First and foremost, we want to apologize for the long radio silence since May. We were hoping to come back with good news and tried to stay positive through the events of the last few months, but after receiving troubling new information we have decided the situation needs to be addressed openly.
Our Finance Mod, Mod Shini, has not answered any correspondence since May 28th and has been MIA. The last known information that was given to us, was that Mod Shini had been hospitalized due to severe and lasting after-effects of contracting covid in 2023/2024.
Even though our Head Mod started getting no response, we continued reaching out, with e-mails and phone calls, which have all been documented. While we were worried about the situation, we were not yet panicking, since other zines that were working with Shini were slowly but surely receiving money and/or merchandise, so we decided to stay positive, keep up the attempted contact and wait.
However, this week we received notice that the money of several projects appears to be gone. We can not confirm or deny any accusations of theft in our own project. The PayPal hold on our funds from 2023 has been confirmed and we did receive documentation that Mod Shini had indeed been in contact with them and negotiated the release of said funds. We managed to receive a part of these funds in 2024, which allowed us to order the physical merchandise we have shown you on our socials. The rest of the money however had never been released to us.
The issue at the same being is that the paypal involved in this belongs to Mod Shini and none of us have any legal standing to demand the release of the money or even any information regarding the case, since everything is closely linked to our Finance Mod.
While we have looked into possible legal aid, we are painfully aware of our slim chances of recovering anything from this avenue of pursuit.
At the point of writing this statement, the back-up PayPal account of Mod Huligan (which has been used since the first fund hold at the beginning of preorders and which has handled all transactions regarding the order of merchandise) holds our leftover funds, which is roughly 500 $. As of now, we have to consider the rest of the funds, which was around 5000 $, lost.
We will continue our pursuit of Mod Shini and try to get to the bottom of the situation. We are sorry that we do not have better news for you regarding this issue.
We have however not been idle.
Our Head Mods have decided to fund the missing money as best as they can from their own savings.
The zines themselves, which were the only thing missing from our physical merchandise, have been ordered and are on their way to our Shipping Mods house as of this notice. It will take another 4 to 8 weeks until arrival though and Mod Yowa will have to do a quality check of every book first, but we will commence shipping soon!
But since we still do not have the funds needed, we have to limit the shipping to an extended period of time. Currently, we are testing different methods of shipping to stay as cost efficient as possible. That sadly means, we will have to cut back on some of the more aesthetic options for packaging that were initially planned for this project to save money. We hope all of you can understand and support this decision.
Additionally, we will ship the packages out in phases. We will use all of the leftover money we have, combined with our savings, to get started on the process, but it might take a while to ship everything out. We are sorry to have to continue to ask for your patience and support during these times.
The digital merchandise and the version of the zine will, of course, be distributed once we start shipping, and we hope it will help in bridging the time it takes for your physical bundles to arrive.
To speed up the process of shipping, After Sales might open before the shipping face comes to a close, at least for the merch items that are in abundant stock, so we can ensure to react to any possible lost or damaged packages, of course. But every sale, be it physical in the After Sale or a digital sale of our zine in the still-open Big Cartel shop, will contribute to the available shipping funds.
The personal losses our team has with this project are enormous. Not only for the Head Mods, who are putting their own savings into this, but also for the contributors. We are, of course, trying to prioritize the fair payment for the amazing work everyone has put into this project, but with the loss of this substantial amount of money, we can not guarantee it.
We are heartbroken that this wonderful project, which has brought all of us so much joy in the creation and planning period, has turned into a situation like this, and we hope that you can understand and forgive us for the long wait. As always, we, the Mod Team, are doing our best to bring this project to a successful close - even if the terms of success have changed from the beginning.
Thanks to everyone who has supported us, reached out to us, or has simply been there on our journey.