Xtagged.com SCAM (and con-artist Andy Esquivel)
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Year: 2017
Andy skips payment – now in violation…again!
Posted on November 28, 2017 in Uncategorized
Andy is now in violation of his probation…again. In September, the court gave Andy a two-month reduction in his restitution payments from $500 to $250 per month. He paid in September to avoid going to jail right away and promised to pay $250 in October, then to go back to $500 in November. The court agreed to give Andy a temporary reduction because Andy claimed his daughter had a “orthodontic emergency”.
Bottom line, Andy skipped the reduced October payment and is not late on the November payment as well. That’s a bad thing. According to the violation report, Andy has until October 4th to come current or he will be forced to appear again before Judge Connors and explain why. Note: “explain why” will be an especially difficult task this time because (a) the judge displayed incredible leniency in granting Andy a two month reprieve in the first place and (b) Judge Connors said very clearly in the last hearing that Andy needs to accelerate his payments and/or come up with a way to pay the full restitution in bulk soon or else. Andy walking into court and claiming that he needs even more time and more leniency to pay his obligations isn’t going to go over very well.
Here’s the violations report [PDF].
I’ll post again after October 4th when the court decide what to do next. It’ll probably start with a warrant for his arrest.
UPDATE: Andy called the court on December 4th (just in the nick of time) and explained that ORS is now garnishing 50% of his wages and so he can’t make payments anymore. Andy was told to contact Judge Connors if he’s seeking a different order to pay (not likely to be approved) and to contact his attorney to prepare for his next court date.
Andy’s attorney explained that Andy will likely now be referred to the Office of State Debt Collection while Judge Connors decides what else to do with him. The likeliest outcome here is that Andy will spend some time in jail (I’m thinking 3-6 months) for violating the conditions of his probation (again) and then OSDC will garnish the remainder of Andy’s meager salary (if he still has a job when he gets out of jail) to satisfy his obligations under case 111701135.
In the meantime, Andy STILL has not contacted the Utah Department of Securities (the “SEC” as Andy calls them) to make arrangements to pay the $16,250 he owes them for his securities fraud. It seems the steaming pile is growing on top of Andy every minute. If both debts go to OSDC before Andy works out a payment arrangement that he can adhere to, it will likely mean even more garnishments and more fees and Andy won’t see half his paychecks again until he’s 50!
UPDATE: Another violation letter was mailed to Andy Esquivel and Judge Connors has been notified of his most recent violation status. Andy is no longer making child support payments, but has not yet resumed his restitution payments. This will all likely come to a head at his next review hearing.
Andy Esquivel case update
Posted on November 17, 2017 in Uncategorized
This is an update for those who are still following the case. You’ve already heard the audio file form the last hearing in which Andy lied to the Judge about his daughter having a medical orthodontic emergency and got a two month reduction in his payments to $250 but here’s the official court minutes file:
You’ll also note we’re tracking all of Andy’s account balances in the upper left hand corner now. Andy has been making his court ordered reparations payments regularly and has even started paying back child support. His total balance is about to drop below $45,000.
We expect Andy to be out of trouble with the courts financially by around mid 2020. At that point, only the $16,250 he owes theUtah Department of Securities will remain…unless of course we as blog administrators decide to alert the SEC again so that they can continue their investigation. Because Andy’s fraud crossed state lines, this case technically falls under federal jurisdiction. Also, the $50,000 that Allen Brady helped Andy steal from his mother Georgia Brady makes this a federal crime.
…but we’ll see.
Andres “Andy” Esquivel FINED by Utah Department of Securities!
Posted on October 2, 2017 in Uncategorized
I am ashamed to admit it, but I completely dropped the ball on this one.
As everyone who’s been following this blog knows, years ago three scam victims of Andy Esquivel banded together and filed a complaint alleging that Andy improperly sold them shares in a scam he was running at the time called “Xtagged”. This blog was instrumental in organizing those victims and served as a central distribution point for all evidence against Andy and his accomplices.
