@SQ: First off, I forgot to say welcome to the forums. Let not your first impression be that of a hateful community, we are very welcoming and the good people here are very kind to the card community. They have helped several projects go from nothing to a full-blown Kickstarter project that gets major funding, mine included.
We are also very, very card obsessed. We know the in's and out's of the industry, and while none of us are single-handedly geniuses on the matter, as a collective we have the power to check each other's claims.
However, you said in your post that "not all of the evidence is damning." There need be but one shred of damning evidence and no matter what excuse you can come up with for the other stuff, nothing excuses blatant ripping of artwork for use on a commercial site (or any site, technically). Would you pay for a pirated CD? Would you buy a stolen car? So why in the world would you spend a single minute of your time supporting this hack?
I mean, it's not like the selection of quality products is hard to find in the card world, and the selection of mediocre and terrible products is certainly easy to horde.
Thanks for the belated welcome alex!
I do not feel like this is a hateful cummunity, and I applaud the fact that many out there are being wary of this guy. Maybe you can help me out with this (about the artwork), but my understanding was that the picture in question came from this site:
http://www.pptbackgrounds.net/blue-matrix-backgrounds.html, which The-Con-Artist admitted to. I checked out the site, and they are free downloads for you to use as you wish, including websites. I am not seeing how he stole any artwork, and supposedly there is a different website that will be launching. Does anyone know when or what it will look like? Was there another picture that you meant? The other cover picture was researched and found to have no duplicates on the web. Supposedly it is an original taken by TCA. Please understand, that I am not trying to make excuses, this is just information that I found. So again, if there was a picture that I am missing that was ripped off from somewhere, please slap me upside the head and bring me in to reality!
Aside from all of the other stuff, where does he stand in the cardistry/magic community? I think I saw a few posts on here about him winning something at a film festival? Is the movie out there somewhere? Also that his name is on the Arcane Gaff Cards? I would be interested to know what he contributed. I have a few decks of those myself, and love giving credit where it is due. For those that do know the ins and outs of the business, do you have connections to find out or are willing to find out? Then maybe we can see what some of his designs actually look like. I would rather look at what he has actually done rather than what he may or may not have done. Everything else has been speculation...unless someone on here was standing next to him when these things happened, how can anyone say this is 100% why he did this? When it all comes out in to the light, I will be happy to say either one of two things: "I'm glad I waited it out so I didn't get scammed," or "I'm glad I waited and didn't judge. And the free deck of cards was a nice touch." Either way, I know you guys will make your minds up on your own about what you think.