Complaint Review: Gordon Hunsucker

I have reason to believe that Gordon Hunsucker may have changed his name to Gordon Robbins.

Make your own assessment here:

https://www.google.com/#q=gordon+hunsucker+or+robbins

We have not forgotten what you have done to us, Gordon Hunsucker. I would like to let everyone know that www.defiantwind.com is part of the scam. I bet those brands don't sponsor you and it's all for show like everything else in your life.

I heard that Gordon Hunsucker is telling potential investors that he has paid back money owed to those who did work for him; those who loaned him money to pay daily bills; and previous investors who wanted their money back after losing confidence in his ability to make good on his word.  This is a lie !!!!   To my knowledge, no one I worked with has been paid.

I assure you, Gordon Hunsucker has not paid me back for any of the money I loaned him, or any of the work I did for him.  This is evidenced by the fact that Gordon Hunsucker was in negotiations with my attorney for several weeks, stringing him along as he does with his employees and investors.  After months of all talk and no action with my attorney, and years of promises and stories of paying me back the money I loaned to him, I posted a message on Ripoff Report.  I did this to prevent others from falling into Gordon Hunsucker's web of lies.

When Gordon Hunsucker saw the entry on Ripoff Report, he left an angry message with my attorney stating, "The deal is off."  My attorney called Gordon Hunsucker several times and left messages with no response.  Gordon Hunsucker will neither answer the phone when my attorney calls, nor return messages left by my attorney.  I would be happy to submit a post on Ripoff Report that I was paid in full, but that would be a lie.

As of May 29, 2012, I have not received a penny of the money I loaned Gordon Hunsucker, or a penny for the work I did for him. 

DO NOT give this man any money, unless you have plenty of money to throw away.  You will never see it again.  I unfortunately did not have plenty of money to throw away, and I am still trying to recover from my mislead trust in Gordon Hunsucker.  Do not be deceived as I was.  Gordon Hunsucker is a very smooth talker.

Apparently Gordon Hunsucker is trying to get new people to invest in his next scam. He is telling these new investors that all his past investors have been paid back. This is a lie. None of his past investors have seen a dime! Not for work done, or cash investments.

Do NOT believe Gordon Hunsucker. Do NOT invest in Gordon Hunsucker! You WILL lose your money!

Kirbylee,
Has he been in Pinetop in the last couple of years?  I know Marie McKoy knows a lot of people in Pinetop and I'm sure she put the word out.  I know her friend Julie at the Pawnshop/bailbonds place knows who he is and knows the whole story.   I tried to get Marie to contact Senior Protection Services because she pulled out $5K out of her retirement for the Bahama's Project and lost it.  She figured he would slip out and she would never get her money back anyway.

I also think he is the "divemike" poster above who is defending.   I think he post's on Divehounds.com as Bahamasmike who is telling me he works for the Bahamian Govt and that Gordon is trying to get a permit for treasure hunting.  

The lies never stop.  He's always working and angle or an exit strategy.  I have tried to keep up with what he's doing so I can do my best to mess up his plans.  About 8 of us who spent time in the Bahamas do the same.  

I think he's got another scam working as well.  Landmark Adventures?  I'm researching it.  Claims it's out of Reno.  Also I've seen something about foresight international as well.  I guess he's dealing in uncut rubies as well.  More than likely red glass.

The cave diving incident was true.  He didn't even make it into the darkness of the cave.  Just stayed up in the lighted area.  Witnessed by a world renown photographer and a world class shark diver.   

I tell you, I have stories if you ever want to hear them.  Some make me laugh and some make me so mad.  We had all sorts of names for him but Big Red was the most commonly used one on the Atlantis II.  

When I read the latest comments regarding Gordon Hunsucker from yet another person he 'suckered' into his scams, I get angry all over again.  When I was first 'hired' by him, he glowingly went on and on about the pleasures of diving and exploring the ocean floor.  I told him I had lived in Arizona all my life and had not much need to learn to scuba dive in Arizona, he repeatedly told me he was a certified divemaster and he would personally see to it that I got certified to dive.

