Dave Haynie reveals his experience of Merlancia Industries.

Confirming criticisms made by Rich Wood against Merlancia, Dave Haynie revealed his experience of Merlancia as a former employee in an Amiga.org post.

Subject : Re: Amiga market ruled by conmen
Posted : 2003/2/15 22:17
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While I'm not about to question either Rich's motivations, his site building talents, or the "too much free time" factor, I will absolutely confirm that much of what he says is true.

To the point: Ryan Czerwinski presented Merlancia to me as an engineering company, with the funds to develop new hardware. He claimed to be approximately 40 years old, and claimed Christina was simply the secretary. He also claimed to himself be an engineer, with an [unspecified] PhD. In the summer of 2001, he made me a legit offer of employment, which I accepted. Based on my hiring, he was also able to hire, over the next few months, Skal Loret and Fred Wright. He set us to designing a PowerPC-based set top box architecture.

In a fairly short time, Ryan wasn't paying his bills. Initially he blamed Christina for this, but in retrospect, that perfect 20/20 hindsite that it is, it was pretty clear he never intended to actually pay.

That September, Ryan and I actually met with Amiga, Inc., and he claimed, then, to have about $650,000 for the project, which was enough to get off the ground. That was very clearly a lie -- he tried to cheat me on September's salary, paid up for September and part of October, and that was pretty much that. Ultimately, he to this date owes me over $55,000 in salary. Food out of my kids mouths, despite the fun and games he pretty clearly thinks it is.

I did some checking on him, when things were going bad, independently of RIch Woods or anyone else. It's pretty clear he's a young guy, a kid with no college education. If you add up all of the claims he's made over time, he would have to have graduated college in the late 60s or early 70s, putting him well into his 50s. He never worked for NASA, he never worked for Motorola, he knows neither Stephen Spielberg nor George Lucas, etc. I could go on and on, but it's really not worth your time or mine.

Christina C. Czerwinski, who is his mother, seems to have decided on "rich man's wife" as a career, early on, and Ryan is apparently the failed attempt to engage a Mr. Sonenberg of East Central Florida in such an arrangement. We believe Ryan's "wealth" is based on some trust fund established with "Daddy". She has apparently made similar attempts from time to time, to marry or extract money from male friends. Rich Woods seems to have been one on that long list, but I don't know enough of the details to really ponder it.

Bottom line: do not trust this guy with anything -- you money, your hardware, even your ear in a forum such as this. He is only out to cheat and lie. I have never personally met a lower or more loathesome form of human life, and that includes my old pals Mehdi Ali and Bill Sydnes.

Your pal,
-Dave

BACK