Xtagged.com SCAM (and con-artist Andy Esquivel)
The truth about Xtagged, Wiser Technology, and the scams of Andy Esquivel
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Year: 2012
Andy Esquivel claims he could have prevented Connecticut school shooting
Posted on December 17, 2012 in Andy Esquivel's Scams Andy's Threats
Pathological lying sociopath and convicted felon Andy Esquivel continues to show the depths of his depravity with new and stunningly inappropriate emails to his victims. The following email (presented un-edited) was sent by Andy to one of his fraud victims via LinkedIn. The email claims that he, Steve Klemark (of the Denver Police Department), and Rebecca Dunn (former pretended CEO of Andy’s various scams) invented iPhone apps and other technologies under their fake shell company Wiser technology that could have prevented the Connecticut school shootings.
Claims like this one are not new. A few months back Andy likewise claimed to have invented technologies that could have prevented the Aurora Colorado theater shootings, which we called him out for as well. The depths of this scumbags depravity appear to know no bounds as he is now attempting to use the deaths of a score of children to bolster his defense against the securities fraud charges he now faces and to influence the witnesses against him.
The email follows:
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Andres Esquivel via LinkedIn <member@linkedin.com>
Date: Sun, Dec 16, 2012 at 7:29 PM
Subject: Shootings- Steve klemark could have helped!!!
To: Chris Engelbrecht
Cc: Allen Brady <info@xooplay.org>, John Steer <xtagme@gmail.com>, Marali Madrid <marali.madrid@gmail.com>, Arelis Diaz <sweet_are@hotmail.com>, Rick Barber <ricktalkman1@aol.com>, Eduardo Blancas <eduardoblancas@gmail.com>, Cynthia Bagué <cynthiabague@aim.com>, Don Bain <donbain@comcast.net>, Chue Berriel <ChueBerriel@yahoo.com>, Cheryl Lucero <Luceroc01@aol.com>
Andres Esquivel has sent you a message.
Date: 12/17/2012
Subject: Shootings- Steve klemark could have helped!!!
Something like this OK Steve Klemark and Rebecca Dunn 2010 invented an app for an iphone that would tell you the difference between the sound of a bullet and the sound of a fire cracker but Steve went bigger a smoke alarm type device equipped with bluetooth so when bullet went off in theater not only would an alarm system sound in there but bluetooth emergency frequency would domino the alert every 30 feet showing people on Iphones where the gun went off but Steve went bigger designing bullets that make a distinct sound just by changing the shape of a bullet I don’t know what to do Steve Klemark is like Steve Jobs reborn Steve just vowed to bring down Daryl & Ryion and is consumed with that battle when he could be helping kids be safe I am at my wits end so I figured the media would know if this is important right because trust me I only told you what I can remember but it sounds important to me but maybe not. Elijah of Wisertechnology.com
Andy Esquivel brags about embezzlement
Posted on December 6, 2012 in Andy's Threats
Here’s an interesting footnote to the whole Xtagged scam story: Andy is now bragging about embezzling funds from his own fake company!
Recently Andy Esquivel has taken to threatening his ex girlfriend (mother of two of his five kids – Andy is apparently not big on marriage) with fraud charges for, as he describes it, not reporting a $5,000 payment he made to her for ‘child support.’ Andy is using this distracting argument to deflect attention away form the fact that he currently owes nearly $20,000 in back child support to ORS and has no means to pay it.
The truth is very interesting. As it turns out, Andy is talking about money he received from Ryion Butcher to purchase 1% of a fake company called “Xtagged.” Ryion gave Andy the $5,000 check for his fictional 1% after signing a fraudulent contract given to him by Andy (this, by the way, is the dictionary definition of a “securities” transaction). Andy took the cashiers check and attempted to sign it over to his ex girlfriend, but she smelled fraud someplace in the mix and declined to accept the third party check from Ryion. Andy then asked his ex to meet him at a Cypress Credit Union in West Jordan where he cashed Ryion’s check and exchanged it for another cashiers check made out in her name. Andy now claims that this $5,000 check should have been reported to ORS as ‘child support’ and the fact that it wasn’t reflects some sort of deception on his ex-girlfriend’s part.
Unfortunately for Andy, the laws surrounding this series of transactions are very clear. First of all, it is Andy’s responsibility to communicate with ORS and to notify them of any child support payments he made to his ex. Without such paternal reporting, any monies paid to Andy’s ex are considered “gifts.” The fact that Andy has been hiding from ORS for years means that he gave up the ability to self report payments while he was out of contact. The only reason ORS ever even found Andy was because the administrators of this website provided them with his address, phone number, and a photo for spot identification. It doesn’t pay to run from your parental responsibilities – especially if you’re going to be loud about it.
