Digging Deeper: Rock Gone Wild Unfolds (Part 3)

With just days to go, Rock Gone Wild canceled, leaving fans confused and angered over a loss of a massive concert – and possible ticket funds. While the issue of refunds is still up in the air, I’m continuing to look backward, piecing together why the event fell apart so close to the finish line.

At the beginning stages of the festival, Nathalie Faghihi worked closely with a man named Rob Rogers. He’s spent his career running concerts and was operations director for the first Rocklahoma in 2007. He held the same position with Rock Gone Wild. Rogers left the festival in April. After his departure, Faghihi alleged Rogers made off with a large sum of money from an official Rock Gone Wild bank account. The allegation was recently corroborated online, in a statement from A.B.A.T.E. of Iowa. That statement reads, in part:

After several meetings, an agreement was made on the rent for Freedom Park, in August 2008 the contract was signed. Nat & Bruce came here to see the park with a new partner, Rob Rogers, (he since has proven to less than a desirable character) supposedly making off with a bunch of their money. Late spring 2009, they canned Rob, and brought on Donnie Frizzel (sic) as a partner...

The “Nat and Bruce” mentioned are Ms. Faghihi and Bruce Rage, her husband. Rob Rogers says he never stole any money.

“She [Ms. Faghihi] was given complete record keeping...of all banking,” says Mr. Rogers. “I as a person with the company was allowed to take a salary, which I did take, and it’s all on record and recorded. She’s got about 30 to 40 thousand locked up in a security account – which she says I stole – but it’s actually locked up in a security insurance account for Cornerstone Merchant account, which was the merchant account that was set up.” Bring Back Glam! is contacting Cornerstone for comment.

So if everything is on the up and up, why did Rob Rogers suddenly leave the festival? “I was an owner of the company and I was a shareholder of the company before I was bought out and I was allowed to take a salary for my work,” Rogers explains. “That’s kind of the American way. Generally you do get an income for your job.”

Rogers tells Bring Back Glam! he was bought out of his contract with Rock Gone Wild for one dollar. He says he still has the check.

“As far as money goes, it’s real simple: if I had stole money, I would have been prosecuted for it,” affirms Rogers. “Not bought out. Not bought out for a dollar. Not bought out for a nickel. Not bought out for a penny. I would not have been bought out if I’d stolen money. Once you buy them out and sign a release saying they have no liability, if they did steal it, you’ve just released them from all liability. My buyout clearly states that I have no financial obligations to that festival in any way, shape or form.”

Rock Gone Wild was supposed to take place August 20-23 at Diamond Jo Casino in Northwood, Iowa.

The story continues tomorrow...

Comments

[JB]

Its sad that this kind of thing goes on all the time. Maybe not on this scale, but its a story that has been told a million times. Your doing a great job Allison showing the people that hurt something we all hold very dear.

[Brian]

If he was bought out, why does Nat allege she spent 30k to 50K on lawyers regarding this matter? It doesn't cost that much to draft a buyout agreement... Yet another unanswered question from the organizers.

[Valentine]

$450,000 in ticket sales???

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090812/NEWS/908120360

[360]

Where did you see that she spent $ on lawyers regarding the money??? I saw in an article that she secured her current lawyer last week. This tells me she didn't have an attorney before last week.

[Brian]

She said previoulsy that she spent 30K to 50K in legal fees regarding this. Not attorney's name was mentioned when she discussed it. You can find it on the Metal Sludge gossip board, I believe.

This new attorney, to handle the fallout from the cancellation, was just retained this past week.

I don't believe her that she had an attorney related to the alleged "stealing of money". I think that is a lie, and that the money was never spent on litigation costs.

[Rob Rockitt]

Wow...less than half a million in ticket sales. Hopefully folks will get their money back.

[Valentine]

I think it's going to be a long time and an uphill battle before everybody gets their money back... That fucking SUCKS.

[commish]

Allyson, how about you contact Rob's Ex-Wife, [NAME REMOVED FOR PRIVACY] attorney, Cecil Gentner and ask him what Rob said his RGW salary was in court under oath at their divorce hearing. Cecil's number is (918) 492-8448. Then, you will find out that all is not truthful in the Rob Rogers' camp.

[commish]

Cecil Gentner Drummond, sorry about that.....

[Brian]

Better yet, why not have Nat produce the contract she had with Rob which is evidence of his salary from RGW.

Oh wait, Nat doesn't use contracts. Maybe it's in an email somewhere. That's binding, right...

[hmmm]

lets see, it appears to me that all aligations of any wrong doing all come from nathalie. there has never been one not one document of proof or any sort of prosecution in any legal venue against Mr Rogers. if anyone were to have committed the offenses that has been levied against Mr Rogers, wouldnt he have been prosecuted, wouldnt there be some sort of proof. Well i have not seen any. And whar does Mr Rogers exwife have to do with anything. This appears to be a case of a magician using a destraction technique. The festival was cancelled for what ever reason and as opposed to the truth comming out they blame someone that was bought out and left the company at least 4 months ago. this is got to be at least a million dollar festival so the question would be why and what did anyone have to do with the failure of this event. If Mr Rogers did something wrong why is it that Nathalie (whatever her real name is)is no longer answering her telephone, the website has been dropped and noone knows what to do. Why arnt they standing by their product and telling people that they should be contacting the merchant services companies and trying to get their money back. once that money is gone its gone, first come first serve. Why is it that Phil Mccormick with Abate has contacted Lawyers for breach of contract why is it the Diamond Jo Casino is saying they were never a sponsor, why is it that the entire city of Algona was deserted by RGW. where are the answers and not a blank website with a 20 word statement telling you to email an attorney. When you bought your tickets did you have to contact an attorney, NO! All i am saying is to open your eyes and see what is real not the blaming of people that is being put out. Nathalie owned this company along with her husband, they are Canadian citizens and will probably never be touchable because it is obvious that they have no money. I am sure they are nice people and did nothing with any intent to hurt anyone but hey bad business is bad business. stand up and take responceability for what has happened dont hide and stop blaming people. I hope you all have recourse to get your refunds. Open your eyes

[Valentine]

What I want to know is what happened to punctuation and correct sentence structure?

Sorry. Couldn't resist. Just a little levity, people.

[GlamLand]

"Allyson, how about you contact Rob's Ex-Wife, [NAME REMOVED FOR PRIVACY] attorney, Cecil Gentner and ask him what Rob said his RGW salary was in court under oath at their divorce hearing. Cecil's number is (918) 492-8448. Then, you will find out that all is not truthful in the Rob Rogers' camp. "

Where in the interview does Rob state how much he made? Where does it say how much he invested. His reported income is totally irrelevant. JMO, but he's guilty by association with Nazil F. He had dealt with her before and had to have known she was not an honorable person due to her previous track record working with bands.

It's amazing that people are actually coming on here and defending Nazil Faghihi and Donnie Frizzel.

Even if they had the best of intentions to begin with, which I doubt anyone with 2 cents of common sense believes, this event fell apart in APRIL.

They waited until information LEAKED about the cancellation to say anything. TWO WEEKS before the event was scheduled.
If Stevie Rachelle hadn't started talking, no one would have known.

Were they going to say anything? Were they going to let people actually show up and SURPRISE no festival?

*sniff* *sniff*.. is that a rat I smell?