I have never met Ryan, but our wives are friends and our kids often play together. Since the story broke yesterday my wife & her other friends have been trying to check she is OK. Seems she & daugther are fine, but not answering the phone or mobile.
Just sad! downright sad… Under extreme circumstances people do extremely stupid things…
One thing I have noticed over the years whenever I come across a story like this involving a scam/rip off etc is the person involved is generally quite talented in their own right, but obviously misguided.
It is such a shame because I feel these people have the potential to do extremely well legitimately but somehow prefer to not pursue that, and wreck other people’s lives instead. 
My ‘insights’.
I met Ryan a few months ago and it was clear from the get-go that he was a bullshitter. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. It takes a lot of energy and faith to get a new venture off the ground and he clearly had that. My feeling was to just keep watching and see if he got things together.
The words ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ were bandied around when I discussed this with other people. Keep this afloat long enough that advertisers are found and enough listeners get hooked, and it could well succeed. There was a need for something like this. And Ryan was not a bad DJ.
So he wasn’t a successful businessman. How many people here can say that they are? At least he tried to do something new, and some kudos is due for that.
The trouble is that he was in waaay too deep. I think he just didn’t have a handle on the numbers enough to realise what a mess he was making. Keeping track of all that stuff required more ability than he had, but when there’s no-one else there that you can trust to do it you have to muddle through as best you can on your own.
Unfortunately his best wasn’t good enough. It all came tumbling down before the prophecy could fulfil itself, and there’s no-one to blame but Ryan. And he owes me money. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles and I hope that those who have been quick to condemn him for this failure can find a little compassion in their hearts.
I can afford the small loss I’ve taken from Ryan, and I’m pretty sure that TavernCaptain can afford what he put in as risk capital. At least I haven’t heard him crying into hid beer about how he can’t pay his rent this month. I’ve also spoken to several people who worked at the station, and they all seem pretty philosophical about the money. Nobody has really been badly stung financially.
Of course, some people have made major changes in their lives to be part of this project. People have left jobs, moved to Taiwan, etc. They are the big losers in all of this, but let’s not forget that this was a new venture and 90% of new ventures fail. If you take a chance on a new business, any new business, then you should have a fall-back plan.
Anyway, fingers burned all round but no-one really got fried. Did they?
Now, think about what must have been going through this guy’s mind. He’s basically been in a form of panic for months. Imagine the stress. There’s no way to get out of this except to go forward. Succeed or die. If you passionately believe in something, and are pinning your hopes on it, then it’s very easy to lose sight of logic and just act on what you want to believe rather than what is real.
Yes, it’s an illness and I hope Ryan gets the help he needs. Shame on those of you with no pity in your hearts.
As for this kidnapping rubbish, I see an act of desperation by someone who is under too much pressure to think clearly. The guy has creditors hunting him, no passport, and (I believe) problems with his marriage. In those circumstances he probably thought it more important to raise cash than to worry about his wife and family. Not cool, not really defensible, but I wouldn’t nail him up for it.
Loretta,
You are too kind-hearted. It is not simply a matter of Ryan doing everything he could to keep the radio station afloat; it is now apparent that he was involved in two other scams within the past year.
[quote=“almas john”]Loretta,
You are too kind-hearted. It is not simply a matter of Ryan doing everything he could to keep the radio station afloat; it is now apparent that he was involved in two other scams within the past year.[/quote]
I can understand that you get desperate and you do things you may not do, when a business venture fails.
However, a remotely normal person would in that case try to stand the abuse, and move on. If you had been more or less honest the whole way thru, then you may end up getting out of it with most of your personal and business relationships OK.
What I see there are 3 unforgivens:
)Loretta I respect you compassion, being someone who shows the same trait, but this is not about just business. This is about peoples livelihood and you dont quite understand the fact that this is not the only misdeed this person has committed. I have probably (I can say unfortunately) known this poor example of a man longer than anyone here and I have myself seen the damage he has caused on multiple occassions and I cannot imagine what his wife could be possibly be going through at this time.
This is why my eyes will always be open for the opportunity to<… 
…> (insert whatever you imagine)
Sorry, to clarify:
I’m only commenting on what I have personal experience of. I know nothing of his other projects or whether they were scams. If other people have direct personal experiences of this guy that demonstrate I’m being too soft on him then it’s up to them to speak.
