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Todd Tanner
Todd Tanner

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3DGameMarket - The Company I Started That Robbed Me

#opensource #a11y #blazor #dotnet

Long story short (I wish)...

For 13 years I was a partner in 3DGameMarket LLC. For 13 years I was denied my LEGAL RIGHTS as a partner by my partners Vince Lindow Jr. and Ilya Sorokin to access the company's financial records. I completely wrote 3DGameMarket's website where we sold software I wrote by myself and whatever glasses-free display we could get our hands on to resell. Our deal: 40% Ilya, 30% me, 30% Vince for ownership. Ilya would contribute startup money, Vince would handle whatever he was good at, and I would work on software with our only focus at the time being SpawnIt3D (which eventually evolved into 3DGM).

I worked long days just like I still do. Often working 100 hours a week because I have a family I am trying to support and coding helps alleviate my anxiety. I never made more than a few dollars an hour, but I knew I was investing and that few dollars an hour was the only way my partners could invest as they had/have no applicable skills in technology or software. We had started the company together based on my pre-existing SpawnIt3D software which partially used some Philips licensed code. The problem: Philips wanted $10,000 a year to license their code... so I started learning C# and wrote 3DGM from scratch to save us that $10,000 a year. By 2015 3DGM had replaced SpawnIt3D and we no longer had an obligation to pay Philips the $10,000 a year. I got NOTHING for doing this for 3DGameMarket.

What is SpawnIt3D and 3DGM

These pieces of software inject into video games with the purpose of rendering additional 3D views so the games can be played in 3D on glasses-free 3D displays, anaglyph, SBS, Over-Under, etc.

The abuse

Not only was I denied access to the company's financial records, I was lied to repeatedly, mentally abused, and bullied by my partners. I have severe social and general anxiety and have my entire life, and they both used it against me. Ilya consistently weaponized my family's survival (rent/food) and my disability (anxiety) to enforce compliance, while explicitly denying employment status to avoid liabilities.

"If I hold back, you will not have enough money to pay rent or to buy food, what I promised in order for us to have a payday as a team."
Source: Ilya Sorokin [2017-01-06] "Re: Copyright"
Context: Explicitly linking payment (survival) to "partnership" compliance.

"This is what will put food on your family table! If you do not do it, we are done!"
Source: Ilya Sorokin [2023-04-06] "Wake up call"
Context: Demanding participation in a late-night conference call despite Todd's documented anxiety.

"I hope your common sense prevails in spite of the mental issues that you are fighting with."
Source: Ilya Sorokin [2023-07-31] "Re: Email to Xin,"
Context: Weaponizing Todd's anxiety/disability to dismiss his professional refusal of work.

"I considered you a friend and do not any more. We are business partners and that is it. I will no longer defend your ridiculous actions... Your days of holding this company hostage are over."
"You are great at programing and sadly because of this you think you are some sort of genius. Well in programing maybe but that is where it ends."
Source: Vince Lindow [2023-08-02] "3DGM user TUFEIXP needs his account extended..."
Context: Vince explicitly moving the relationship from "friendship" to "adversarial partner" while demeaning Todd's cognitive abilities.

Ilya (1:33 PM): "Meanwhile your family goes without pay. I hope you can explain to them why... I hope your common sense prevails in spite of the mental issues that you are fighting with."
Vince (5:49 PM): "You reap what you sow... I work every day... you who have put very little money in, turn your nose up to [opportunities]... I am thinking about calling a vote to remove you."
Source: [2023-07-31] "Re: Email to Xin,"
Legal Weight: Demonstrates a same-day "tag-team" approach to pressure a Member through financial threats and attacks on mental health.

"I would understand your position if you invested money or brought in investors money but you have not. So your main complaint is you do not have control over my family's money and Ilya's money before that. Money that I have been paying you with so you can bash me..."
Source: Vince Lindow [2022-09-23] "Fwd: 转发:Re: 3DGM and Z2D co-operation"
Why it matters: Vince explicitly devalues Todd's 10+ years of solo engineering as having no "investment" value compared to the $30K-$50K Vince's relatives put in. He uses this to deny Todd's Member right to financial inspection.

"I work every day at this company... you who have put very little money in, turn your nose up to [revenue opportunities]."
Source: Vince Lindow [2023-07-31] "Re: Email to Xin,"
Context: Vince demeaning Todd's professional decision to decline a project by framing it as a lack of "skin in the game."