We all know the results: Andy plead guilty to two 3rd degree felony counts of securities fraud, spent some time in jail, a little more time in a mental institution, and was eventually ordered to pay his victims back over $13,000 plus interest. The outcome of case #111701135 has been the central theme of this website for years, but there’s a little known side story that everyone (including this author) completely forgot about.
You see, BEFORE the Davis County Prosecutor’s office formally filed charges against Andy, in fact before any of this was even in the hands of the Davis County Prosecutor, it was first handed over to the Utah Department of Securities. That’s right, for those of you who don’t remember, the ORIGIN of this case, immediately after the Bountiful police department, was a state agency specifically charged with enforcing state securities and exchange law.
The Utah Department of Securities (UDS) reviewed the evidence handed over to them by the Bountiful police department very carefully and made a recommendation for prosecution to the Davis County Prosecutor’s office. Before the first hearing was ever held in case #111701135, Andy was required to appear before the Utah Department of Securities and to try to explain why he shouldn’t face disciplinary action by that agency. Andy met with the UDS and along with Allen Brady, made a complete fool of himself. Video and blog posts about that meeting can be found elsewhere on this website.
The UDS proceedings were ultimately put on “hold” pending the outcome of the criminal case against Andy. Everybody forgot about it, including me! I did make note the Utah Raves thread that was the predecessor of this website explaining that UDS would be holding a hearing immediately after the case was resolved to determine what acton (if any) should be taken against Andy, but that was the last time anybody has said or posted anything about those proceedings…until now.
Hold onto your hats and sit down!
Unfortunately for Andy, the Utah Department of Securities DID NOT FORGET ABOUT HIM!!! Just as they informed Andy back in 2011, UDS did in fact hold a hearing immediately after Andy filed his plea deal in Davis County’s 2nd District Court. That hearing was held on March 25th, 2015 @ 9:00am and Andy failed to attend.
On March 25th, UDS Enforcement officer David Hermansen filed a “recommended order on motion for default”, to which the presiding judge responded in the affirmative. On March 26th, that motion was granted and a default order was filed.
Recommended Order on Motion for Default [PDF]
Order on Motion for Default [PDF]
What the order states in brief is that (a) Andy Esquivel did in fact knowingly sell “securities”, (b) that those “securities” were fraudulent, and (c) Andy is responsible for the consequences of his actions. The Utah Department of Securities therefore ordered that Andy pay $16,325 in penalties! $3,250 was due immediately, while the remaining $13,000 could be reduced on a dollar-for-dollar basis by proof Andy Esquivel was instructed to provide within 30 days of reparations payments made to his victims. In other words, by April 25th, 2015 (two years and seven months ago), Andy was required to prove that he had payed something to his victims or he would be liable for the full $16,250. Andy never provided any such evidence, because at that time he had in fact not paid a dime in reparations to his victims. Thus, the full judgment currently stands.
In addition to the financial penalties against Andy, he is barred forever from selling securities in Utah or having any dealings whatsoever with licensed securities dealers. That means all the fundraising efforts Andy is currently undertaking for Smiley Heroes are illegal and will very likely get him further disciplinary action by UDS.
Before I wrote this post, I was under the impression that including child support, Andy Esquivel owed approximately $29,291.03 in various judgements and fines for his criminal activity. Now I understand that the actual amount is $45,541.03!
Andy, if you are reading this, do yourself a favor and contact the Utah Department of Securities at (801) 530-6628 immediately to make arrangements to satisfy this judgement. Reference case#SD-11-0033.
I will be updating the total owed on the homepage to reflect this new information. I’m sincerely sorry for not following up on the UDS case against Andy. I don’t know why it slipped my mind. At least we know exactly how deep of a hole Andy managed to dig himself into. At the rate he’s going, it will take him nearly eight (8) years to dig himself back out…good luck!
