Ryan Cianci / CIANCI USA Fraud Information. Please read.

[stealthify]

Hello all
I wish that my first post on 3SGTO didn't have to be such a grim one. While there will be another post to be made about myself and my past company that many of you may remember, this post is in reference to some new, and rather venomous, accusations that have recently been made against me.

I had absolutely zero interest in airing dirty laundry, but the platform that I still love and support has a right to know. This concern is in reference to the company I worked for and tried to help this summer, and a company many of you know: Cianci USA.

With that in mind, I'm here strictly to divvy out the facts and let you decide for yourself. Some of you may feel I deserved this, others may hopefully support my side, but for any of you who wish to hear both sides of the story, I implore you to read the following. I have included everything I know.

First, a quick timeline for those that wish to get caught up on the situation:

• 2007-2008 - I departed from 3si early in 2007 to focus on fixing myself and finding a solution to the mess I had made. During this time, I lived mostly as a recluse. Ryan Cianci was among one of the only friends I had left, and it was not uncommon for him to solicit me to help him with his business. Due to my continuing interest in the platform, and to help out as a friend, I was more than willing to. I was there for the input, design and creation on many of the parts some of you have come to enjoy. I maintained this working friendship/business partnership while continuing to work on the plan for my public return.
• October 2008 - Near the start of 2009, Ryan Cianci approached me about completely reworking his website. At the time, he was running on an HTML-based site that was extremely difficult to maintain and had numerous coding errors. He wanted me to create a site from scratch using some of the same technology that his competitors were using. This included a fully functional shopping cart, order tracking system, search features, etc that he never had before. We agreed to the terms of working on trade for a full $2,000+ website in exchange for a full CIANCI body kit and hood, from which I could keep or sell for cash in order to redeem my name on the forums.
• January 15, 2009 - New CIANCI USA site goes live. This is the site that all of you have been using for the last two years up until last month.
• February 1, 2009 - After the work I had completed for Ryan, he convinced me that I should re-open my company's doors and start publicly selling his parts again. He did this with the interest in mind of getting more sales himself (as we found I seemed to cater to a slightly different demographic than he did), and because it may alleviate some time that he focused on sales so that he can focus on other things... like petting his cat.
• May 15, 2009 - Stealthify returns to 3SI. After years of planning, and nearly half a year of settings things in motion, I begin the official Midnight Resolutions Plan.
• June 1, 2009 - My company site is redesigned and published. New sales begin to arrive, and refunds-o-plenty are given. Every issue is addressed, and I remind people that I will be continuing this plan indefinitely.
• 2009 - 2010 - Midnight Resolutions remain in effect. A resolution fund is stored in PayPal and I use absolutely zero of the cash for personal use. The excess of this fund still exists for those that are wondering, and will be there in case of any last minute claims.
• Early 2010 - In a turn of events, I receive an email from a company in Mexico. They saw the fiberglass parts on my website, and offered to make them cheaper. I passed this information on to Ryan, and this would mark the beginning of a new chapter for our companies. A few months later, he crudely broke ties with his previous manufacturer (explained later), and we both transported the molds to Mexico.

That brings us to this summer, and to the heart of what this thread is about.

[stealthify]

My Employment at CIANCI USA
After successfully managing my budget and working to pull my company from the mud, Ryan acknowledged my hard work and saw an opportunity to help his own company. It was at this time that he offered me an 'official' and 'public' job working for CIANCI USA. He saw it as an opportunity to get someone else to Mexico so that he could return to Oregon, and I saw it as a chance to fix my name once and for all.

For those interested in reading the original deal, these were the terms we agreed to:

From sales@cianciusa.com / July 17th, 2010
Cianci USA agree's to pay Shaun Cameron:

$800.00 as a base salary monthly. $400.00 paid bi-weekly.
Cianci usa agree's to pay shaun 5% of the gross sales from parts sold through all aspects of our sales channels. Dealer, Direct etc. Shipping is not included in percentage paid.

For those doing the math, this ended up boiled down to less than $4.44/hr. However, I saw the chance to reconnect with the platform worth so much more than that, and that is why I excitedly agreed.

Stealthify goes to Mexico
After working a few weeks from afar, Ryan calls me and has me speak to his girlfriend (this is really over-sharing, but it is important to point out due to the circumstances). She told me that Ryan was on the edge of a nervous breakdown. That he was getting constant emails, 40 calls a day, etc from clients. What I did not know at the time was that approx. 35 of these phone calls were from existing clients asking about where their long-overdue orders were. This was the first sign I saw that things weren't all sunny in Mexico.