See More abusive direct quotes below and admissions of LLC rights violations: Read the Quotes

Friends

Vince WAS a friend of mine before we approached Ilya Sorokin about 3DGameMarket (Ilya's forced rebranding of SpawnIt3D). At one point my business partner Vince told me we owed Ilya, our other partner, $1,000,000... I got angry and told Vince I DID NOT OWE ILYA ANY OF THAT, as I had NEVER been allowed to see the books, never allowed to have ANY say in what money was spent on, and that paying Ilya back WAS NOT a part of the original agreement. If someone owed Ilya $1,000,000, IT WAS NOT ME.

Hell, I had to ask Ilya and Vince to buy anything I felt we needed, even after we were making money. Vince told me he would take care of it and I never heard about the supposed $1,000,000 again (because it never existed).

Ilya and Vince would agree I completed software contracts completely on my own in the name of 3DGameMarket for companies like Deepub, Exceptional 3D, KDX, Z2D Vision, Acer, and more... and Ilya and Vince collected the money.

I taught myself CSS, HTML, JavaScript, HLSL, GLSL, shader assembly language, C++, C#, SQL, DirectX (9, 10, 11, 12), OpenGL, WebGL, ASP.Net, Drupal, PHP, PayPal APIs, Ubercart, Alipay APIs, and more to better my abilities.

Eventually Vince admitted 3DGameMarket had NEVER kept any books... and that is why he and Ilya could not share them with me. So Vince started watching YouTube videos about how to handle finances for a business and he began writing up books based on whatever he could find. So fake books were being created to try and make good on the promise Vince and Ilya made to actually do things legally... but it was just for show, and just for me. Those "books" were never meant to be REAL business financial records.

I eventually told them both I would no longer create new products for 3DGameMarket LLC if I was not going to be treated like a partner, but I kept working on 3DGM as I believed in it and my own abilities.

Of course 3DGM was not good enough for Vince and Ilya. They wanted to continue selling MY SKILLS like they had done in the past to Deepub, KDX, etc. They wanted more profits from jobs where I do 100% of the work and I alone am 100% responsible for the deliverables, but where THEY COLLECT ALL THE MONEY and share with me what THEY CHOOSE.

The Z2D Deal

Z2D wanted me to write a piece of software for them, and due to the ongoing issue with my partners and violations of my rights as a legal partner of an LLC, I declined. Vince and Ilya flipped their shit and came at me with a vengeance.

I just kept working on 3DGM, which at this point I had improved immensely by creating a new way of generating additional 3D views in games by actually redrawing each frame from a different camera position - and it was BEAUTIFUL. Previously, 3DGM had been using code I wrote to extract the depth map from a frame and used that with the 2D color image to create additional views. The 2DZ (2D with depth) method worked well, but the 3D was a bit cardboard cutout... not with MRM. MRM, a shorthand name I gave it, meant "multiview render mode". My code would modify vertex shaders on the fly at runtime to allow for a second draw pass that would draw the second eye's view for significantly better 3D.

But selling stuff on 3DGameMarket.net didn't appear to be what Vince and Ilya wanted. They never advertised. In fact, I personally paid for advertising out of the few dollars an hour I was making just to try and drive up business, as it was obvious my partners had ZERO intention of actually selling anything on our site. Vince and Ilya were more interested in making deals with other companies that involved my doing more contract jobs that THEY would collect on.

Vince and Ilya were still pushing for me to do the software job for Z2D, and I had even researched the possibility, but what Z2D wanted was a bit far fetched. After telling Vince that, he came back at me and said Z2D was offering $100,000 now for the job, and that Ilya and Vince would give me $10,000 of that if I did the job. Mind you - at this time I owned 30% of 3DGameMarket and my PARTNERS were offering me the equivalent of a finder's fee to be 100% responsible for a complicated job I was not sure I could complete to Z2D's satisfaction... and I still did not have access to any 3DGameMarket financial records. So again, I declined.

Vince and Ilya BLEW UP. Insults and threats started flying left and right in my direction from my "partners". The same partners who NEVER allowed me access to company financial records I had/have a legal right to immediately stopped paying and contributing. For nearly 2 years after that, I funded 3DGameMarket's servers myself out of my own pocket. I paid domain registration fees, hosting fees, etc., while maintaining and continuing to work on 3DGM software.

Trying to exit

This does not even touch on the investors Vince got, who paid HIM $10,000 per 1% of 3DGameMarket. He never documented those investments, but frequently talked about them in his emails. He often referred to the investor money as "his family's money" and he treated it exactly like that. The money sat in an account labeled 3DGameMarket LLC, but ONLY HE was allowed to access that account and the records for that account. According to him, he was only doing the same thing Ilya had initially done: treat 3DGameMarket financials as personal accounts instead of belonging to the company.

