So now, are we not going to ask the question... who are these bandits? They have developed their own ASICs, customized CGMiner and have a massive mining operation.

Are we not worried that they have released their malfunctioning crap to the public? How could they resist selling chips and generating extra revenue?

I think we can safely assume these are chinese-made. Could it be Avalon, BitMine A1, ASICMiner or some lesser known company?