I set up a brand new phone line for CIANCI, and began working immediately. I booked a flight to leave on July 2nd and, once I arrived in San Diego, Ryan and his girlfriend began to debrief me on how bad things had gotten.

Through the admin area on Ryan's website, I saw that he had incomplete orders dating up to nearly 14-16 months. This was red flag #2.

Regardless, I came down there to fix things. Both for myself and, now, for his company as well. I put together a plan to build a live-updating Production Center website for the facility he was working under in Mexico. This website was to tie into his existing website, and every time a new order arrived, it would automatically send a notice to a TV screen where the employs were, so that they could see what needed to be made. We dubbed this the 'Taco Bell system' (due to the similarities you'd find in the fast-food order processing industry).

My work for CIANCI USA / The scene behind the scenes
If you called CIANCI between July and late August, there is a good chance you spoke with me. I worked with and helped everyone that had an outstanding order with CIANCI this summer, and often had to make up excuses on Ryan's behalf as to why things were taken so long. Often I found myself relaying messages to Ryan, telling him that clients were being imposed storage fee's at their bodyshops, and he told me to basically tell them to suck it up.

Up until this point, he did not have anything about "3-4 month turn-around times" on his website's Terms and Condition page.

Additionally, there were MANY cases of clients that were told prior to my involvement that there would be a turn-around time of a week or two. Ultimately, these orders were not fulfilled. A few names that come to mind (if they browse here), include Declan from Canada (2 months for a gauge pod), Jeff A. (1.5 months for a set of sideskirts), Jesper L (3 months for various parts), and Jukka P. (still incomplete last time I heard), etc.

The worst case, and perhaps the one I found myself most involved in, was a case involving a client named Trenton. Nicest guy you could ever talk to. He lives in Europe and is in the US military on active duty. He had ordered nearly $4,000 worth of parts from CIANCI back in the spring, and was very patient about receiving them. His car was sitting at a bodyshop, waiting for his parts to arrive. This was the first time I saw Ryan, without a care in the world, straight up lie to one of his customers. Just to get Trenton off the phone, he told him that his parts would ship out 'next week.'

From that point on, I never heard Ryan mention it again. The next week rolled around, and I saw zero action on Ryan's part. Trenton's order didn't actually ship for another month when I took care of it for him. This was to set the theme for the rest of my visit in Mexico.

During my time in Mexico, I performed the following duties:

• Answered the business phone daily, even after hours. There were even nights where I helped comfort clients about their delayed orders as late as 10-11pm. I was willing and often did work on weekends.
• I exercised my 4-years of Spanish to help smooth things over between the employs and Ryan, as he had very little to no foreign language experience.
• I installed a 3-point security system.
• I answered emails constantly.
• Worked with and escorted a client that drove down from Canada to have their car test-fit with parts.
• I worked on the Production Center website system.
• I gave Ryan technical advice on how to run a server in Mexico so that he may, one day, be able to run things from Oregon.
• I organized the storage shelves and helped organize all of the things Ryan had neglected.

During my time in Mexico, Ryan did the following... during business hours:

• Played and beat Starcraft II
• Stroked and slept at the trailer with his cat playing 'sick', while I took his car to go to work without him.
• Took journeys on his quad up in the mountains
• Talked on the phone with his girlfriend for hours on end
• But to be fair, he did pop into the shop once in awhile to see progress

[stealthify]

The truth about CIANCI USA turn-around times
I debated whether I should include this or not, but I feel it is pertinent to the matter at hand. All of you have a right to know WHY exactly your order takes so long to arrive, and having experienced his first-hand, I can tell you all about it.

First and foremost, the shop Ryan works out of is not his own. It belongs to a company known as Peregrine Industries. They run a huge warehouse with about 20-25 employs and they make simple boats and other various fiberglass items. They've been in business for 20+ years, and have been exporting items up to the United States for nearly all of them.

They have their own semi-truck, and usually send one major shipment up to San Diego every week. The original agreement between Ryan and Peregrine was that they would be more than willing to take his parts up with them if he is able to box them up, label them, and put them on the truck the night before it goes out.

This proved to be quite the challenge for Ryan. He would often procrastinate until the last minute, he would not talk with the employs beforehand about what needed to be ready in time for the shipment, and he was, above all else, very disorganized about everything related to getting the shipments out.