Now it appears that Gordon was not even certified himself, let alone qualified to teach me to dive.  I just spoke to another person who was with Gordon Hunsucker in the Bahamas and I was told that on the only dive he went on while there with the Atlantis II, he panicked and left his partner alone on a cave dive.  This is a serious safety infraction and his partner was put at risk as a result.  He claimed his equipment was giving him a problem but the equipment was checked and worked flawlessly.

For some reason, this little lie upsets me more than all the others.  When he said so many times we would be taking possession of the ship and leaving in two weeks, blah blah blah, those were dreams and things he wanted to make happen but things that just never came to fruition because someone else failed to come through on their promises.  It could be that those things didn't happen because of stuff outside Gordon's control.  But this, this was obviously an outright lie and he had to know it when he told me.  That really bothers me.

The last time I spoke with him, he told me he was working on a job that required him to make three dives a day.  For other reasons I doubted it when he told me this, now it appears my judgment was correct. If Gordon Hunsucker tells you the sun rises in the east and the sky is blue, you had better check your compass and look up to see if he is telling you the truth or not.

The trail of emotional, physical and financial debris left behind Gordon is heartbreaking.  I worked for Outlander Expeditions (in the end we called it Outlandish expedition) for over a year.  I bought into an adventure and I guess I got one.

Gordon will give you just enough to make you think it's real.  I did get to the Bahamas, I did get to live on the 210 foot research vessel Atlantis II.  I did get paid......until I didn't.  He usually has 2 or more LLC's going at any time.  He always has an escape plan.  His business's are always in his mother's name (Mary Hunsucker) and his brother Charles (Chuck) used to work for the Cannery Casino and I believe (purely speculation) that there is some money laundering going on between these two.  They transfer cash back and forth like crazy.  

We lived onboard the Atlantis II before it was inhabitable while it was sitting alongside a dock in New Orleans.  While I had my doubts about Gordon, the real alert came when that Bureau of Alcohol, tobacco and Firearms (ATF) stormed the Sheraton hotel and took Hunsucker away in handcuffs.  We were all interviewed by the ATF and in the end, somehow he managed to squeak away from being indicted.  To this day I don't know how he did it.  I did however get the chance to grab his cellphone while he was in jail and proceeded to take down every phone number he had in it.  not that it did me any good.

We worked our butts off getting the ship "ready" to sail.  It was actually quite a risk to sail the vessel out of New Orleans and across the Gulf of Mexico to Grand Bahama Island but we made it no worse for wear.  It was funny seeing Gordon (self proclaimed maritime professional) sea sick!  Wondering why the waves were so big.  Apparently he had never been in the Gulf of Mexico as he said he had.  Once in the Bahama's, we worked 7 days a week for quite a while until the crew finally bound together and told him we were taking weekends off.   

When he left the island, he left without paying many of the vendors that had kept us with food and supplies or the Gentleman on Grand Bahama who financed the whole thing.  

The promises of getting to search for lost shipwrecks and finding treasure never happened.  At one point he flew to Nassau for a "scheduled meeting".  Apparently, he was looking through windows trying to find someone to talk to.  No meeting!  Nobody knew who he was!

He will tell you that he has logged over 10,000 dives.  We went scuba diving at Shark Junction and he freaked out when the reef sharks came in near us like he had never seen a shark before.   I actually doubt that he is even certified.  He doesn't have a card to prove it and wouldn't dive with the local dive shop. 

He treated our Filipino crew like dogs and our Bahamian crew like slaves.  He often dropped racial remarks about the non-white members of the crew.   The man became a joke on Grand Bahama Island.  I don't think he will ever go back there for fear that he will end up being shark bait.  I know of a couple Bahamian's that would take him swimming without thinking about it twice.