Andy Esquivel – 9/26/17 court appearance
Posted on September 27, 2017 in Uncategorized
Andy had his September court appearance yesterday. We’ll post the court audio from this hearing and the February 28th hearing as soon as they arrive form the court.
Andy has been reasonably good about making his monthly payments, although he’s been consistently two weeks late. He seems to be making payments with his girlfriend’s bi-weekly paychecks (there is no evidence that Andy ever got a job) so the payments have been arriving on the firs Friday of the month following Andy’s due date. Andy did make a concession to the court on Tuesday by making a partial payment of $250 after his hearing.
As I write this, Andy owes $8,368.02 in restitution and fines from his two felony fraud convictions and $20,923.50 in back child support. Both numbers are coming down steadily, which means that as Andy nears his 50th birthday he’s staring to grow up a little bit.
Keep up the good work, Andy! We’ll keep tracking your progress until you finally pay off everything you owe sometime in the year 2019.
UPDATE: Here’s Andy’s explanation of what happened Tuesday…
“I provided a signed letter from Sindy ManzanoPrez Esquivels mother to my attorney that read “I have asked my husband for $500 for my daughter Prez Esquivel for orthodontist.” Now the PROSECUTOR says and I quote “Your honor braces, that’s cosmetic come on, these guys need to get paid its been since 2011 we want $500.” My attorney got pissed and says “Your honor, Andres Esquivel is not asking to miss a month just at least meet him half way $250 this month and $250 next month.” Judge ruled in my incompetent favor… Now I know Allen Brady is going to add Sean Reyes, FBI and media so let me explain to you why this is a story. I knew it was cosmetic and my request should have got shot down. Here’s the GOD part of this great day, ITS NOT FOR braces its for a retainer for an underbite to help my daughter talk clearer when she does interviews for Smiley Heroes. She WORKS for free she deserves this but I can’t say that because prosecution won’t tell judge Connors that the incompetent man that we sent to a 90 day evaluation has been on Fox13 news again for his inventions that he created while we incarcerated him. And not just that, I really wanted to do this for my daughter’s birthday next month so thank you God for touching Judge Connors heart and keeping me from opening a can of wup ass on that prosecution team because my daughter was going to get her retainer.”
UPDATE: The courtroom audio of Andy Esquivel’s 2/28 and 9/26 court hearings are now available. See the links below:
No real surprises in the courtroom audio:
In February, Andy’s attorney admitted to the court that Andy didn’t have $13,000 to pay the reparations and fines he owes. The court therefore accepted an agreement reached with the prosecutor to allow Andy to make payments of $500 per month and to set a review hearing for September, before his probation period expired in October and Andy was sent to prison.
In September, Andy asked the court for a temporary payment reduction to $250 to pay for “emergency orthodontic surgery” for his daughter, at which the prosecutor scoffed that (duh) braces are not an emergency and the victims have been waiting since 2011 to get their money back. Judge Connors granted the temporary reprieve, but made an ominous statement to Andy in the process. In light of the fact that this case has been dragging on for over six years and that there’s still “…just over $9,000” left to pay in fines and restitution, Judge Connors told Andy in effect that his time is short. He stated flatly that “…this is an old case – we’ve got to wrap it up.” He added “…I encourage you to be out trying to find some way to to take care of this in a lump sum payment soon.”
Clearly (very clearly) the court is running out of patience with Andy Esquivel and with this case. Andy’s $500per month token payments are not going to tolerated for much longer. Andy tempted fate by pissing of this probation officer. He then baited the dragon by announcing to the court that he intended to come up with a wad of cash by last February to get this whole business taken care of once and for all. He’s been on a very short leash, but until now he hasn’t quite comprehended just how short that leash is. I warned Any on this blog that it was unwise to play games with the court…especially ‘chicken’. If Andy had never brought up the possibility of a lump-sum payment, the court might never have thought of it as a possibility. If Andy had followed the simple and reasonable direction of Probation Officer Roman Hentish, he would have had an advocate with the court who could plead his case and argue for leniency. As it stands, Andy is facing eminent prison time if he does not turn up the heat and get his act together rapidly!
