Alright folks, I'm going to try to give a full story here, at least from my own perspective.
I am the founder of Team Mechlovin'. You may know us as runners of PCB Group buys, including the Hannah 910, Infinity CE and Adelais (Alice). I hope this adds credibility to my input.
I first came in contact with the OP 3 years ago, when he was still working for MAB (MakeABoard), which of course, is now considered the ultimate scam by the local community. We hardly ever talked because he came out as a reserved (and somehow arrogant) personality, which I didn't have a problem with because all designers I knew were like that. In fact, I was in much more regular contact on a personal basis with that team's PCB designer, who is now my sole partner and technical consultant on Team Mechlovin's projects.
At the time, I was interested in getting a R96, and was told by the then MAB leader (Tuan Anh) that they had an "extra". Of course, I realised months later that it was probably someone's GB unit...I had also purchased some random custom from them a few months before that, and for both times, every communication related to money went through Tuan Anh, not the OP (Bruce). When things fell out and MAB was exposed by the local community, Bruce was trying to defend his team and having heated arguments with other members, and he said some unsavoury things, which led to personal grudges until these days. From time to time, his name is brought up in online conversations as THE scammer, although his role in making MAB's financial decisions is very much up to debate. From my point of view, many of those personal attacks are merely fueled by the mentioned grudges.
A few months ago, he came to me for advice on this project due to the fact that I have been working with his former teammate on many successful GBs, and that I'm now the admin of a local mech community, separate from the one he fell out of favour a few years back. It's important to note that I had previously had face-to-face sessions with my partner about his involvement in MAB's shady business because I needed to understand who I was to work with, and naturally, Bruce's name came up as well in our conversations. From my partner's side of story, he was simply working for MAB as a PCB designer and never had any say in the financial aspects of the business. I trust my partner, completely. Later on, when I heard Bruce's story, many things checked out, including the part where he's still in debt worth thousands of USD in the form of Paypal chargeback, and he never received support from the one actually in charge of sales and finance, namely Tuan Anh.
So, how much did he know about the scamming activities and was he the one to blame in the total sh*tshow named MAB? I don't know for certain, and though I have information that forms my personal opinion towards this whole thing, it doesn't mean it has to be reflected onto yours. My first and only advice to him when he decided to come back, is that he must COME CLEAN and let the community decide. In his defence, he did mention where he comes from in the original post, but again, I agree that he should have told a clearer story right from the start, and he surely needs to work on his communication skills. One thing I can be certain of, is he's serious and passionate about this project, and excited about the prospect of coming back to the community.
That's all I have to say. In all honestly, if anyone is to give an objective input in this cluster of drama, I believe it's me, because of my knowledge of the people involved, and that I actually have something to lose here, namely my reputation as a GB runner. The rest, of course, is still up to you to decide.