Secondly, the fact that Andy diverted funds specifically entrusted to him by an ‘investor’ in a company (albeit a fake company) he claimed to be principle of is legally considered embezzlement and is further evidence of fraud! I wouldn’t be surprised if the prosecution calls Andy’s ex to testify in February for the purpose of describing the depths of Andy’s criminal activity in this case. In the legitimate business world, the idea of taking money from investors and giving it to your ex-girlfriend is unthinkable! Fortunately for Andy, he’s already on trial for felony securities fraud so the revelation can’t really make things much worse than they already are.
Finally, even if the judge in Andy’s January child support hearing decides to give him credit for the $5,000 he stole from Ryion Butcher to give to his ex-girlfriend against his existing liabilities, he still owes over $15,000 in back child support. Since Andy doesn’t have a job, is completely broke, and is on trial for a felony that will make it difficult for him to find legitimate employment in the future even if he manages to stay out of jail, the odds of him being able to satisfy this obligation are remote. It must suck to be a destitute con artist with no means to support your numerous, illegitimate children.
Maybe Andy will come to his senses soon, cop a plea to stay out of prison, and will find legitimate work somewhere. I know Walmart is hiring seasonal warehouse help this time of year. With a little luck, they’ll overlook Andy’s criminal past and give him a second chance at life.
New trial date set in Andres Esquivel’s securities fraud case
Posted on November 28, 2012 in Trial Updates
A new trial date has been set in Andy Esquivel’s securities fraud case. A final pre-trial hearing will occur on January 15th followed by a jury trial on February 27th and 28th where Andy will be represented by a public defender (because he cannot afford to pay for an attorney himself). Full updates can be viewed in the case file here.
On the 28th of February we expect the court to find that Andres Esquivel did in fact sell “securities” to three men in Davis County Utah and therefore did in fact violate the law. Andy continues to claim that he did NOT sell securities to these three men and that he is therefore innocent of securities fraud. I’m curious to find out how someone becomes an “owner” of a business after being sold “shares” in the company without having participated in a “securities” transaction. This should be very enlightening.
Details of Andy Esquivel’s pending Utah Department of Securities Administrative Action
Posted on November 26, 2012 in Andy Esquivel's Scams Trial Updates Xtagged
Andres “Andy” Esquivel likes to pretend that the people who have worked to bring him to justice will one day face some sort of legal retribution. His favorite claim is that once he’s found innocent of securities fraud, “the SEC” has promised to begin an investigation of the people who worked to bring criminal charges against him in the first place. The story goes that Andy met with an SEC judge after he was formally charged with fraud in Davis County and that the judge promised that as soon as the criminal case was over he would investigate the conspiracy to convict Andy. Andy sounds as if he’s really excited about these new charges, as seen in the following post:
“Wait until a real investigation happens and don’t worry a real one is coming the SEC Judge told Allen Brady Aug, 02, 2011 he would start one as soon as Davis county case is over he told Allen that…” – Andy Esquivel
As we have explained on this blog numerous times, the Utah Department of Securities officers that Andy met with indicated to him that HE will be subject to further administrative action by their agency once his criminal case concludes, not his victims. It is unknown what sorts of sanctions or penalties Andy will be subject to once the criminal case ends, but what will not be happening is some investigation of Andy’s victims or the administrators of this blog resulting in charges against us. The ‘investigation’ Andy refers to has already occurred and resulted in the criminal charges he now faces. What’s left is for the Utah Department of Securities to take their own disciplinary action outside of the criminal charges now pending.
Here are the details of the Utah Department of Securities case against Andy Esquivel and Xtagged.
- Document #1 – details of the charges against Andy, facts of the case, and the results of the UDS investigation that has already occurred.
- Document #2 – a complete description of the conversations between Andy Esquivel and the Utah Department of Securities officials by Administrative Law Judge J. Steven Eklund, explaining that they would defer the pending charges and administrative actions against Andy until after the criminal trial concludes.
- Document #3 – statement of the delivery of the request to defer administrative action until after the conclusion of Andy’s criminal trial as delivered to Assistant Attorney General Scott Davis.
Andy will no doubt continue to brag that he talked to a judge at the SEC (the Judge being Steven Eklund and the agency actually being the Utah Department of Securities, not the SEC) and that those discussions will result in another investigation that will exonerate him and implicate his victims, but this is a complete falsehood. The facts of the case are simple and are here documented for the entire world to review.