I made it a point to address this while I was down there. There were parts sitting on the shelves for weeks that could have been shipped out, and all they did was collect dust until Ryan got around to it. Motivated by my past mistakes and experiences, I cleaned up the shelves, and took over planning the shipments. It was during these few weeks that the largest shipments in CIANCI history went out the door:


This was prepared and taken while Ryan was off with his girlfriend in San Diego visiting Sea World.

I began planning ahead for the next few week's shipments, writing up both a list for the employs on what they needed to make, as well as a list to Peregrine's owner about what we were to export each week. This system was working flawlessly, and all it took was a little inititive. Of all the things I taught Ryan this summer, I hope this is a lesson he picked up. However, by recent complaints, it sounds as though this hasn't been the case.

Fast forward: CIANCI "fires" Stealthify, and accuses him of defrauding the company
With all of the above in mind, let me fast forward to today. Earlier this morning, and the reason for me publicly opening up about this, Ryan posted the following on (the other site):

http://www.3si.org/forum/f188/shaun-...e-read-508133/

After nearly 8 years of friendship, 3 years of helping his business during its most troubled time, and a month and a half of no contact from Ryan, we have arrived at this.

Ryan Cianci and Partnerships, many tales of woe
Before I go any further, I should point out Ryan's history with friends and business. During his time with the 3/S platform, Ryan has always been a 1-partner kind of guy. In the early days it was Adam Fortier (who helped Ryan make the first a-pillar gauge pod), then a guy named Corey, and then me. No two of these three partnerships ever overlapped, and each one ended with the partner being betrayed by Ryan.

I do not know how they feel about things now, but I ended up (at some point in my 3/S history) meeting each of them, and none of them had good things to say about Ryan. "He was cut-throat, could care less, and was ultimately a very evil businessman." I was too young to understand this at the time, but I stayed true and remained faithful to my friend.

Then came a man named Jim. If you ever ordered a part from CIANCI between 2003-2009, your product was likely made by his hard-working hands. He was a simple, family man that worked out of his home in Estacada, Oregon. He made hundreds of products for Ryan and was the one that invested the time to make the quality products that CIANCI has later taken all the credit for.

Jim taught many things to Ryan about fiberglass and carbon fiber work. He was devoted, despite Ryan often slave-driving him.

Upon the time that the Mexico facility came into the picture, Ryan quickly cut ties with Jim. He called him and told him he is removing all of his molds due to 'long turn around times.' Long turn-around time at this point usually consisted of 3-6 weeks.

Obviously, Jim was devastated. His family depended on Ryan and had dedicated nearly 7 years to help him build his company to where it is today, and Ryan was pulling the plug cold turkey. Ryan hired a family lawyer from his wealthy dad, and stuck it on him.

With no other options, Jim gave in, and I witnessed all of it. In the end, it was yours truly that had to drive over to Jim's shop to pick up the molds, as Ryan was too much of a coward to face Jim himself.

The tale of Jim was a dark one, and while I understand the potential Mexico has to offer, I can honestly say now that I do not agree with the way Ryan went about handling it. This was later confirmed this summer when Ryan showed me a newspaper link he found of Jim's house later burning down after we left Oregon, and he laughed about it as he told me.

Tossing out one partner for another
Anyway, back to the partner situation. Enter Ryan's new project and financial partner: Josh.

Josh was once a client, that later revealed to Ryan that he had a lot of money due to his time in the military. He wanted to invest with Ryan, and become a part owner in the company. I have absolutely no problem with Josh, and during this summer I encouraged him to come to Mexico and help out. We needed it. Little did I know, this was only sealing my own fate.

In late July, Josh came to Mexico for the first time. I had already departed back for Nevada as Ryan was heading back to Oregon and I needed to get ready for my next term at college.

I should also point out that I left because things were beginning to become obvious that Ryan wasn't paying me for my work. During my time in Mexico, I received one check 2 weeks in for commissions, but never received my monthly salary or any commission from that point on. I also had still not been paid for the creation of his CIANCI USA site. The waters were starting to get rough.

In early September, Ryan put Josh in charge of handling me. Much like he put me in charge of handling Jim. Josh emailed me saying that the terms of my employment at CIANCI were changing. Josh and Ryan had a vision for the new direction of CIANCI, and he told me that he would like to see me in this plan. It involved doing more work, and ultimately adding more time to the workload of planning and completing IT projects for the company. I told him I was fine with this and that I thought it was quite appropriate due to CIANCI's current circumstances. I told him that I always worked for Ryan in a friendly, easy going way, but that making things a bit more professional couldn't hurt. It was on September 8th, 2010 that I resigned from the company, dropping my commission, and would work as an independent contractor again. This email is here:

Shaun to Josh - Sept 8, 2010
Hi Josh,
Its good to hear from you. Thank you for taking the time to write this up and filling me in.

