Wigl Using Investor Funds to Strong-Arm Journalists While Founder Loses Over $200,000 of Investor Funds, Posts Gambling Habit On Instagram

Oftentimes, those who need to be exposed are the first ones to run behind lawyers and threaten lawsuits. When you receive criticism, you largely have three options:

1. Extend an olive branch

2. Threaten People

3. Ignore it
   

Anytime I have written critically about a company, this is typically what happens. If you are raising money publicly, especially millions from the everyday (often uninformed) investors, then you had better be ready to receive criticism, justified or not.

I have, on many occasions, withheld negative articles about people because they chose Option #1. I largely do not care about "bad investments" as much as I care about "bad actors." If you are a good person but I think your company is a bad investment, then I will be more fair than if you are bad person. Bad actors in EqCF hurt everyone.

If the title suggests the outcome, then there's a strong chance this posts leads to a lawsuit once I return from a combat deployment with the Army, but I am happy to put my law degree to work if it means we can stop bad actors within the equity crowdfunding world. I have previously written about Wigl Inc., but largely not pursued it because my main complaint was technological infeasibility, not Ahmad Glover being a bad person.

These statements are true to the best of my knowledge and accurate as of writing this, so if you have any corrections, please email democratizingfinance@gmail.com.

Silencing Critics

Personally, I believe there is no larger red flag in the world than suing people for being critical of you or your company. If you write something negative about me, and feel free to, I will extend an olive branch, correct what's needed, and thank you for telling me how I can approve. If you've ever made an account on my EqCF due diligence website, Hubtas.com, you have likely gotten a message from me asking for feedback. There is only 1 person in history who is without fault, so all we can do is look to better ourselves when possible.

So, if someone says something critical of your company, that should be an opportunity to improve. If it's blatantly false, extend an olive branch and let them know, "Hey, that's not correct. Here's what is correct. I'd love it if you corrected the information." And use those points that are correct to improve.

If you sue and try to silence them, that just tells me it's true. If someone calls you a fraud, and you try to sue them, that just tells me you're a fraud.

Well, that's what happened with popular equity crowdfunding company Wigl and its CEO, Ahmad Glover. Most of my readers have also likely heard of Crowdscale, a popular equity crowdfunding newsletter. Two weeks ago, he wrote a newsletter calling out some awful practices that Glover has been engaging in recently. I will highlight those below and some additional facts that I have found.

Glover's response? Send a lawyer after him.

The attorney reached out to me, saying he did not make any threats, nor did he make any demands for cash. Similarly, Glover denied even wanting to remove the article, rather just changing the specific instances of defamation.

This is at least, in part, refuted by Crowdscale. He said initially offered to remove the entire article but that was not immediately accepted. But it seems there might have been some confusion because, again, sending a lawyer after someone provides a different connotation. For example, saying "Your article caused $80,000 in damages" could be taken many ways.

The interesting part of this is that it's a newsletter post, so it largely only lives on people's emails briefly. After the initial email to his exclusive and close-knit community, the post will pretty much go away forever. But that's not the point of sending a lawyer after him. He wants to get back at him for challenging his ego and knows he can strong-arm a small newsletter.

I'd like to clarify that I was not asked to write this post, and I have not been contacted by Wigl's lawyers yet. I am doing this because these people need to be stopped and exposed.

This isn't the first time this has happened, either. Glover openly admits to using investor funds to send lawyers after online critics. The question I have... why are so many people calling you a scam? If so many people are calling you a scam, why not prove them wrong with your actions instead of your lawsuits:

Losing $206k of Investor's Funds Gambling on Startups

Based on recent SEC filingsGlover is currently sitting on a $206,000 loss of investor funds due to investing in other startups. Despite no mention of such activities in their use of funds proceeds, nor mentions of sending lawyers after critics, they have invested SUBSTANTIAL sums of money into random companies in the equity crowdfunding world.