Why Andy continues to deflect blame for his criminal activity away from himself and towards the people he scammed is beyond me. A normal person would admit to their crimes, take the punishment and move on. Pathological lying sociopaths apparently can’t do that.
Andy Esquivel using identity theft to make case against fraud charges…
Posted on November 1, 2012 in Andy's Threats Xtagged
Andy Esquivel creates fake LinkedIn profile to “prove” that he is innocent of securities fraud
This is typical Andy: desperate and clueless!
In his latest attempt to discredit the felony fraud charges which he is currently awaiting trial for, Andy Esquivel has resorted to identity theft. Maybe Identity Theft is too strong a term since what Andy is doing is technically not “illegal”, only against the terms of service of LinkedIn, but I still think it’s interesting that Andy continues to use deception to plead the case that he is not a fraud.
This week in an effort to prove that he did not in fact con his aunt out of $60,000 by encouraging her to invest in a scam website called “Xtagged,” Andy posted a fake LinkedIn profile which he claims is his aunts. The profile proclaims in typical Andy fashion that she was not a victim but an owner of Xtagged and that she will be testifying in court.
There are numerous clues that this profile is fake and that the account was created by Andy to cover for his criminal activity. Anyone familiar with the tone and language of Andy’s numerous online activities can recognize him at a glance:
- Her profile photo is Andy’s Aunt with the license plate of her vehicle (no normal person advertises their license plate, especially on LinkedIn) and actually includes an added plate on the right side that was added with a cheap photo editor like the ones Andy uses because he can’t afford Photoshop.
- “www.Xtagged.com” (which has been offline for months) is listed as her FIRST occupation, and the other companies she owns are only listed secondarily – this in spite of the fact that per primary field of work is listed as “Real Estate” not “online scams”.
- In her “summary” section, there is a bright news post with the headline “***NEW***” just like in Andy’s various real and fake profiles. She (he) then follows with six more “*NEW*” pronouncements further down the page, as if she (he) is advertising soap. No normal professional puts news flashes in their summary like this. LinkedIn isn’t MySpace or Blogger, a fact Andy struggles to comprehend.
- The Summary newsflash begins with a statement in QUOTES, as if the person writing isn’t the person who actually made the statement being transcribed. If Andy’s aunt was typing this information in her own profile, she wouldn’t be quoting herself.
- The fake profile’s author refers to “Ryan &Daryl” as if she (he) knows us personally and as if they are under the assumption that anybody reading this profile will know us by first name as well. Since I’ve never met Andy’s aunt, this is strange behavior.
- The profile urges readers to call Andy Esquivel’s convicted felon, con-artist mother and gives her phone number. First of all, why would Andy’s aunt want professionals who view her profile on LinkedIn to contact her wacked-out, drug using, convicted felon sister who is out on parole and who’s a pariah in her family to get more information about her investments? Wouldn’t it make more sense for her to refer to her own contact information, which is already available to people connected to her through her professional profile?
- Finally Andy (posing as his Aunt) goes on to list a dozen or so links to his various blogs and postings on the web. This is odd behavior for a real-estate investor in California, but typical for a blog-whore like Andy. She (he) includes links to all of Andy’s favorite snippets, from Ron the cameraman being chosen for good reason to Rebecca Dunn’s “warnings” about this and that and blah, blah, blah that only Andy Esquivel thinks is interesting.
We obviously have independent confirmation that this profile does not in fact belong to Andy Esquivel’s Aunt (as if we needed it) and I’m sure the administrators t LinkedIn will be getting a complaint soon and will take it down.
Andy did the same thing with Rebecca Dunn: posting a fake profile of her and later pretending that the profile was created by the owners of this blog. I suspect that many of the other profiles that Andy promotes are also fake and created so that he can sock-puppet various people. It’s a common tactic of sociopaths and further evidence that Andy needs medication or detoxification or both.
It is amazing to me that someone who’s been charged with fraud continues to use fraud to proclaim their innocence. You would think that Andy would wake up at some point and realize that he’s not making the situation any worse by continuing to prove himself to be a pathological lying sociopath. You know what they say: when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging! Well Andy’s in a hole…
Pre-trial scheduled for November 13th
Posted on October 12, 2012 in Trial Updates
Andres “Andy” Esquivel’s securities fraud jury trial, which was previously scheduled to proceed on October 24th, has been cancelled and another pre-trial hearing has been set for November 13th. This will give Andy’s public defender time to prepare a defense if the case does go to trial (Andy’s public defender was only recently assigned) or to negotiate a plea bargain in the event that Andy decides to stop fighting the charges against him. We think a plea bargain is the likeliest outcome of the November 13th proceeding, especially since Andy is so clearly guilty of fraud and no attorney in his right mind would go into trial with evidence as damning as what the prosecution has against Andy Esquivel.
