Wow. We hit the sack for an hour or so and the site is ambushed by "Anonymous." He's one busy guy.
A few comments:
Will the person who knows Gina, and states she has done this before, please provide us with more information?
Gina and Paul have both been to this site already (obviously). They have no way to disprove anything we have said, otherwise they would have. If anyone could have disproved this with a recent photo of Pepe, or a comment from someone who had sat with Pepe, wouldn't they have done so already?
A few answers from the comments section:
We did not make any leaps in information. Everything was verifiable when "Friends of Pepe" first came down yesterday, and we took screen shots at that time. Since Gina Fiurentino/Fiorentino (the large woman on the horse) and Paul were pulling things down as fast as we could put the pieces together, we decided to open this blog. They cannot take it down, and therefore they cannot escape their con work.
We have no doubts that Paul suffers from CF, and had a double-lung transplant. If he's managed to fool our analyzation on that point, then he's damn good.
Pepe, the sweet CF double-lung transplant patient, does not exist. She is a figment of Gina Fiurentino/Fiorentino's imagination, and she used the pictures of one of Gina's best friends as our "Pepe." AS OF NOW, we would like to say this is a two-man job, and the best friend was just a pawn in their schemes. We will let you know if that train of thought changes.
Paul (aka Q/clamshellmuni) is, by admittance of Gina Fiurentino/Fiorentino, in a relationship with Gina, who is the owner of Gracie and Chipotle, and was riding them as recently as July 31. We have this in several posts and videos across different sites.
Why are we anonymous? Why are you anonymous? We have just publicly "outed" someone guilty of online fraud who has, even worse, toyed with the hearts and prayers of over 275,000 readers. You think they might be a little angry? Maybe when they are charged, we'll let you know who we are. Until then, we're protecting ourselves and our families.
There is nothing we found that someone else didn't find first (and post on the "Friends of Pepe" blog), or send to us, or find in conjunction with when we found it. We just put the pieces together and decided to share what we found with the people who cared about Pepe. Additionally, there is nothing we haven't said we can't back up with screen shots, email addresses, blog posts.
We are in the process of turning this all over to the FBI in Chicago, since Paul is the mastermind behind the FOP site and was in Chicago. This is a Federal issue, as it crosses many state lines (Gina is in MN, Paul is not, and donors came from everywhere), and we'll let you know if they decide lawyers should get involved as well.
We have the original list of contributors to the "Friends of Pepe" cause, and will be turning that list over to the FBI as well.
Lastly, why did we do this? Because people like this, trolls, make the Internet and the world less human and less trustworthy. We lost a relative and friend to a different genetic, fatal disease, and the thought of someone taking advantage of our loved one when he was ill, wasting his strength and prayers on scum who prey on the accepting, makes us want to bash heads against sharp, pointy objects. "Friends of Pepe" has robbed a precious group of people of something very sacred to them - their community, and robbed the rest of us of love and money.
Why should a person, or two persons, like that be allowed to skiphop away happy and free? They put themselves on display, making themselves "public figures." Therefore they are open to any and all invasions of privacy. We have not done so with malice, nor have we stated any known falsehoods. Therefore, they have brought this on themselves, legally and morally.
We stand by our decision to keep this blog up.
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41 comments:
So - do you know who the real "Pepe/Gina" is? Has she been notified of this going on? If this is all accurate, I really feel for her....
i can only say...THANK YOU. Thank you for standing up for all those people who were invested financially or emotionally in this story. I think the FBI does need to be involved because we have people swearing they know Pepe and the story is true etc and others saying that there are records of past lies. To me, this says that someone--Paul? Gina? who knows?--is creating multiple identities, whether for the purpose of identity theft or to get money or whatever, there is something CLEARLY wrong going on.
So glad you backed everything up with the screen shots and other evidence. You are brilliant! And thanks to everyone who adds bits and pieces to the evidence. The power of the internet can go both ways.
Awesome work.
I'm the person who knows Gina and has seen her do this before. You can email me at anne_onimous(at)live(dot)com.
you may want to create a "generic" email address so the people who seem to know "Gina" and know that she has done this before and provide that information more securely to you.
Through all of this, has anyone (even one person) seen Pepe in the hospital? What hospital is she supposedly at? Has anyone sent her anything to the hospital?
I know--ALL the other web sites, even Paul's, have pictures of themselves, hospital pics, scars, and identify the hospital where they are. Nothing even slipped out even accidentally on this one.
I'm not anonymous. If you have concrete proof of illegal activity committed by Gina the MN Attorney General is Lori Swanson
Tel: (651) 296-3353 or 1-800-657-3787
This would be the proper place to make your case, not here.