I do have to say that I did get to meet some amazing people while on this journey.  I have kept in touch with many of them over the last 5 years since having the Atlantis II seized and being escorted off the ship.   I felt like a fool for quite some time after the whole ordeal until I realized how many people were being scammed by him.  Many of these people with advanced degrees and far more educated than I.   If you have been scammed by him, it's not your fault.  he's an amazing con artist and has the gift of gab.  

Perhaps enough people will find this and speak up about their experience.  Who knows, maybe we can put him back in jail.  This time for the remainder of his life.

If your looking for an adventure, I can assure you you will get one.   It won't be what you were looking for though.   I spent several months on one of his schemes along with 9 or 10 other people and WOW how we are still feeling the effects when his name is mentioned.  I kind of always knew that things were not on the up and up with this guy but just when I was about to bail, he would pull something out of his bag of magic and I would be led to believe that things were back on track.  

I was one of his "Outlander Expeditions" victims.  This scheme involved marine archeology and retrieving sunken treasure from the Bahamas.   He purchased a 210 research vessel (Atlantis II) and worked us like dogs to retrofit it.   He spent unimaginable amounts of money on stupid things on the ship but wouldn't pay to rebuild the generators or get air conditioning.  He hired some guys from the Philippines and then treated them like slaves.  He scammed people from the UK, Australia, USA Bahamas and Canada.  I have names, phone numbers, email addresses of the victims.  

His brother Charles Hunsucker (who seems like an OK guy), enables him and is party to the scams.  Last I knew, Chuck was a big wig at the Cannery Casino in Las Vegas.   I think (and this is only my speculation) that there is some money laundering going on here.  

If your involved, get out.  Don't worry about his threats of taking you to court.  He has nothing to stand on and if he does file suit, give me ahold of me.  I'll give you enough information to have him paying you.

Dear Potential Funders/Investors and Potential Employees,

This serves as a warning from a former employee and funder/investor.  In my opinion, Mr. Gordon Carl Hunsucker is a sociopath, with no ability to feel empathy for the destruction he leaves behind.  He tells a very good story about unclaimed treasures, historical artifacts, and intrigue, with the use of photos, newspaper articles, and a few tangible items; which would lore anyone into believing they will experience history in the making, and a return on their investment within a few months. 

If greed, interest in wealth, or history is not your preference, then he will hook you with your innate willingness to give of yourself and help the less fortunate.  Mr. Hunsucker has created a disaster relief company just for people like you, called FAR (First Aid Relief).  He will tell you that as a funder/investor, you will take part in helping those living in poverty around the world, or those who have felt the wrath of Mother Nature.  If employed, Mr. Hunsucker explains that you will live on a ship filled with state of the art equipment while traveling the world like a super hero.  

Take a moment and really look at www.Defiantwind.com.  Notice that Mr. Hunsucker is not pictured in any of the videos or photos.  Prior to this Ripoff Report posting, Mr. Hunsucker displayed a slideshow on the Defiant Wind website of the ship to be used during projects.  The name Defiant Wind was PhotoShopd on the side of the ship.  Why would he PhotoShop the name on the ship if he owned it?  At that time the ships name was Vana Tallin.  It was located in Estonia.  As a matter of fact, I LOANED him the money to travel to Estonia to purchase the ship.  However, the ship was never purchased by Mr. Hunsucker.  The ship has since been sold.  The ships new name is Adriatic Queen.  It is located in Panama.  A search on the location of the Defiant Wind had no results.  As you may or may not know, all ships have a GPS tracker and can be located on the Internet.

The videos and photos on the website are certainly not from anything I have experienced while working for Mr. Hunsucker's company.  The website is very vague.  Most of the stories are conceptual ideas, which have never come to fruition.  Dont you think it is odd that Mr. Hunsucker is not pictured in any of the photos or videos which proudly show off his trophies of discovery?  Most people are proud of their discoveries and want credit for their find, which increases their opportunity to receive more funding.  It is similar to taking that proud photo of the big fish caught while fishing with friends and family.  Trust me when I say that Mr. Hunsucker is not that humble.  He wouldnt hesitate to shout from the mountain tops if he made a discovery.

