Complaint Review: Michael Louis Brittingham - Internet

i am an artist and a single mother restarting my business after my baby break.

michael louis brittingham contacted me first through xing, later then through a ning network where he invited me to join a closed circle! which is one of his networks on ning.

very quickly he told me about a project in switzerland, for which he initially wanted me to create sculptures for. This was a project to redecorate a hotel in Switzerland. He only talked about this, but never ordered anything.

Later on - a few weeks - he offered me to participate and work in the artist-in-residence-program (AIR) he was setting up in Switzerland.  This artist-in-residence program would offer artists food, lodging, work space and for mothers: child-care and primary schooling. Once a month, the artists would be showing their work to a VIP auditory. 50% of the sales would go to the AIR program and the other 50% would go to the artist.

I was supposed to live their with my daughter as a resident artist which meant that I would raise my child there while working for myself and also participate in the artist-in-residence programs monthly show.

Many ning chats went back and forth talking about negotiations with the owners and 100 million dollar trust funds to be sent up in Los Angeles and another 20 million in London. Then he told me that this program might happen not in Switzreland but maybe in Venice or Florence in Italy, he would make a choice between them. This was mixed with promises to provide me with access to special businessmpeople circles and clubs.

This sounded amazing to me and was exactly what I'm looking for as an artist.

During all these talks, on May 1st, I received an SMS from him, telling me he was in trouble because couldn't get access to his Swiss bank accounts and I asked him if he needed help. He asked me to wire him 200 EUR via Western Union in Switzerland, which I did because I thought I was talking to a man of honor and wanted to help... and obviously I wanted this amazing opportunity he was offering me.

In June, he asked me if I was in financial trouble and not to worry because he would deliver people who buy my work and to give him a list of what I needed and that we would "get serious" at the end of July as he would have 'covered' me then.

Then he disappeared for a while and wouldn't answer my messages. I got some information from another possible AIR participant that he was in Florida busy doing business and would be coming back to Switzerland soon with her and her daughter to set up this AIR program.

I didn't hear from him until I stumbled upon the fraud stories going on about him on the internet and wrote to him to confront him and ask for my money back and to give me some news of AIR.

To this he answered that he couldn't give me my money back and that the AIR program would not take place... and I quote "It does not look
as if the whole "AIR" is going to be done anytime soon, so that is something we just have to forget about, and move forward with our lives, and hopefully something else that will be concrete will pop-up for you."

I told him it was outrageous that a businessman "playing with the big boys'" couldn't even send me back the ridiculous amount of 200 EUR + the western union fee of 19 EUR that I had sent him 4 months ago.... he answered and I quote  "Hi and thank you for your appreciation... The truth may seem sometimes "outrageous" to us... if it happens to be something that we don't want to believe, but nonetheless, it is, in this case - the truth.
Michael"

i have -and minimum one other woman i know too- reported him to the german police.

there is nothing more to say.