It’s a shame really. Andy is finally making a serious effort to atone for his previous mistakes, but it’s too, too late, and after too many second chances for the court to want to hear it. it’s time to pay the fiddler Andy. You made your prison mattress, now you get to sleep on it.
Andy missed (another) payment
Posted on March 28, 2017 in Uncategorized
This is getting redundant. Andy missed his March 24th $500 payment to the court. Nothing unusual here – Andy never complies with any arrangement he makes with the court. I’m wondering how long he can keep this up before he’s held in contempt. It’s just a matter of time before they file another warrant for his arrest and drag him before the judge to explain.
It must suck to be broke and unemployed.
UPDATE: Andy made the payment (late) after all. His new balance is $32,779.82 – including child support. We’ll keep tracking both.
UPDATE:
- Child Support = $20,434.88.
- Restitution & Penalties = $8,384.57
- Utah Department of Securities = $16,250.00
Andy makes another payment arrangement
Posted on March 8, 2017 in Uncategorized
Here we go again..
Let’s review:
- Andy plead guilty to securities fraud. He agreed to pay his victims back with interest.
- The court assigned Andy a probation officer to make sure he complied with his promises to the court.
- Andy failed completely in his obligations to the court and was dropped from AP&P.
- The court gave Andy a second chance, placing him on court monitored probation. Andy agreed to pay $500 per month.
- Andy failed to pay $500 per month because he’s broke and can’t find a job.
- Andy gets $1500 behind on his payments and the court issues a $5,000 cash bail warrant for his arrest.
- Andy shows up for court and promises to pay the $13,000 he owes the court in full by the end of February. Andy claims his “new boss” is going to pay the bill.
- Andy shows up for court at the end of February without the money. Instead he pays $800 and begs for mercy.
- The court offers Andy a do-over, allowing him to pay his restitution, fees, fines, and interest in 25 payments of $500 plus a final payment of $195. It sets a new hearing date of September to see if Andy is in compliance.
- IQ Test: What do you think is going to happen in September?
Poor Andy. One of these days he’s going to realize that he can’t string the courts along forever. Sooner or later he’s going to have to get a job and pay what he owes. it’s not that much money. You would think he would just pay the bill and be done with it. Oh well.
Andy keeps digging…
Posted on January 18, 2017 in Uncategorized
There’s an old saying “If you find yourself in a hole, STOP DIGGING!!!” Andy Esquivel is in it about as deep as you can get without hitting water, and yet he still refuses to face the facts.
Andy is flat broke. He is unemployed. He lives with his mom. He’s collecting a few hundred dollars a month in unemployment (see this unemployment report which Andy filed with the court in November). He’s got judgments against him of over $37,000, including $24,000 in back child support. He’s been convicted of two felonies and has only narrowly avoided jail time. Yet in spite of all this, Andy keeps playing with fire!
In Tuesday’s hearing before Judge Connors, Andy was presented with the facts. He owes over $13,000 in restitution and fines, he was allowed to make payments of $500 per month, he failed to make those payments (because he couldn’t afford it) and now he’s $1,550 behind. The judge is giving Andy a lot of rope. He gave Andy one last chance to make arrangements with the court after Andy blew off his probation. Andy was in a pickle. He needed to explain to the Judge how he was going to catch up in order to keep from going to jail.
Andy’s solution?
Promise Judge Connors that he’ll have the entire $13,203.71 (and counting) paid off within the next 45 days. Here’s a guy who crying to ORS because he can’t afford to pay $460 a month in back child support, has no verifiable employment, doesn’t own a car (and doesn’t even have a valid Utah driver’s license, so he couldn’t drive one if he did), lives off of his girlfriend, and yet he’s promising the court that he can come up with $13k in a little over a month? Not only that, he’s literally betting his freedom on it.