Oh, by the way, he doesnt pay his employees.  He will tell you the lack of pay is common for this type of business.  He will also tell you that one does not get paid until a discovery is made.  He will also tell you the ship will be in the United States, ready for departure within a few weeks; and that the staff will be leaving the country shortly.  When the ship doesnt come, he always has an excuse as to why.  Each excuse is more creative than the last.  These excuses have gone on for over a year regarding this particular ship.  That is a lot of excuses.

As a new employee, he will manipulate you into prematurely quitting your good job and relocating to wherever he is, so he can have total control over you.  He will give you busy work to do, so you think his business is legitimate.  This includes contacting vendors and getting bids for (unbeknown to the staff member) something that does not exist.  Mr. Hunsucker doesnt even want you to talk to your family and friends, or other employees for that matter.  It is like you are working on a top-secret military mission.  Everything has to go through him.  All the while, you are not getting paid.  

Once you are under his control, he will manipulate you into paying his exorbitant bills, under the pretense that he will pay you back before your next billing cycle.  Mr. Hunsucker will tell you that the project cannot continue until we find a way to pay the bills.  Since you have a financial stake in the project, most people offer to pay.  He will make minimum payments toward what you loaned him for his bills, but as soon as your money runs out, so does he.  Before you know it, you have NOTHING left.  You are basically homeless and cannot pay your bills.  He manipulates you based on your character.  He is a skilled master at manipulation.

It is a challenge, in this economy, to have to start over.  Mr. Hunsucker doesnt care; hence, the sociopath.  He will even tell you, I always get what I want.  He doesnt care about the wake of destruction that he leaves behind.  He just moves forward in search of his next prey.  He will never take responsibility for his actions and will always blame it on an investor who backed out.  In his eyes, he is always the victim.  Why would any credible businessman hire employees with no money in the bank and no way to pay them their agreed upon salary?  

I have witnessed flagrant misuse of funds.  He lives a parasitic lifestyle through the investments and/or monies he receives from others.  It is actually a Ponzi scheme.  If he gets a little money, he pays someone else that he owes so that he can get more money out of them. 

As an investor, you will never receive a quarterly report, or have the option of attending a quarterly meeting.  You will have no voting rights.  Do not be surprised if the company name changes, giving you no rights at all.  If you question him, he becomes a tyrant.  I honestly dont think the man files taxes either, personal or corporate.  Companies I am aware of that he owned are Adventure Pointe, Outlander Expeditions, Foresight International, First Aid Relief (FAR), and the newest, Defiant Wind.

I caution you against getting even remotely involved with Mr. Gordon Carl Hunsucker.  Take a good look at his photo.  He already destroyed the lives of over a dozen investors that I know of, some of which lost their homes, their long-time jobs and businesses, their life savings, and their A+ credit rating.  He will tell you that he has no idea why anyone would post anything negative about him.  He will tell you he fired employees because a non-disclosure agreement was violated.  The truth is - most of his employees walked away when they discovered that they were being manipulated, used, and misled into believing any business of Mr. Hunsuckers is a legitimate one.

Here are a couple of websites that talk about spotting a fraud:  http://financialmentor.com/free-articles/investment-advice/investment-fraud/top-26-warning-signs-of-investment-fraud and http://www.qwoter.com/news/top-10-investment-fraud-scam-signs.html

And for you ladies who are considering getting emotionally involved with Mr. Hunsucker, check out this website:  http://www.ehow.com/how_4553584_recognize-signs-con-man.html

I left the team well over a year ago and I am still trying to rebuild my life both emotionally and financially.  I have a Masters degree and consider myself to be an intelligent person.  However, no amount of education can prepare a person for this type of a methodical and elaborate scam.  Trust is my biggest challenge now.  Dont let this happen to you.  This is real and can happen to anyone.  