I eventually tried to sell my entire stake in 3DGameMarket to my partners, and Ilya bought most of it but REFUSED to buy it all - even though I offered to sell it ALL for $10,000 because my dog was dying and we needed a vet badly. Ilya paid me the $10,000 and made me keep 10% ownership of 3DGameMarket... likely because he knew the company was dead without me. I told him (and I quote from the email): "Honestly, I would rather sell it all and become an employee as I am tired of trying to get treated like a partner instead of a form of cheap labor who is otherwise ignored. ... If required, I agree."

Vince as CEO

So Ilya has essentially exited 3DGameMarket at this point. He owns more than half the company but does absolutely nothing for it. I later found out he had filed a brand new Florida LLC without my knowledge or consent, listing only himself, and abandoned the original Delaware entity. He left Vince and me off the new filing completely. Eventually he added us back.

Vince declares himself CEO and I couldn't care less, as I know it means nothing. Vince eventually starts paying me $200 a week to offset my own consistent investment in 3DGameMarket. The problem with that is the same problem it has always been: Vince thinks he is my boss because of that $200. He starts asking for phone calls so he can probe me for information... at which point I need to briefly address the "phone call issue".

Phone calls and lies

After Vince LIED to me about owing Ilya $1,000,000 - while at my house, in a verbal conversation - I had BANNED Vince from my house and from communicating with me in any way except email. I flat out told him it was because I was sick of his lies and his stories always changing, so I wanted emails ONLY so what he said would be documented. That worked for a while. But now that Vince was paying me out of his own pocket and I was TRYING to trust him, the phone calls started again at his repeated
request.

But this is the same guy who has lied on and off for years; who has bullied me and mentally abused me to get what he wants. So I record the phone calls. Vince spends a lot of the phone calls talking about useless crap, and often tries to bait me into attacking Ilya or other people. Maybe he wasn't baiting me - but it sure seemed that way (to me and others who have listened to the recordings) - though I am not sure what his goals were with that. I keep working on 3DGM but not at the level I had been. I have ZERO ability to trust Vince, especially with the way he appears to be playing me during phone calls. So I continue working on areas that would benefit 3DGameMarket and allow me to improve 3DGM and even make new products eventually. See my GitHub plenty of those libraries are massively useful to a company that specializes in 3D gaming: github.com/LostBeard.

The "severance"

To end it all, Vince threw another temper tantrum when he did not get the call he wanted, when he wanted, and when I had the gall to question the future of 3DGM specifically in today's market - given that advertising had NEVER entered his or Ilya's minds. Even though I proposed using my advanced SpawnDev libraries as the base for new products, Vince was frothing mad that I dared question him - the guy who had been working 50 hours a week to get me $200 a week.

So he sends me a PayPal payment from the 3DGameMarket LLC account that ONLY HE has access to (and that he had been paying me out of for a year plus) with the message "Severance check 1 of 4". He was, once again, treating me as an employee - the same way he and Ilya always saw me and treated me. Like an employee, not a partner.

After a little research, I found out 3DGameMarket had been dissolved by the state of Florida on Sept. 26, 2025 - 6 months earlier. Vince claims he knew nothing about it and that it is all Ilya's fault, and that we should start our own company without him to sell 3DGM. I ignore all of this. At this point, I am happy to be done with these two clowns.

The worst of 2 worlds: partner and employee

They treated me like a partner to get cheap labor and to avoid employee labor laws. They treated me like an employee to avoid giving me the legal access to the books a partner has the legal right to.

Vince Lindow Jr. and Ilya Sorokin are not good people and are worse business partners. 3DGameMarket was a scam to extract cheap labor from me - a somewhat intelligent programmer with severe social and general anxiety. Shame on them. I likely could sue, but I am choosing not to at this time because there is enough hostility in this world and I have a family and work to focus on. I wish them the best in their future endeavors. May they live long and prosper... and NEVER talk to me again.
�

From one of the last emails from Vince: "You already got paid today and I will send you money for the next three weeks to give you time to get a job or get on disability". Sounds like he cares, right? No. The mention of disability is his way of poking me, as he knows I will not get on disability. Even the thought of applying for it causes me severe anxiety. FYI - he did NOT pay me again after that day like he said he would. Lying, manipulation, and abuse are what Vince does. He may not even realize he does it.

I have left a LOT of things out for brevity. The evidence of abuse and improper conduct is staggering, but well documented in case it is ever needed.

I received this message on LinkedIn from people I do not even know, warning me about Vince.

Image of unsolicited warning about Vince

This is the "severance" pay Vince sent me, which proves he treats me and thinks of me
like an employee. Also, severance pay generally comes with an agreement not to sue. I
never made any such agreement with anyone.