Glover has clarified this list includes the following companies:

These investments have resulted in some heavy losses:

As you can see above, the company sold $752,973 of stock resulting in a loss of $74,901. The company has a further unrealized loss of $133,677 resulting in a total loss of investors funds totaling $208,578. As shown, they’ve also invested $4,547 and $1,710 in 17 other equity crowdfunding startups.

As shown in their below Use of Funds outlay:

Graph by Hubtas.com

There is no mention of investments in other companies, or pursuing silencing critics or engaging in costly lawsuits. Despite this, as shown above, Wigl has been engaging in these investments for several years, using funds from multiple raises, and yet they do not mention using investor funds for investments in any capacity, potentially amounting to fraud. While there are stipulations allowing to direct funds as needed, this is a gross and absurd deviation, and not disclosing these habits while knowing they will be engaging in them could be considered misleading investors.

Glover's Gambling Concern

Glover has also made some concerning posts on Instagram in regards to gambling. I am not making any statements or conclusions regarding these posts, but they could be indicative of some of the above concerning habits.

Glover's most recent Instagram post claims he will be "Living" at a Miami Casino, with a picture of a slot machine:

Here's another post of him investing in multiple speculative Crypto investments and encouraging others to invest with him.

Prior to crowdfunding, most of his posts were crypto-related, investing in Alt-coins and meme coins, which are considered highly speculative:

$600,000 Stock Buyback's

Stock buybacks are normally something a profitable company conducts to increase their EPS and raise their stock price for the benefit of all investors. Glover, through a convoluted loan buyback program, effectively conducted $600,000 in loan buybacks in which Wigl only bought back Glover's stock, giving him a massive payday.

In 2021, $100,000 was taken from a salary advance. Rather than paying back the entire $100,000, $65,625 was actually paid off using stock in the company. In effect, Wigl Inc. did a stock buyback for $65,625 in 2021. Further, in 2022, the same happened for $482,544, resulting in over $548,168 being taken out of the company in two years. It also shows he “paid too much” back using stock, so the company will be paying him another $64,108, bringing the total to $612,276 compensation in 2 years.

Glover has also been using the money to loan funds to other companies he owns.

He loaned his other company $90,000, and it only has to pay $200/month until the loan is repaid. Not accounting for interest, that would take 37.5 years to pay back. Accounting for interest, $200/month does not cover interest.

While the above program is called a salary advance loan, Glover also has a disclosed salary of $132,300. It's unclear if he is also taking this salary alongside the above $600,000. But it's likely that is the case, seeing that all of the loans are "repaid."

Wigl Executive Salaries

Technological Infeasibility

This has always been my concern with the company: it's not technologically feasible to the best of my knowledge.

Beaming energy results in substantial energy loss poses safety concerns and is difficult to implement for practicality concerns. If you’ve ever tried setting your phone on top of a wireless charging pad, you’ll likely notice it charges substantially slower and can be difficult to get right, even with the phone directly on top of the phone. This is because sending power even a fraction of an inch can result in substantial power loss. Generally, power loss from wireless chargers is between 30 and 40%, depending on the charge percentage of the battery.

The power loss degrades substantially the farther away you get. If objects get in the way, many will block the power beams entirely. Similarly, if the power beam isn’t pointed directly at a phone, then the phone won’t receive any of the power either. It’s much like trying to point a laser pointer at a phone battery. Wigl aims to solve these issues by creating “arrays” of power beams so that no matter where you stand, you’re standing in a power beam. In effect, this would be like lining all of your walls with laser pointers, making it much easier to always target your phone.

The issue? That is not only prohibitively expensive but dangerous. It’s much like standing inside of a microwave to charge your phone. The beams would need to constantly emit power or expensive sensors would be needed to ensure they turn on at the right time to charge as you walk around. This isn’t to say exploring this technology is pointless, as it potentially has some uses, as Wigl has highlighted. For example, Wigl currently has an 8-phase contract with the Air Force for $749,999 to develop wireless charging technology for their pilot helmets. While the feasibility of this is unclear, it could pose some benefits as a pilot's cockpit is a more controlled environment than someone walking around with their phone.