Latest update:  Several months ago Mr. Hunsucker negotiated, with my attorney, a specific dollar amount that he agreed to send to the office of my attorney, to repay the money that I loaned to Mr. Hunsucker.  This amount excludes my original investment.  According to Mr. Hunsucker, he was going to get back to my attorney in a few days, but he never did.  True to form, there has been no check in the mail, no return call, and Mr. Hunsucker will not answer or return any calls from my attorney.

divemike1, so glad you believe in what he does!  That means you are either one of Gordon Hunsucker's minions or someone who has not [as yet] invested your life savings in his fantastic promises of adventure and financial security.  

You say "everything has been real".  How true! He has really scammed people out of their money, he has really illegally alleged that a ship named the "Defiant Wind" exists, he has really stolen the rights to a website and added information to it that amounts to plagiarism, he has really been spending the investors' money on personal expenses and he has really destroyed lives by asking people to join him in putting together this project.  

At least six investors that I know of, personally, quit or put their jobs on hold and two actually packed up their homes and moved to Las Vegas.  They were told they would be leaving the country in two weeks and Gordon needed their assistance in finalizing the preparations.

 After nearly two years went by, Gordon had spent all the money his investors gave him and was in a state of destitution with no place to live as he was finally evicted from the $1900 a month condo he was renting.   Where is he now?  Hiding from his investors like a coward! Spreading lies and innuendos about the very same people from whom he took money and assistance.

So divemike1, you want us to wish Gordon "good luck" and to believe that he is striving to ensure that "everybody is happy in the end".  What Never, NeverLand do you live in that you believe in Gordon's fairy tales?  Invest your money instead of your faith in this scam artist.  Then  
tell us what you think of him after you have been taken to the cleaners like the rest of us!

I am embarressed to identify myself as an ex-employee of Gordon Hunsucker, although he never paid me for any of my work or even reimbursed me for any of the expenses I incurred while working on his 'project'.  The rebuttal to the original complaint by divemike1' appears to be written by none other than Gordon Hunsucker himself... I recognize the verbage and the poor spelling and grammar, the guy is a lousy writer and so is divemike1.  The things divemike1 says could have quotation marks around them as things Gordon has been telling us for two years.  It is just like Gordon to not even stand up and respond himself, but to pretend to be someone else standing up for him.  Of course he would be the only person who could actually stand up for him because he has cheated most people to the point that he has no friends left, unless they of course are as dishonest as he is and have partaken in his spoils. 

Several of the projects Gordon wanted to work on, if they did indeed exist as true projects and were not a part of the lies intended to bring victims into the scam, would have themselves been illegal.  When I told him I wanted no part of working on a project that was even slightly illegal, he told me we would not be doing those things.  In recent months I have found that he was not only telling other people we would be doing those projects, but certain major aspects of the plans for how they would be done were attributed to me! 

I have not only heard Gordon's stories straight from him, but I have personally spoken to at least 8 people who were taken in by Gordon's lies and heard the various stories he told them.  It is amazing to hear the different versions he told to various parties and even more amazing to consider how hard it must have been to keep track of what lie he was telling what party.  We have asked for our money back or at least an accounting for how it was spent but Gordon's response was to disappear.  Gordon, I ask you again in this public forum... if you are indeed legit, please be open with us and tell us how you spent our money... tell us how your motorcycle purchase, vet bills for your friend's dog, travel expense for you and your friend on an extended global vacation and other things were business related items that furthered the project? Tell us how you were legally able to sell us shares in a business that had been declared invalid by the state of Nevada? We don't want a story... we want the truth and cold hard facts to support it.  In my experience, not a single one of the stories he has told me has proved to be true.

 I am having a hard time to believe all that! I know Mr. Hunsucker and I believe in what he says and he is planing to do! That things are not always running in the given time-frame especially in this kind of business is normal. But I can not see him as a scam artist! He believes in what he does, that is my impression. I know somebody who will work with him and everything he said so far has been real! The ship will come and everything else too! That its taking so much time is getting everybody nervious, but thats how it is- with no bad intention. Wish him good luck, so everybody will be happy at the end! divemike1