Yet another interesting story related to Burning Man, an annual gathering that takes place at Black Rock City, a temporary city erected in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
A polyamory evangelist with a genius IQ said he was scammed for 15,500 dollars by a man who goes to the Burning Man with him and his crew. Leon Feingold, a Manhattan member of the brainiac club MENSA and co-founder of Open Love NY, said that back in 2012 he created a dues-paying group called ‘New York Dangerous’ that annually sets up camp at the annual cultural gathering in Black Rock Desert.
Leon Feingold may be smart, but this time A.L, a member of ‘New York Dangerous’ managed to pull a fast one on him, according to a lawsuit filed this Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
According to Feingold, A.L back in 2016 hijacked the group creating websites for ‘New York Dangerous’ without their permission. He claims in a lawsuit that the group told A.L to hand over control of the domains, he initially agreed but never carried through.
Instead, he set up a PayPal account to collect all the membership fees for their Burning Man trip. In total, A.L collected 20,000 dollars in dues from about 100 members in the group.
Feingold says that A.L was one of the camp leaders for the group, but that ‘New York Dangerous’ makes decisions collaboratively. The members of the group said no to most of A.L’s ideas, like buying a piano, but he bought it anyway. Out of the 20,000 dollars in dues, he was only approved to spend 5,000 dollars on Burning Man expenses.
“It was an awful situation. He completely went renegade and did his own thing,” said Leon Feingold.
After the 2016 gathering, he asked him for the remainder of the money, about 15,500 dollars. The lawsuit says A.L refused and pocketed it. “At some point, he drained the account, put it into his own personal account and disappeared,” said Feingold.
But, A.L, has a totally different story. He says Feingold’s version of events are far away from the truth and claims that he spent all of the money on Burning Man expenses for the group.
In fact, A.L said, he spent 3 weeks of his time preparing the camp for the 2016 Burning Man and used 2,000 dollars of his own money on expenses. He said he never asked for his cash back. “I decided I’d rather give up a few thousand dollars than engage in the hassle of trying to get it back. But he wouldn’t let me walk away,” A.L said of Feingold.
Leon Feingold only asked for the money when his fiancee was diagnosed with cancer, A.L added. “It’s a real tragic story. However, it doesn’t entitle him to demand camp dues back,” A.L said.