Thank you so much for investigating this. I have to say I was very surprised when they decided to shut down the blog just as things were getting bad for Pepe. What kills me is that I felt so bad for this girl and prayed for her and her family. If they were just scamming people, then they need to be made accountable for it.
Sandra,
I am very sorry you're upset, but so are the people who have been tricked and robbed in several ways by these two individuals.
As we said, we have passed this on to the FBI, as it is a Federal, not state, issue.
Have you attempted to talk to Gina, or her family? As a friend, one would imagine your concern would be two-fold - protecting your friend, and getting her help for whatever would cause her to do something of this nature.
What is the problem in seeking truth here? People have opened their hearts (and some wallets) to this woman. They want to know if she exists and if she's sick. I think they have every right to ask the questions and get the answers.
I don't know why everyone is pointing fingers at Gina when all of the misinformation is coming from Paul - the only connection I see here is her photos were used. She may have a history of this - we don't know that for sure though - but he has ownership of the blogs, website, and info. connected to this. None of it is registered to Gina. I know I did some stupid things as a kid - which I regret - Gina may have done the same - however how do we know this Paul didn't single her out to use in his online endevours just because he knows her history. I have a problem with the way this is being handled as well.
Hsfarm,
May I ask why you have a problem? What other way could it be handled? It's just that she just all of a sudden disappeared, and people wonder, did she die, did she get better, did she ever exist? I wondered about the Paul thing too but he really does appear to be legitimate--it could be that he was duped as well--but we just don't know ANYTHING for sure, and are just trying to find out!! It is a very strange situation, and I was genuinely curious what you thought was troblesome 9I am not trying to be disrespectful AT ALL!!!) =)
You're barking up the wrong tree if you think you're going to convict Paul of wrongdoing - all he did was love Gina.
anonymous above me (PAUL?)
Which Gina are you talking about? Horse Gina or Gina whose face appears on the FOP site?
Horse Gina
How can she be the only one responsible for this when the blogs are in his name? They require email verification - and the address listed for donations is his in Chicago - these are donations for pepe not for himself. I think Paul may have CF, but I also think he's a writer who has some time on his hands and nothing to lose at this point.
anonymous above you was me, wanderlost - sorry.
Defenders of Gina ~ if Paul loved (loves) Gina so much ~ why is he doing this and even more important - why is she letting him??
A very good point, hsfarm, but the pictures he is using are of her friend, and when the site came down, Gina's YouTube and gallery sites were the very first to get locked down, followed by her myspace page. Those were registered to her aol.com address. So even if Paul is the mastermind, she is his guilty accomplice.
We are looking into Paul's background as well, but he appears to be fairly straightforward, aside from the whole fake dying friend bit.
"Gina", however, ranges from a petite woman in a hospital bed awaiting a second lung transplant, to a woman who claims she was diagnosed with CF at 21, to a person who hides all content associated with her four other user names, which have no association with CF.
We did not set out to "attack Gina," but rather disprove her identity as the petite, terribly ill "Pepe" from the blog. In order to do that, we had to first prove who Gina was. Make no mistake, Paul is a far cry from an innocent party.
But who is depicting her as "a petite woman in a hospital bed awaiting a second lung transplant, to a woman who claims she was diagnosed with CF at 21"
I can't blame her for hiding after something like this I would do the same!
I don't want to believe all of this. I have CF and had a double lung and liver Tx in January last year.
The thing that I don't get and probably wouldn't be able to find, is how she was able to drink a SM so shortly after she came out of the Tx and off of the vent. That is the thing that didn't make the most sense to me. I was rather "healthy" for someone who was waiting for double lung and liver and wasn't able to eat or drink anything for about 5 days after the Tx....and first I had to have a swallow test.
I am normally not too skeptical but things are getting harder to believe after watching the videos (which I was able to do before they were taken down), and seeing that money was really asked for.
I don't know.....I just wish that it could all be clarified! Oh and I am not posting anonymous because I am not ashamed of wondering.
I don't want to believe this either.
Sad part is, if this is all true is all the damage/chaos this has caused on various CF boards. Harm to cfers who are awaiting transplant...
The big event last month when someone questioned this very issue and there was a mass exodus....
I'm still withholding judgement, still have my doubts that it wasn't true.
I'm extremely curious also. I definitely think downwiththetrolls is right on target and trying to figure this out logically. The accused certainly are acting guilty and if they have in fact duped hundreds and perhaps thousands of people, shame on them. I hope there are repercussions.