Ryan and I go back a long ways, and all of this is nothing new to me. I'm extremely familiar with Ryan's business model and I understand the shape that the company is in now.

With that in mind, I believe that your solution is wise and likely to be quite appropriate due to the company's current circumstances. As I have often done favors for CIANCI USA in the past with reduced rates and pro-bono work, the stricter regime and more business-like approach that you are suggesting would be on par for what I have done with other professional clients in the past: particularly, those paying professional prices.

Under this new plan, I henceforth relinquish my future 5% commissions and position in CIANCI USA and I look forward to negotiating future projects with you.

Best wishes,
- Shaun Cameron

He replied about past payments that were owed to me. I told him that due to the time increase, my price would need to be adjusted, and that I need to be paid for my work so far.

Shaun to Josh #2 - Sept 8, 2010
Hi Josh,
Yes, there is an outstanding balance remaining for past commissions, hours worked while at the plant in Mexico, as well as hours accumulated in overtime while fulfilling duties Ryan bestowed on me during the time he spent with Jessica in San Diego. Additionally, while this is preceding your involvement in Ryan's company, a past balance is due for the work done on the design and creation of cianciusa.com.

Ryan should be aware of these debts owed, and now you are as well. I will modify the last invoice that I sent Ryan to reflect the promised wages that are overdue for the last few months in addition to those that have been owed over the last few years.


Thanks again,
- Shaun Cameron

This is when everything changed.

On September 14th, I received word that Ryan had contacted Nadeem from 3si and basically disowned me. Since I was no longer working under the Cianci name, I was okay with this. But the way he went about it, left a very sour taste in my mouth - as I'm about to explain.

[stealthify]

True/False - CIANCI "saved" Stealthify
Now, rewinding a bit, we come to the time when I was hired that Ryan proclaimed that if anyone had an outstanding issue with me or my company, he would take care of it. I never asked for this, but he felt it was necessary to say in order to counterbalance the backlash my hiring into the company might make.

The truth of the matter is this: NO ONE had an issue with my past company at this point, and therefore Ryan had to do absolutely nothing to take care of any past issues. In fact, the only times my company was brought up was when people called in and recognized me. Vitali, 3sx, a few other veterans from the forums, etc. I explained the situation to them and helped them with their orders.

With this in mind, and back to the letter to Nadeem, Ryan threw me under the bus and lead him to believe there WERE still outstanding issues and that he would be redirecting them to Nadeem himself. He told him, and I quote:

Ryan to Nadeem - Sept 13, 2010
"I will direct any claims past clients of midnight haze have to your email since Alan quit and we are left with no choice but to no longer help resolve any issues for them."

It was at this point that I realized where Ryan was taking this. I put some thought into it, and emailed him directly. He told me that my banning on 3si was my own fault, and that I was taking advantage of him. After trying to hear Ryan's side of things, I inevitably had to remind him with the following, admittedly harsh, emails:

Shaun to Ryan - Sept 14, 2010
Let's get a few things straight here.

One, I haven't had any claims against me in years. You know this.

Two, my past is my own, but I'm BANNED because of your advice to try to go around Alan on the forums and then your lack of truly following it up. You want to deny this? I believe I still have the chat logs.

Three, as far as debts owned, keep it. Knowing where you stand as a "friend" was worth more than any dollar amount you could have sent anyway.

Take advantage? Who's the one that was trying to get $75/hr webwork for $4.44? Due to your lack of payment, I was left with no choice but to discontinue work on composite-manufacturering. Friend or not, person that's done more for you than anyone ever has, no one likes being taken advantage of - thats the plain and simple fact.

Enjoy your life,
- Shaun

To wrap things up, on September 15th, I told Ryan to call me so we can work this out. Of course, he never called.


CIANCI's Public Image
For the first time in a long time, I started to see people calling out Ryan on his business practices. In just the other thread, jba3 mentioned the decline:

Sorry to hear about the troubles. Cianci has gone downhill rapidly the last few years.

I don't know how other people, especially those that haven't done business with him lately, feel about this.

