Tuesday, February 5, 2019

SO WHO REALLY RUNS VOX DAY'S MEDIA EMPIRE?

     In October, Vox Day's shady publishing firm, Castalia House, was suspended by the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo for "a pattern of unusual (i.e. suspicious) activities." This incident has caused more than a few in the literary community to start questioning Vox' activities. The Sci-Fi/Fantasy blogger Camestros Felapton wrote an article suggesting that Vox' funding tactics bore several characteristics of money-laundering. Vox is currently suing Indegogo, thus whatever irregularities are alleged will be brought out in court.

     It's also been further shown that Vox' questionable business practices don't stop there. First of all, Castalia House is not even a registered company in its own right; but a subsidiary of a Finnish outfit called 'Alpenwolf'. 


  
      Alpenwolf purportedly is engaged in some type of 'computer programming activities. Regardless, however, the company is not registered with the European Union Tax Authority. Finnish law exempts firms from registration if their yearly net profits fall below 10,000 Euros (about $11,500). And this is the second suspicious thing. How Vox presents his sales and influence to the public and what is represented to the EU tax officials are two radically different things. 

     Castalia House recently ran afoul of Amazon's Terms of Use though the issue was resolved rather quickly. The Sci-Fi/Fantasy site, File 770, received a missive from Markku Koponen, the registered owner of Alpenwolf/Castalia, which said of the book in question:

    "But the sales had dropped so low on it (because people seem to connect it only with the Scalzi events, which isn’t really fair. Again, it’s an actual, serious book) that removing that tool from them had more value than having the title there. And it’s still available on our own site, from which we keep 100% of the revenue instead of 70%."

     So we started to look into Markku Koponen a bit. What was interesting was not what was found, but what we didn't find. 

    There is very little on the web about Koponen that isn't directly connected to Vox Day. Koponen has a Twitter feed, but it's mostly retweets of American Alt-RINOs. The photo gallery has a number of Confederate flags and such---but surprisingly little commentary about Finland---where Koponen supposedly lives. 

    In fact, this is the building in Kouvola, Finland which is supposedly Castalia House's publishing headquarters:



    And the building description is listed in the city's registry as follows:


    
  
     This address is an apartment complex---not a business office. So who lives there? Not Markku Koponen. His address is listed as in the town of Voikkaa. Presumably, those donating to Vox' crowdfunding campaigns are paying for the maintenance of an office and business facilities: but are they really paying somebody's rent?

      When Castalia House first opened, a blog called Charlie's Diary published an article about it.  What's interesting is reading through the comments---many of which were posted by active members of Finland's sci-fi, comics, and gaming communities. Nobody in Koponen's own neighborhood seems to know anything about him:




      As a public figure, Vox Day certainly owes an explanation to everyone about these anomalies. The lack of transparency concerning his donor-base and funding; the irreconcilable sales reporting; the questionable status of Castalia House's actual ownership and management: these things really need some public airing and clearing up. 









21 comments:

  1. I am an international man of mystery. You will never find me.

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    1. Sort of like Andrew Anglin---they can't find him either!

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    2. Except that I'm churning out copy several times a month. Because you can't find me, to waste my time. You may note that Vox has always said he's the "lead editor of Castalia House". He has never claimed to own any part of it, because he doesn't.

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    3. Then maybe when you find some time, could you tell us 1) Why your primary business isn't listed as publishing in the Business Register? 2) How much is the actual sales volume on the copy that you're churning out? 3) Vox always claims to far exceed his fundraising goals. Can you tell what the surplus is used for? 4) Whose apartment is being used as Alpenwolf's address?

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    4. Those are some nice concerns. Consider my heart warmed by them.

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  2. And, as if the conspiracy didn't already run deep enough, "Vox Day" isn't even his real name!

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. What if Markku Koponen and Andrew Anglin are the same person!? Have you ever seen them together?

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  5. Ok, gotta go now. Books to publish, electronic bookstores to maintain, the whole shebang. But just in advance, I heartily sympathize with all the concerns about to be expressed, and what everyone deserves and whatnot. These concerns really warm my heart, as I imagine them.

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  6. So, who pays for your little operation here?

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    Replies
    1. Blogger is a free service and I donate my time. I'm not selling anything.

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  7. Just as a reminder, since this post has more commentary (relatively speaking) than usual: While we allow disagreement and light humor, comments are not allowed which contain snark, egregious insults, trolling, baiting, spamming, doxxing attempts, etc. Keep the debate on a civil plane---always.

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  8. While we allow disagreement and light humor, comments are not allowed which contain snark, egregious insults, trolling, baiting, spamming, doxxing attempts, etc. Keep the debate on a civil plane---always.

    What you allow is ineffective argument. Any comment that makes a valid point about your unreasonable demands is instantly deleted.

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    Replies
    1. Well, you might think differently if you saw what gets deleted...

      But as for unreasonable demands---ask yourself this: if the same questions were raised against some Leftist/SJW outfit, would you consider them unreasonable?

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  9. For instance, the poster who pointed out that you are trying to doxx Markku. Are you going to claim that that was somehow offensive on any basis other than it shows your hypocrisy? Or my own pointing out of the hypocrisy of demanding someone's address when you are yourself hiding your own name. There was nothing offensive there. Yet both were deleted almost immediately.

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    1. I'm not trying to doxx anybody. The issue here is that that particular address---a residential unit in an apartment complex---is listed as a business address, which it can't be. As for Markku, his home address is publicly listed. He doesn't live in Kouvala and neither does Vox Day nor anybody else connected with Castalia House. Those who've donated to Vox' crowdfunding campaigns deserve to know if the money is being put to some non-commercial use.

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    2. Have YOU donated?
      If not,, may I suggest it's not your problem.

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    3. I've never donated to Planned Parenthood or the Clinton Foundation either. But they, like Vox, are enemies of things like church, family, and republican government. Hence, what they do is indeed a problem.

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  10. File770 linked to an interview with Markku here.
    In Finnish here.
    Vox's translation here.

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