I'm just curious....who created this blog/is doing research? I don't want your names...I understand that you want to remain private...but is this your job? Or something you are just interested in doing? How are you connected to this case?
Whoever you are...thank you. I am in full support of this blog.
Comment from Alice's blog:
Something else that strikes me as fishy: In her comments, you never saw anything like "Hi Gina, this is Jane Smith from high school!" or "Bob from work" or "Cindy from the horse community" or anyone who seemed to be from her life outside the hospital and CF boards.
I'm the 'Shamrock' whose blog was linked to from Friends of Pepe. I don't/didn't know Gina/Pepe but had a bit of contact with Paul around his transplant time via email. I was also asked to donate money for the Wii which I declined to do.
My permission was not asked to link to my blog but I didn't mind as lots of people do it! As such, I had no contribution to the blog!
Please feel free to contact me ;)
I just went to clamshellmuni.org (Paul Mooney's website). It appears to be frozen. Could be my computer but that would be weird..
Thank you for doing this.
mary b
Who got the Wii? And when?
Pepe? Paul? Gina?
And was that the only $$ asked for?
I will say that taking all of the sites down, changing old posts on horse boards, etc is making chipngrace, gina **whomever she is** look very guilty!
nevermind..must have been my computer...sorry.
mary b
I am confused... does the girl in the picture on Friends of Pepe actually have CF?
I'm sure the Feds will be interested in this... Identiy theft as well as accepting fradulent charitable donations... what idiots Paypal leaves a nice paper trail for the feds to follow. As well as the fact that anything you post online is stored... you can not 100% delete anything you post on the web (let me assure you that the posts she deleted on the horse website or elsewhere can be recovered)
There is a lady who lived in my city that is now spending 20 years in prision for Fraud... she asking for (and recieving) donations for her 'faked' cancer.
The fact that this involved computers will make the fines/time even higher. The fact that it is alleged she has done this before could make matters worse for her.
I am utterly shocked and amazed at this blog and feel that I need to weigh in with my 2 cents. I'm the kbn (kbm) that terri referred to in a previous comment. I have known Paul for four plus years. We have spoken by phone more times than I can count. We have met in person 3 times, twice prior to his transplant when he was dependent on oxygen. I visited him at the center where he had his transplant 3 weeks after his surgery for several days, staying with his mother. He is who he says he is. Paul has lost countless hours of sleep staying on the phone with Gina overnight to keep her company while she sits in the ICU, panicky. Please don't attack him-- if you are all victims, then he is the biggest one here.
kbn
This whole thing is sad..
I don't know really who did what.
but it's really sad.
I met a Gina on facebook 6-7 months ago
with a different last name, I won't post it here, if she was used, I am not going to cause her any pain....
Thank you!
I have another link that I haven't seen posted on this blog that I would like to share, but don't want it to be shut down before someone can look into this further. It may turn up to be nothing, but it does link the name Gina / Pepe and what appears to be her face.
Owner of this blog, contact me privately... if you want the link addy.
...errr...I can't find a way to provide you with my email addy without it posting publicly. I don't want a bunch of emails and only want to help and find the truth in the matter.
can someone share a way that I can get this information to the owner without publicly sharing my information??
well, unfortunately, there's no link for "contact owner of blog." so I don't know how you can contact them...you might just have to wait for them to see your post. Or, just post the link here as others have, so everyone can judge for themselves.Because....keep in mind....most of what they are out there deleting, is totally recoverable. You can still find all the posts, even though they are removing all their accounts on the various forums. You can really barely ever truly remove something once it's become available on the internet. But...whatever you do, don't post your personal email here. ;)
make up a fake addy for the time being.
I cannot believe that I was sucked into this story...things were beginning to sound a little far fetched and unbelievable.
I will now follow this blog to see what happens to this turd.
Address given by "Pepe/Gina" as her own comes up, when Googled, as associated with a Fred Fiorentino.
http://www.userinstinct.net/address-13858-44.htm
Im hurt. that's all Im saying. I was such a supporter of Gina's story and prayed for her every night, and now this. I dont know what to think.
If you sent money to Gina/Pepe/Paul via Paypal, file a claim. I just did. I also used a credit card so I will be filing a chargeback too. I feel like crap for donating money...I am a single mom to boot~!
RE:
Anonymous said...
Address given by "Pepe/Gina" as her own comes up, when Googled, as associated with a Fred Fiorentino.
http://www.userinstinct.net/address-13858-44.htm
According to peoplefinders.com, Fred is 61 years old. I'm guessing it's probably her father.
Thank you....I am so glad you are doing this. I feel so foolish for following that blog daily.
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