However, most of the crime happens behind the scenes, like I was mentioning earlier. It wasn't until the last few months that we really started to see this. Whether it be Ryan arguing on his forum on 3si (often deleting and even editing other client's complaints), taking jabs at the people that trusted him with their orders by calling them liars and even going as far as trying to humiliate them publicly (mattdeathdealer). I suppose this type of action will only go unnoticed for so long.

"I think your reasons for being upset are probally associated with your age. 16? I mean you had to use your moms credit card, which was probally the first sign to not do business with you."

I can tell you horror story after horror story about every aspect of CIANCI in its current state. Don't even get me started about poor product quality that slips through the cracks quite often. There are more hoods that don't fit right or have cracked, more molds were warped and Ryan choose to continue production with anyways, etc than you can believe. These are the dirty dealings that Ryan doesn't want you to hear, and I can tell you about them in all honesty since I witnessed them and the complaints first-hand. And, in all fairness, I didn't sign any non-disclosure agreement.

I'll just leave it at that for now.

[stealthify]

So finally, why is Cianci posting about this now?
I wanted to stick mostly to facts for this post, but I feel some speculation is warranted. Of course, if Ryan would like to refute these (as its only speculation and not fact), he is more than welcome to.

The reason I think Ryan is pointing the finger at me now is because he has found himself between a rock and a hard place. There are still MANY outstanding orders, and I am still receiving emails from people that are having a hard time contacting him.

Ryan has mismanaged his funds tremendously over the years, even before I started working for him. He buys plane tickets last minute, paying premium prices, to return to Oregon whenever he feels like it. He bought an expensive quad to rome around Mexico in. He took a loan out on a Ferrari, that he is paying huge for it monthly. He bought a 99 VR4 that he doesn't even drive.

Even with all of the above in mind, there is one other big factor here that I am aware of. From what I understand, he owes over $10,000 to his past shipping company, DB Schenker. This is the reason that he had to switch to a new shipping company. And this is also why DB Schenker has sent him to collections.

With all of this in mind, I believe Ryan's latest post is to make me the 'fall guy.' It seems easy enough. I have a tainted history, I admitted it, but I have also worked very hard to fix it. I have not tripped up a single time in years, but due to my removal from the forum, I haven't been able to express this.

He knows that I can not defend myself on 3si. I had absolutely no interest in sharing any of this, but after working so hard to cleanse my name, I can't believe he would go as far as to post something so completely untrue and deceitful about me. An equal or greater public response is required.

So Ryan, you talk about your lawyers and newspapers. Consider this my contribution to the discovery process.

Here are my last few emails to you for all to read. I still have your company phone, the only possession that I have of yours or CIANCI's, and as I said, I've been willing to send it back for awhile now. However, you owe me nearly $4,500 in past debts for the work I did on your websites, the time I spent in Mexico doing your dirty work, and the commissions that you never paid me for. I was considering just letting it go, but your post has made me strongly reconsider.

2010-09-23 Shaun to Cianci #1
2010-09-30 Shaun to Cianci #2 - Phone & Past Debts Due

In any case, if you have any proof you'd like to supply, I would love to hear it. As far as defrauding customers? Please. I really hope that isn't what you're telling them because you spent their money elsewhere and can't afford to ship them. Let's see some proof. You do have some, right?

Until then, let the platform that created us be the jury. Old friend versus betrayer, a company that had a bad history and fixed it versus a company that is writing their own bad history as I type this.

I really wish it didn't have to come down to this.

[Vantage]

[B][SIZE="2"]
I can tell you horror story after horror story about every aspect of CIANCI in its current state. Don't even get me started about poor product quality that slips through the cracks quote often. There are more hoods that don't fit right or have cracked, more molds were warped and Ryan choose to continue production with anyways, etc than you can believe. These are the dirty dealings that Ryan doesn't want you to hear, and I can tell you about them in all honesty since I witnessed them and the complaints first-hand. And, in all fairness, I didn't sign any non-disclosure agreement.

:: Lets hope my hood and bumper fit without to many issues. =(


Its very disappointing to see something like this, especially about what I imagined to be a superb company. It will be interesting to see where this goes, and hopefully the 'he says she says' shit wont get to out of control.

[Gene]

interesting

[vr4_rider]

Wow! I am sorry for you Shaun.

[green-lantern]

Well I have read everything so I feel like I should post. I have kept up with CIANCI for a long time and I have noticed that ever since the move to Mexico it hasn't been the same. I hate this because I feel it was pretty much the only company that I would buy body parts from.

Congrats on cleaning up all your old debts

[dpfsharkbait]

I am letting him post on 3si, since he was accused there and was not able to defend himself.