S-T-U-P-I-D-!-!-!
So on February 28th, Andy is going to walk into a 2nd District courtroom and explain to the prosecutor and the Judge why (a) he lied to them about being able to cough up a wad of cash thick enough to choke an elephant, (b) why he hasn’t been making his agreed upon payments for the last four months, and (c) why they shouldn’t violate him to jail immediately and throw the key into the Jordan river.
GOOD LUCK with that, Andy.
Here’s the courtroom audio for those who are curious.
January 17th review hearing audio [MP3]
Andy apparently thinks this can go on indefinitely. He seems to have convinced himself that if he throws out enough BS and plays dumb long enough, the court will eventually get bored and let him walk. Unfortunately for Andy, courts are patient and courts are final. He may be getting a lot of rope, but that’s not for him to escape with – it’s for him to hang himself with. At some point (after the very last bit of doubt has been erased) the courts will clamp down and Andy will feel the sting.
In the meantime, Enjoy your freedom, Andy. You have 42 days to prove you’re real (which you’re not). After that, this blog is going to get really entertaining.
UPDATE: Andy showed up with eight hundred bucks ($800). Court audio coming soon.
Andy’s Child Support Case
Posted on January 17, 2017 in Uncategorized
As everyone who has been reading this blog knows, Andy Esquivel is a deadbeat dad. He has seven (7) illegitimate children by at least three different mothers and he refuses to take financial responsability for any of them. The four he lives with are supported financially by their mother because Andy refuses to get a job. One was taken from him by the state and placed in protective custody (later adopted) and his two oldest kids have been cared for by their mother with absolutely no financial support at all from Andy.
A few years back Andy was arrested and forced to stand trial for failure to pay back child support in Colorado. Rather than pay the required fines and serve court ordered community service (too much like a job for Andy) he fled the state and now lives in Utah. Two separate cases were filed against Andy for back child support here, One in Davis County, where Andy originally settled, and another in Salt Lake County, where he fled to avoid harsh probation terms for the three felonies that are the subject of this blog.
As of this writing, Andy owes $24,184 in back child support (leniently calculated as if Andy had earned minimum wage for the first 18 years of his first two children’s lives). He has been making payments lately (no choice there since he’s collecting unemployment and the state garnishes those payments to satisfy past judgments from state agencies like ORS), but those have barely made a dent in the amount he owes. For more details, see this unemployment report which Andy filed with the court in November which shows that ORS is taking half of Andy’s unemployment.
Here are the case files for the two child support judgments against him:
Andy is somehow convinced that the child support case against him is part of a conspiracy orchestrated by this website. Nothing could be further from the truth. We didn’t have two kids out of wedlock, and we didn’t force Andy to ignore his financial obligations as a father to his two oldest children. This website in fact has nothing whatsoever to do with Andy’s child support woes, we just report them as a matter of fact. That said, here is a video link Andy recently posted of himself trying to talk his way out of his obligations:
In this video you can hear Andy trying to convince ORS that he sent them a check for $5,000. In reality, Andy never sent the check, he merely posted a picture of a check online and argued that he should get credit for the posting. Apparently, Andy doesn’t realize that posting a picture of a check and mailing it to the state agency responsible for collections are two entirely different things.
Andy also reveals in this video that he hasn’t had a valid driver’s license since 2012. No wonder he can’t find a job – it’s hard to convince an employer to hire you when you can’t even drive yourself to work.
It is a shame that Andy finds it so hard to come up with the money to satisfy all the judgements against him ($37,386.95 in total, a small fraction of the amount he’s stolen or neglected to pay), but it’s his own fault. If Andy Esquivel would simply get a job his life would be a heck of a lot easier. Unfortunately, Andy is allergic to work and refuses to obtain gainful employment anywhere. He’s full of excuses and lies, but sadly lacking in common sense.
