Former Blink 182 frontman Tom DeLonge got involved in a shady UFO conspiracy business, where for a few hundred bucks, people who are afraid of aliens could learn "the truth" that “they” (the government) do not want you to know. The project is on track to lose $37 million this year, if we're reading their latest SEC filing correctly. Bummer, Tom.
We found this story in a deep-dive piece today by Eric Berger at Ars Technica, who describes how he's been following Tom DeLonge, the ex-Blink 182 singer, as his "aliens" jig evolved throughout the years.
DeLonge will apparently be losing a lot of money in what is at best a highly speculative project involving extraterrestrial life, and at worst, a scam.
Great headline, not gonna spoil it, you should click it, and read the whole thing.
The setup: A rich rock star buys into the idea that aliens are out there, and bad things will happen:
In other words, the evil government is covering all kinds of mysterious alien stuff up for its own nefarious purposes. And interested personages were invited to help the good guys. For a few hundred bucks, people could get a piece of an "A+ investment offering" from To the Stars, to assist its efforts to pull back the veil from the government cover-up and bring brilliant new technologies—such as beamed energy propulsion—into public view.
Yep.
Anyway, here's the money stuff. A recent SEC filing shows that this aliens protection racket scheme is losing tons of money. Here's something to make your investors' hearts skip a beat:
The accompanying financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis, which contemplates the realization of assets and the satisfaction of liabilities in the normal course of business. The Company has incurred losses from operations and has an accumulated deficit at June 30, 2018 of $37,432,000. These factors raise doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.
Excerpt from the Ars Technica piece by Eric Berger:
Put another way, after a year of fundraising, Tom DeLonge's alien conspiracy business in $37.4 million in debt. The financial filing states that To the Stars intends to remain in business over the next 12 months by selling additional stock. Their website says they accept credit cards, if you're so inclined to help keep the effort afloat. Bear in mind that any financial returns may be beyond the reach of even The Phenomenon, given the company's existing debt.
I'm not sure what to say about a millionaire who parlays his or her fame into a business that raises funds from people who are not millionaires but desperately want to believe in aliens, or conspiracies, or hidden government technologies. Therefore, I'll let DeLonge say it for me, in Blink 182's hit song Aliens Exist, from 1999's Enema of the State: "We all know conspiracies are dumb."
If only we all did.
