity auction, and had the bidders knew that their money was not going to the ALS Association they may have used their money elsewhere.

It also makes me wonder about the attendance numbers they provided or the total dollar amount they stated.

A video of closing ceremonies indicated they had a count of $3,000, a thousand less then they told Dixie. I doubt their bucket brigade would have brought in a 33% boon from a closing ceremony where attendance did not reach 400 people. Interestingly they had the bucket brigade go out and collect indicating they were going to do a final count, but the final count never really came on video.

Finances are essential when running a convention and having someone who is gonna track where the money is going to and from. It's also important that if you are underwater that you don't go through with it. Some people want to try to buy their way into happiness, but you can't, and if you strain yourself financially to get social recognition you will end up with neither money nor fame.

Desperation is the root of all evil. Desperation is what causes the mismanagement of money, and because of this money is usually what is blamed as the cause of the evil, but in essence it is the effect. Desperation for wealth, and recognition of fame that can come with it. When you put all your money out in pursuit of fame, you put the cart before the horse and destroy your wealth for a fleeting moment in time.

Furries are already looking to address this by giving donations to the ALS chapter that was snubbed by Capital City Fur Con.

Honestly, we've covered many convention implosions here on Flayrah, and I would rather see it based on vandalism, sexual deviancy being too hot for the venue, or even political upheaval then this. To have an organization under the fandom name take what was given for a good cause and pocket it due to your own fiscal malfeasance.

Give me a dozen RainFurrests over this.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

I always think your comments are cleverly thought out and well said. This one's no exception. Well done.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

For charity donations, many conventions follow Anthrocon's practice, where only charity representatives handle donations, raffle ticket sales, charity event ticket sales, and auction sales. No one from the convention handles any of the charity's funds.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

Yep, even those that have 501(c)3 status do this as much as possible. Aside from being an assurance to those donating that the funds are going where they should, it also lessens the financial paperwork for the convention. For those that aren't registered charities, this is even more the case. There are any number of ways a convention could potentially screw up their finances. Most would only have financial repercussions. This is one of the few that could end up with somebody in prison. Don't mess with charitable donations.

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A fundraiser was created as a response to the situation and raised more than the convention claimed they did already.

http://webpa.alsa.org/site/TR?team_id=391162&fr_id=14165&pg=team

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

Maybe the convention collected charity to their own account (usually for charity you have separate accounts that are not tied to the organisation) and after that the con filed for bankruptcy (willingly or forced to do so).

In that case all the organisation's assets are frozen and under the control of the insolvency agent, and the owner/s cannot do anything about it even if they wanted to.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

There is no indication that such a bankruptcy has been filed. If it were properly managed as an LCC then all funds would be deposited in the LCC account and then dispersed as needed from there. We will hope that was the case because there's a very nasty word starting with the letter 'e' for pocketing said funds and not depositing them. Certainly any board members who are signatories on said account need to be talking to lawyers (not the same lawyer). Even the ones who aren't probably ought to be as well. Staying off social media is also a given. A bankruptcy stops civil proceedings, but not criminal and there could well be criminal acts in this case.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

You don't just "file a bankruptcy", that needs a case organized and presented with proper paperwork, which won't exist when the funds have been misappropriated

Your rating: None Average: 2 (4 votes)

I have been seeing a lot of negative and hateful words being thrown around including at the con staff members, and i would just like to say this:

If there actually is anything illegal going on it will soon be under criminal investigation and until there is a guilty verdict we shouldn't be forming angry mobs and harassing/blaming the organisers/staff members since most of them are probably innocent and didn't have anything to do with it in the first place.

Get the full story before pointing fingers.

Your rating: None Average: 4.5 (2 votes)

Hanlon's Razor applies: "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." I think they got in over their heads, they had bills that needed to be paid, they used the funds on hand; perhaps with the intent to make it up out of personal funds eventually when they could afford to.

Your rating: None Average: 4.5 (2 votes)

I expect you are correct. Unfortunately, if one is collecting money for charity, doing something stupid can have pretty severe consequence, and being stupid is not a defense I'd count on. A good lawyer needs to be involved in this, but if Nitro could afford that, he could afford to not have done the stupid thing in the first place. If he's lucky, this will be small enough potatoes that the state won't want to bother with it.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

So has been noted in the article from the transcript.

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