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BlytheEcho

Martin Sebastian Skrzypczak - Con Artist

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In light of the recent post by Rook Nelson, that Skydive Chicago is no longer affiliated with Martin Sebastian Skryzpczak and it being over a year since we broke up, I feel that it is okay to make my situation with him known publicly. I am not writing this for sympathy, only to make as many people as possible aware of Martin’s character.

Martin owes me $8,622.00.

Late in 2015, Martin and I went to the tunnel for him to do coaching. I offered to purchase the hour of tunnel time as I was trying to earn airline points. His students paid him that day. He never paid me back.

In December of 2015, Martin Sebastian sold a used rig for me from a customer that had sent me gear to sell. It was a Mirage with reserve. He sold it for $3500.00. He had the buyer write the check to himself (not to me or the owner) and deposited it. Martin was supposed to send a check to the owner of the rig. The check never arrived. I paid my customer out of pocket, $3000.00 (Jon gave me a $500 commission for selling the rig which Martin kept.) Martin’s only response when I asked what happened to the money in less than 7 days was “I don’t know.”

I gave him many opportunities to pay me back in various ways —paying my half of the rent, giving me tunnel time, cash payments—but by October 13, 2016, he still owed me $2337.00.

On March 20, 2017, I paid Peregrine Manufacturing, Inc $2498.02. My noted merely says “For Martin Sebastian.” At that point, he was selling Glide containers to AFP students at Skydive Chicago. The students were paying him directly, and he was not paying Peregrine in return.

On April 11, 2017 I received a message from Dave Singer addressing the situation:

Good Morning Blythe, I am truly sorry to write you... but I have been trying to get ahold of Martin for over a week. I have sent multiple texts, emails and VM. We have some issues to clear up with funds that he owes us and gear that he needs to return. (demo rig) Is there any way you can persuade Martin to call me today? I am only reaching out to you because he is refusing to communicate with me and we need our demo gear back and paid for the rigs he ordered for customers. sorry.. I feel terrible writing this, but when I am avoided for over 10days and the bill is $4000 plus the missing gear... I feel obligated to follow up however I can. We just need to this issue sorted out asap with Martin. Any help you can provide would be appreciated. thanks Dave

After receiving this message from Dave, I confronted Martin. He just said that he was having some money problems and didn’t know where everything was going. I offered to give him $5,000.00 cash to rectify the situation. I offered it as a gift, but he chose to pay me back over time.

I was concerned about the container of a friend, Kristin, and Dave said that he knew about the container but that the order had never been submitted. Later, after the order had been placed, Peregrine refused to ship the container because Martin owed them $931.51 as well as website work.

I checked with Dave then to make sure that he had been paid at least some of the $4,000.00 that had been owed. He said they received $3000.00 on April 21, 2017. But there was still the $931.51 balance with the web stuff involved. It took nearly 6 weeks to get the container after it was finished because of Martin's delay in payment.

After that, the balance that Martin owed me was $10,272.52.

Over the course of the summer of 2017, while we were broken up but still living together because he couldn’t afford to go anywhere else, Martin managed to pay me $1150.00 in cash, from June 17 – Aug 15. But as he had been using my Canon 7d with Sigma 15mm fisheye lens for tandem video for two years, I explained that he could either pay rental or buy it. He chose to buy it. The camera and lens were worth $900, now our total was back up to $10,022.52.

We signed an agreement in September 2017. He would pay me back in full by September 1, 2018, or would begin making payments with 25% interest per month. The document was witnessed and is legal.

On May 29, 2018 he paid me $500.00 cash. That is the last payment I received.

Today, Rook returned my camera and lens to me, so that balance has dropped by $900.00 to $8622.52.

I know everyone wants his piece of Martin, and I don’t blame any of you. It’s incredibly painful to have the person you loved and thought loved you in return take advantage and use you in such a way.

If anyone helps him escape Ottawa, you’re an ass. Everything in Martin’s (my old) apartment, was paid for by me with the exception of the silver ware. The furniture, tv, Bose speaker, kitchen-wares…I paid for it all. At this point, I just want my two barrel chairs (with pinkish cushions back, which he agreed to let me have when I returned this season), along with the TV and Bose speaker. He can have the rest.

I kept track of every penny that Martin owed me and what/when he did make payments. I had very high hopes that he would pay me back without resorting to making this public knowledge. I really did, and sometimes think he still will... But I know that Martin has a problem, most likely with “upper” drugs, and that he will never pay me back. I chalk this up to a lesson learned. Don’t fall prey to his act. He is a thief and a mooch, and does not deserve sympathy from anyone.

Feel free to share. (I made this post originally on my Facebook page.)

The reason that Skydive Chicago is no longer affiliated with Martin: He was authorized to use the drop zone's account when taking students to the wind tunnel. However, he was supposed to pay the dz back for the time. He charged students cash for the tunnel time and never repaid the Skydive Chicago. He used approximately 30 hours of tunnel time and stole several thousands of dollars from his students.

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It sounds like Felony fraud. You could probably pursue it with the local sheriffs office and they will probably tell you they don’t want to collect on bills etc. Tell them you don’t want the bills collected. Tell them you want the crime investigated. And that you’ve already written off the money.

People tend to pay up when a couple of detectives show up at their door, and if you’ve documented that paper trail as well as you say you have, then you probably have a good case

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