This article only about one statement found on David Taylor notarized affidavit and how it makes the court believe they tried to work out an offer with me, but in reality they didn't not and even lied to court by paraphrasing something I never said.
44. The following day, February 14, 2025, we responded to Mr. Walters with an offer to enter into a confidentiality agreement and provide a small upfront payment to Mr. Walters in return for Mr. Walters providing us information sufficient to demonstrate the vulnerability. Mr. Walters refused this offer, instead choosing to fixate on his own baseless accusations of extortion. As if to highlight the absurdity of those claims, Mr. Walters once again tried to extract payment from us, insisting that the was “open” to being hired “as a security researcher consultant at $400 an hour with a minimum retainer,” with an additional payment expected for further “discoveries.”
This statement on David Taylor notarized affidavit is filled with manipulation and deceit. It doesn't paint a true picture of the events and makes me look like a horrible person while it tries to make them look like companies that tried to work with me.
I was never fixated on my baseless claims of extortion, I told the company I want to deal with their extortion attempt against me first. I believe they felt the only way I would continue to work with them was by them telling me they were not going to file a report with law enforcement.
On February 14 you can clearly see i sent Cooley LLP attorney Kristen Mathews evidence of Patrick Sellers extortion attempt against me and in another email I stated the following “Unfortunately I am not interested in talking over any of my findings until they want to talk about the extortion and threats of prosecuting me under false charges is dealt with first.”
On February 18 Kristen stated the following “they do not plan to make a report with the law enforcement”
I really wouldn't have minded if they did file a report, because I know I never did anything wrong but I feel they only did this to conceal Exegy extortion attempt against me and try to paint me as terrible person.
I figured I would continue to try to work with them to see what this offer was really about.
I also never declined their offer until April and have asked them many questions in which they would not respond to.
On February 23 I stated the following “Though your current process for how you’re wanting to handle these disclosures does not keep my personal and intellectual property safe from theft, as Exegy could easily turn around and say they are not interested and privately open bugs on the issues in Jira. Which is a private and closed off system from the public, so I wouldn’t ever know.”
Kristen Mathews from Cooley LLP would not respond and comfort me on how this process would keep my property safe from theft and she tried pushing the same offer against me but with an initial upfront fee.
On March 10 Robert Earles reached out to me with another offer, but this time it stated I would need to remove my posts for Exegy to continue to work with me on that offer and it didn't include an initial upfront fee.
On March 23 I replied back to Robert Earles and Kristen Mathews asking what posts he was actually referring to, because he only stated dates and LinkedIn doesn't give this information, but he would never respond to that request.
On March 26 I sent Robert Earles and Kristen Mathews another email stating asking for a copy of the Confidentiality agreement and other agreements I would need to look over, but he would never respond to that request.
On April 7 I sent an email to Robert Earles and Kristen Mathews asking the following questions and never got any response.
Is Exegy not responding to my questions because they are trying to figure out what I brought to their attention without me?
Is Exegy even creating and setting up a bug bounty program?
Is Exegy and Cooley LLP still handling all of this or are you leading me on?
Does Exegy and Cooley LLP ever plan to respond to any of my questions related to the bug bounty items?
Can you please respond is a timely matter or at least let me know when you will be able to answer any of the questions I have previously emailed you about
On April 16 I sent an email telling Exegy I would not move forward on their proposal because of the way they were acting like it was leading me on and they were not answering my questions.
This statement also states the following ‘ Mr. Walters once again tried to extract payment from us, insisting that the was “open” to being hired “as a security researcher consultant at $400 an hour with a minimum retainer,” with an additional payment expected for further “discoveries.”’
This statement on David Taylor notarized affidavit is also manipulative and filled with lies.
I never once tried to extract payment from Exegy and was stating I am open to being hired as a consultant if they were interested. There is nothing wrong with a person stating they are open for work and seeing if a company is interested in hiring them.
I also never stated the following “with an additional payment expected for further “discoveries.”’
My exact words sent to Kristen Mathews on February 23 was the following:
- I am open to having them hire me on as a security researcher consultant at $400 an hour with a minimum retainer set after the other issue they created is dealt with first, but would still be expect to pay for my initial discoveries separately. ”
Which shows I never stated future discoveries and only my initial discoveries.
There nothing wrong with asking for a retainer as a consultant, lawyers do the same thing because they want to make sure they get paid. Plus, i have heard things about their outside vendors having issues getting Exegy to pay on time.
As you can see, I never once immediately declined their offer, but wanted to make sure my property was safe from theft and look over any agreements the company wanted me to sign before moving forward.
The company would never respond to any of my requests and kept making this entire process look like a mirage or something. I am sure their customers are going to enjoy seeing how Exegy deals with security matters and hopefully gets them to push better requirements for dealing with issues like this.
I do believe this entire proposal was a way for them to try and steal my property, when I wouldn't go for it, they figured they would try another method like setting up an actual bounty program instead.
On February 24, you can see Kristen Mathews stated the following after I told them this process doesn't keep my property safe from theft “has decided to launch a formal bug bounty program”
Their own in-house lawyer even stated they can legally steal a person's property, by stating the following to the Illinois ARDC “companies are not obligated to pay bounties even if the report identifies a genuine issue;”
Sources
Kristen Mathews Emails
Robert “Bobby” Earles Emails
Email where I did eventually declined their proposal offer
David Taylor notarized Affidavit
Patrick Sellers Submission to Illinois ARDC
Important Update
● Corrected a few things and added extortion items and other updates, just reread it. 11/20 11:02AM
