There is a strong possibility that
Leasebit.com is a scam, and the owner (alias) Rowan Salter is going to commit fraud against a good number of people. At this point no fraud has been committed against anyone I have been in contact with, but his refusal to return emails, and information about his past is not looking good for anyone involved. The current availability of ASIC chips all but guarantee his claims as false, and his business to be a scam.
Here are some threads on the topic:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=328182.0https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=301651.0I have significant financial, legal and political resources, so Im going to take charge of beginning the process of gathering leaseholders information in order to prepare for further action if we are indeed being defrauded. We should know for sure within the next month when leaseholders do not receive their first payment of bitcoins on December 15th.
I have spoken to some of my connections and have been put in touch with a staff member of the California Attorney General. Hes now aware of the situation, and the has instructed me to begin gathering the information of as many potential victims as possible. Obviously they are not officially involved yet, but my contact has promised me they will move quickly with a criminal investigation if leaseholders are not compensated in the next few months. Thankfully, he was quite informed about bitcoins, so there wasnt much explanation necessary for him to understand the situation.
If you are a leaseholder of a Leasebit lease and would like to be involved, please email me your name, email address, phone number and lease number to (edit: this is the correct email) report@leasebitscam.com. For the moment thats all the information Ill be collecting. If we are not paid on December 15th, Ill ask those involved for more information.
As for civil litigation, I am in contact with my personal law firm, and they are researching their recommendation for firms in the State of California that would be a good match for a case such as this. Unfortunately collecting any inevitable judgments will be difficult due to information we have about his finances and past legal matters. Luckily fraud is nondischargeable in a bankruptcy, so hell be on the hook for payment for the rest of his life.
I would like to stress that as fas as I know, no provable fraud has actually been committed yet. Hopefully a miracle happens, and this guy comes through. This is extremely unlikely though, hence the preemptive action I'm taking here. I'm not active on any other bitcoin forums, but if someone wants to post a link to this thread to spread the word, it would be appreciated.