Believing in Aliens Derailed This Internet Pioneer's Career. Now He's Facing Prison

Joseph Firmage, a former Silicon Valley prodigy who built a $2.5 billion web services company in the 1990s, is now being sued by investors who claim he defrauded them through an alleged antigravity machine scheme. In 1998, at the height of his success as CEO of USWeb, Firmage claimed an alien appeared in his bedroom, derailing his corporate career. He then spent decades pursuing UFO research and attempting to develop antigravity propulsion technology, raising millions from investors.

Court documents allege Firmage and associates are responsible for roughly $25 million in losses through various companies and schemes. Some investors say he used elaborate ruses, including people impersonating government officials, to solicit funds. Firmage, currently in jail on elder abuse charges, maintains he was actually the victim of international scammers who exploited his access to investors.

Believing in aliens derailed this grifters career

[Viol8]

FTFY.

Re:

[cob666]

Nothing exactly wrong with believing in aliens. However, let's place some (more than half, IMHO) on the investors that KNEW Firmage not only believed in aliens but also that his gravity defying plans were provided by said aliens.

Then again, maybe if he hooked up with Bob Lazar, they could have gotten something off the ground (see what I did there).

False

[drinkypoo]

Telling people he believed in aliens is what did it.

It's not crazy to believe in aliens, I guess. I mean, not necessarily. It is crazy to tell everyone else in a way that will make everyone think you're crazy. If you go around telling people things they won't believe without any evidence, they will think you're nuts, unless you're a religious person telling another one about your beliefs. And even then, they will probably think you're a nut if your magical sky friends are different from their magical sky friends. If you lose sight of the fact that telling people unbelievable things without evidence will make them think you're crazy, you are crazy.

Re:

[Rinnon]

There is also a pretty big difference between saying you believe in aliens in a "we're not alone in the universe" sort of way, and what this guy did which say say "aliens visited me in my bedroom".

Re:

[e3m4n]

Show me on the doll where they touched you.

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

And an even bigger difference between that and "the aliens visiting my bedroom gave me this great idea for an anti-gravity drive, the government has given me $200 million dollars, do you want in?" People believe all kinds of whacky stuff. The "give me money" part is probably what did him in. Well, that and the keeping an old lady prisoner and starving her bit.

Also, he was annointed one of "13 Masters of the New Universe" by Forbes, which is probably even worse than being on the 30 under 30 list.

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

Who did Forbes anoint as the new Skeletor?

Re:

[alvinrod]

I think the bigger question that we need to address is why aliens only choose to show themselves in front of people who come off as at least a little crazy if not outright stark raving lunatics.

Re:

[null etc.]

"Magical Sky Friends" is totally a show that I would watch.

I'm not saying you're a conspiracy-minded crank,

[Pseudonymous Powers]

I believe in aliens, man, but not, like, THESE aliens.

Re:

[Tablizer]

I believe in aliens, man, but not, like, THESE aliens.

Andromeda hasn't been sending their best.

Also functioned as a one over unity device

[Mirnotoriety]

Also functioned as a one over unity device. But when he switched it on, it took off into orbit.

Non-resident Aliens

[Roger W Moore]

Firmage, currently in jail on elder abuse charges, maintains he was actually the victim of international scammers

So really he is claiming it was a belief in what the US calls non-resident aliens then.

Re:

[Thud457]

I heard somewhere an alien stole a whole country one time.

Oh no.

[newcastlejon]

What a pity.
How sad.
Never mind.

It's really simple technology, actually

[CEC-P]

We've already figured out anti-gravity. To create it, you either need negative mass or negative energy. That has been proven to not exist. If it did, it would cause time to flow incorrectly around it so even if it did, we couldn't "see" it and we certainly couldn't use it. See, I didn't even need millions of investor dollars to solve that one.

Re:

[ihavesaxwithcollies]

See, I didn't even need millions of investor dollars to solve that one.

It seems to me you’re just a terrible con man. I’m sorry, you have no future career in politics.

Bad Headline

[weeboo0104]

When I first read the headline, I wondered how believing in aliens would ruin the guys career. But then I got to "defrauded them through an alleged antigravity machine scheme". If your career's success hinges on people NOT finding out you scammed them, that might be the root cause of your issues.

Long-shot R&D is not "cheating" by itself

[Tablizer]

R&D in long-shot tech is not by itself fraud. Anti-gravity's existence has not been conclusively ruled out. After all, something is pushing galaxies apart at an ever-faster rate, and nobody knows what's really doing that.

Angry investors would probably have to show specific lies, such as doctored lab test results, or embezzling of the money instead of spending it on research.

But if qualified researchers actually did experiments and simply came up dry, and documented the experiments, the investors don't

25 million vs 2.5 billion

[knoledgesponge]

He should have been able to self fund this.

Re:

[TrumpShaker]

Rich people who are mostly or completely sane tend to stay rich by spending someone else's money on stupid shit. Which could be an argument that he knew what he was doing all along.

If you invested with the guy who saw an alien in h

[aratuk]

then only you have defrauded yourself.

Caveat emptor

[Pimpy]

If you invested in an antigravity machine scheme, you shouldn't be surprised when you lose your investment. What exactly does the due diligence on complete and utter horseshit look like? Maybe he can settle out of court with his investors by providing them with NFTs of the alien as compensation.

Space Wall

[Tablizer]

Dear Aliens,

Please blast down the pay/register wall using your space-lasers or whatever wonderful galactic weapons you possess. We'll give you all of East Florida in exchange.

Thank You!
- Earthling

He should've "read the room"

[93 Escort Wagon]

If he'd only thought to say "the aliens visited me, and then they ate my dog", he'd have received a presidential pardon by now. Maybe even a cabinet appointment.

Prodigy

[TomClancy_Jack]

Prodigy was our first ISP when I was a kid that ran on our IBM XT. I hadn't thought about it in years - I love wild stories like this. Reminds me of how the band Live was part of a fiber ISP scheme, and there was a lot of drama around their finance manager Paywalled article(https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/live-alt-rock-band-crime-lawsuits-1234677011/)

Anti gravity enthusiasm

[dsgrntlxmply]

Long ago when I was in grade 4, my dad sold stuff to aerospace companies. We did a lot of weekend exploration drives. Always on the lookout for unfamiliar aerospace companies, from the freeway I spotted a sign "Anti Gravity Systems" and excitedly pointed it out. A few days later I asked my dad if he had talked to them. The answer was Yes; but they were a designer of carnival rides, not of flying saucers.