I’m not trying to defend the guy, just be a little more objective.
IMO, the benefit of the doubt is relinquished when the whole foundation of your business is a lie. He claimed that a spot on the FM dial was imminent. He even had the imaginary number on the WWRN website. The reason he was in over his head so badly was that it was ALL bullshit. The advertisers he conned, the people who worked for him (or, more correctly, volunteered for him) all believed that they were dealing with an FM station. All the other bullshit he spewed was incidental. Not benign, but secondary to the foundation on which the entire project rested upon.
For latest photos of Ryan - go to:
tvbs.com.tw/NEWS/NEWS_LIST.a … 0908181614
Great photo.
Cheers all
Just read an article in the Taipei Times about a S. African fellow and his taiwanese wife staging the abduction of their daughter to pay off incrued debts of an internet radio station he started. The article also stated that he also conned some Forumosa.com folk out of money as well.
They didn’t say the name of the internet radio station, but I have to wonder if it’s that WWRN one that was being advertised on here.
anyone have any more information on this?
Interesting story in the Taipei Times today, link below, but funny, they say they cannot print the suspect’s photo for privacy reasons, yet the Liberty Times, the Taipei Times owner paper, in Chinese, printed the man’s photo yesterday in full living color, large photo, with his eyes in AV porn moasaic so you cannot identify him.
taipeitimes.com/News/front/a … 2003271078
But the full body shot shows exactly who he is, just the eyes were mosaiced out. I wonder why the Times’s English paper could not print the photo. They identified him by name, too, but just called him “R” in the story.
Wow, what a story! I don’t believe I ever clicked on this thread till today, after reading the TT story. But just now I read from the first page and it’s one of the most interesting threads I’ve ever read on Forumosa.
I had no idea such a great radio station was developing in Taipei with so many of you participating and contributing. Kudos to all of you who listened, were interviewed, gave money and time, etc. I’m sorry I didn’t check it out when it was alive.
And Michel, sandman is correct, your attitude is truly impressive. I believe you that Ryan is suffering from a form of mental illness and it would be great if he could get treatment and learn right from wrong. But I also believe your later post in which you said it is probably impossible for pathological liars to be cured.
Regardless of whether he suffers from mental illness, what he is reported to have done is totally inexcusable. If the allegations are true, then he went way, way, way over the line and Loretta, you are simply wrong: this wasn’t the case of a well-intentioned guy who acted badly under stress, but is simply a fraud, a con-artist, a completely dishonest person with no regard for right and wrong or for the harm he causes to others. Lying repeatedly, not paying bills all over town, that’s bad enough, but reporting a fake kidnapping to the cops and dragging his wife and daughter into it too, that’s reprehensible. If the allegations are true, his actions are totally inexcusable and it sounds like he finally got what he had coming.
Folks, the WWRN thread on the Open Forum has all the info and pictures about this guy you might want to see, including comment from people who did business with him.
[color=Red]Owned[/color]
I feel really bad for this guy. He has to be a bit gone. What kind of desperation would cause you to do such a stupid thing? The worst part is that because of his crookedness and stupidity his wife and daughter will suffer.
Never heard of this guy before, never heard of WWRN before, a very sad sad story indeed. (I was on vacation, offline, for 5 months…)
Can’t wait to read the long feature story in one of the local English papers soon. The Taipei Times has a good story today on the front page, but could not print his photo, even though the sister paper Liberty Times did print his face photo yesterday. But neither the China Post nor the Taiwan News printed anything today. Guess it’s off their radar.
Everyone should learn to cultivate their bullshit detectors more, as one of the posters above, maybe it was Brian, so correctly said. He smelled something fishy way back when, and held off getting invovled. This Ryan character must have been one charming smooth-talking rake.
Was everyone drunk when they met with him?
[quote=“Cola”]Everyone should learn to cultivate their bullshit detectors more, as one of the posters above, maybe it was Brian, so correctly said. He smelled something fishy way back when, and held off getting invovled. This Ryan character must have been one charming smooth-talking rake.
Was everyone drunk when they met with him?[/quote]
Hindsight’s always 20/20.