The updated minutes were not available as of this posting, but we will have the links updated with the latest file once it is available.
Andy “Chicho” Esquivel’s liabilities mount!
Posted on October 9, 2012 in Uncategorized
According to the Utah Office of Recovery Services, Andres ‘Chicho’ Esquivel, the convicted felon who is the author of the long-con that is the subject of this blog, now owes $19,540 in back child support for two of his children here in Utah. The amount has increased because of course Andy isn’t working and hasn’t paid a cent since officials first caught up with him in Denver earlier this year. The amount doesn’t rise very quickly because Andy is being assessed at minimum wage in recognition of the fact that he hasn’t held a legitimate job in over a decade and therefore has no marketable skills aside from being a con artist.
Andy’s liabilities are mounting. Here’s a breakdown of the money Andy owes to various scam victims, exes and family according to testimony, public records, and files obtained by this website:
- R.C. Willey v. Andres Esquivel, Case # 990400774 – 3rd District Court West Jordan = $8,673.22
- Knight Adjustment Bureau v. Andres Esquivel, Case#990204295 – 3rd District Court Salt Lake City = $1,537.69
- Utah Department of Recovery Services, Denise Bartlett Child Support Case #c000203702 = $19,540
- Davis County 2nd District Court Felony Securities Fraud case#111701135 = ~$17,000 plus interest and fines
- Chris Englelbrecht = $2,000
- Ryion Butcher = $5,000
- Kyle Cluff = $10,000
- Georgia Brady = $50,000
- Steve Klemark = $5,000
- Shar Jenkins = $2,500
- Robert Daugherty – $1,500
- Aunt in California = $60,000
- Uncle in Colorado = $10,000
- cousin and her husband in Colorado = $10,000
- Melissa Garr = ~$100,000 (according to allegations reported by Andy’s previous criminal attorney and leaked by Andy himself)
All told, Andy Esquivel’s current liabilities are between $185,000 (confirmed) and $285,000 (unconfirmed) total! Since Andy has no income and no assets, that is not a good place to be. I am personally a little curious where all the money went, but I guess it really doesn’t matter.
I wonder what it feels like to be a broke, unemployed, deadbeat-dad who’s awaiting trial for felony securities fraud? …must suck.
Andy Esquivel conned his own family!
Posted on October 1, 2012 in Andy Esquivel's Scams Andy's Threats Xtagged
We all know that Andy Esquivel is a pretty sleazy character with absolutely no sense of Christian morality and void of conscience, but even I was surprised to hear just how low this scumbag was willing to sink in order to make a fast buck. Information has been trickling in over the past several months and we’ve been sending it to the Davis County prosecutor rather than posting it here online, but it’s been long enough now and we have enough detail that I think it’s time we exposed a little more of Andy’s depravity to the world.
We have it on very good authority that Andres “Chicho” Esquivel conned his own family out of tens of thousands of dollars through the online scam we all know as “Xtagged.” We know Andy has little regard for family because he has failed to pay any back child support on his two kids here in Utah (he owes $18,000 in back child support currently) and gave up his paternal rights to a third when authorities discovered that he was such a heavy drug user that he couldn’t care for the child himself, but this is a new low that even I didn’t expect.
According to our information, Andy conned a total of just over $80,000 from his own family. He stole $10,000 each from two cousins in Colorado, and another $60,000 from an aunt in California. Andy’s cousins have already cornered him about the scams both in person and on Facebook. Reportedly Andy’s family discovered the depth of his illegal activity when they did a Google search and found this website (according to Andy’s own Diigo blog, we’re now ranked #1 for the keyword “xtagged” on Google…who knew). Andy then sent his mother out to lobby the family on his behalf begging forgiveness for stealing their money, but since she’s a serial con-artist with a criminal record too, nobody is buying it. In some cases Andy and his mom have resorted to threats to convince the family that Andy is legitimate, but that hasn’t worked either.
To show how pathetic Andy is, in one case he even went so far as to encourage one of his cousins to sell his bullet-bike in order to pay for the “shares” in the scam. He encouraged his cousin to place an ad for the bike in a local newspaper and helped broker the sale so that he could get his greasy hands on the money faster. Lord only knows what Andy did with all that cash, but my guess is part of it went up his nose.
It’s heartbreaking to hear that someone as lecherous as Andy Esquivel is willing to con his own family. Maybe someday he’ll come to terms with what he’s done and will be able face them again. Until then, family reunions are going to be tense for Chicho. Maybe it’s time he considers getting a job to pay everybody back.