Andy, here’s a hint for you (since I know you read this blog) – if you get a job, ORS might take a little more money, but it’ll be a much smaller percentage of your paychecks. Just go to work like everybody else. In almost no time at all, you’ll find that your victims are all paid back, the court is satisfied, and ORS might even cut you a break on your payments. Grow up and the world will work with you! Keep being a jerk, and it’ll only get harder to stay out of jail.
Another day, another warrant…
Posted on January 12, 2017 in Uncategorized
Those of you who have been following this blog for the last…I don’t even remember how long ago this started…anyway, Xtagged fans will wonder why I even bothered to post this because it’s so redundant. That said, another warrant has been issued for Andy Esquivel’s arrest. Ho-hum, what else is new?
The warrant was issued yesterday by Judge Connors because Andy neglected to show up for his January 10th case review hearing. Cash bail has been set at $5,000, which means Andy cannot bond out. He has to cough up $5,000 in dead Presidents or they’re going to lock him up until Judge Connors has time to ask him face-to-face why he isn’t complying with his court managed probation.
For those of you who don’t read this page often, let’s review how we got here: Andy plead guilty to two felony counts of securities fraud. He was sentenced to two five-year jail terms, which were suspended on condition that Andy comply with certain conditions of his probation. Those conditions included (a) getting a job and (b) paying fines, restitution, and interest. Andy was assigned a few probation officers, but he screwed that up by giving his PO the finger online. The court was lenient and allowed Andy to continue court-managed probation, but the terms were strict – pay $500 per month OR ELSE!!!
A hearing was set for January 10th to review Andy’s progress. Unfortunately, Andy has made no progress, so it was more than likely that Judge Connors would have greeted Andy with handcuffs and at least six months in jail. Andy could have shown up and plead poverty (after all, he’s currently collecting unemployment), but he chose to skip court altogether and take his chances. He is currently $1,550 behind on his payments to the court, which is a bad thing.
“The Defendant is not present and is $1550 past due on his financial obligations. The Court orders a $5000 cash only bench warrant for his failure to appear.”
Court Audio from January 10th hearing [MP3]
Another review hearing has been set for January 17th, at which time Judge Connors will probably order Andy in absentia to serve a bunch of time in jail. He’s collecting unemployment checks right now, so it isn’t as if the state will have any trouble picking him up for his date behind bars.
Personally, I don’t know what Andy is thinking. This isn’t so hard – get a job, pay your child support, pay your fines, and pay your victims back. It’s only $500/mo. so I don’t understand why this is so hard. Andy’s life would be so much easier if he would just bite the bullet and get in line. Unfortunately Andy just isn’t willing to grow up.
Here is the case file [PDF] for those of you who want to review the latest. Also, here is the warrant [PDF] issued by Judge Connors in case anyone is curious.
UPDATE:
As you can see below, Andy has responded to this post, both here and on Facebook. It’s pretty funny actually – on the one hand, Andy claims that he’s too broke to pay his fines and reparations because he doesn’t have a job, is collecting unemployment, and half his unemployment is going to pay back child support. On the other hand Andy claims to have a full time job working “graveyards” as his excuse for not showing up to court on January 10th.
Andy, you can’t have it both ways. Either you have a job or you don’t. For my money, I’m betting you’re unemployed. The fact is, you can’t collect unemployment if you are working “full time”, and you yourself admitted that you’re collecting unemployment, so…
I understand your dilemma. If you’re working, then you can afford to pay the court the money you owe. If you’re not working, you can plead poverty to the court, but you can’t afford to feed your family and you risk going to jail for a very long time. It’s a risky game you’re playing. I for one suggest you (a) get a job and (b) tell the court exactly where you are working (c) provide proof of your gainful employment and (d) start paying your fines. It’s the only way you’re going to stay out of jail.