Image of severance pay notification:

TL;DR

Be careful starting a business with other people. Even "friends" can turn into enemies when money is on the table.

Be especially careful if you have a disability. Mine allowed two business "partners" to
abuse me for 13 years. 🖖

Signed,
Todd Tanner

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SMOKING-GUN-QUOTES.md

3DGM - Smoking-Gun Verbatim Quotes (Counsel Cheat Sheet)

  • These quotes prove that 3DGM was a partnership when Vincent Lindow and Ilya Sorokin wanted to exploit Todd's labor and "owner-level" commitment, but was suddenly framed as an employment relationship in 2026 when they wanted to "fire" him without Member-level buyouts, all while violating Todd's legal rights as a partner the entire time. The abuse quotes (Items 18-19) prove that this "partnership" was maintained through economic duress, coordinated bullying, and exploitation of a known disability.

Compiled: 2026-04-17 PM
Purpose: Single-page catalog of the verbatim quotes that do the most legal work. All drawn from the master union corpus (_master-all-sources.jsonl) across all 4 Takeouts + Thunderbird.

1. Vince's "secret deal / oral agreements" admission — 2022-08-23

From: Vincent Lindow Jr. (vlindowjr@gmail.com)
To: Todd Tanner (lostit1278@gmail.com)
Subject: Re: Paypal Debit Card

"Oh and here are the details of that secret deal that I made with the investors. LOL. one percent of royalties and equity for $10,000 dollars. These were all oral agreements which are legal in New York and I told you about them."

Why it matters: Vince characterizes the deal as "secret," fixes the rate at $10K per 1% of royalties AND equity, admits the agreements are oral, and raises a NY-law defense that doesn't cure the FL Ch. 605 / operating-agreement / related-party problems.

2. Vince's "my family's money" refusal of Member inspection — 2022-08-23 (same thread)

From: Vincent Lindow Jr.
To: Todd Tanner

"As a partner you are entitled to an equal share of all of our revenues that we make minus expenses. You are not entitled to access to my family's money."

Why it matters:

  • Vince calls Todd a "partner" (not employee) in his own writing.
  • Vince admits partners are entitled to equal share of revenues minus expenses.
  • Vince then refuses Member inspection of the investor capital by calling it "my family's money" — the exact language courts cite as a refusal of statutory LLC Member rights under FL 605.0410.
  • The "family" reference confirms the Lindow-family-investor relationship.

3. Vince's "pay investors out of my shares" commingling admission — 2022-09-23

From: Vincent Lindow Jr. (vince@3dgamemarket.com)
Subject: Re: 转发:Re: 3DGM and Z2D co-operation

"I have responded on Gmail. Fine I will pay the investors out of my shares. Problem solved that was easy. One less thing for you to worry about."

Why it matters: Vince, as Manager, is casually moving investor liabilities off the LLC books and onto his personal equity — a textbook commingling / no-segregated-bookkeeping admission. "Problem solved that was easy" frames LLC governance as a casual personal matter, not a statutory duty.

4. Vince naming his mother and sister Lisa as investors — 2022-04-12

From: Vincent Lindow Jr.
Subject: Business Call

"Since yesterday I have gotten two investors. $10,000 available right after the Acer partnership is formalized with an advancement for me to go to Pax East and the other investor will be cutting us a check for 10,000 in the middle of May. My mom and Sister Lisa and they are both in 100%. I am meeting Peter soon and he will also be in. Only two spots left."

Why it matters: Names two family-adjacent investors at $10K/1% (Vince's own mother and sister Lisa). Establishes related-party transactions the 10% Member was never shown documentation for.

5. Vince confirming investor #3 (Peter Parts) — 2022-04-16

From: Vincent Lindow Jr.
Subject: Re: Call

"Sounds great. Just closed our third investor. Peter is in. Two more to go."

Why it matters: Names Peter Parts (Ithaca / R.I.T. business incubator associate) as investor #3. Peter Parts is known to have been in direct email correspondence with Todd and in active dealings with 3DGM — corroborating subpoena target if needed.

6. Vince confirming investor #4 — 2022-04-26

From: Vincent Lindow Jr.
Subject: The show went great

"I got a 4th investor, one more to go. And I am already on that."

Why it matters: Confirms 4 of 5 targeted investor slots closed by late April 2022. Investor #4's identity not disclosed in this corpus.

7. Potential investor #4 / #5 candidate — 2023-08-03

From: Vincent Lindow Jr.
Subject: Can we please fix this between us

"I really want to make us big money and I am so close. I would have sold a display today and got another investor but we are fighting and we should not be. This investor is a classmate of mine and his son in law owns a large security company in Texas."

Why it matters: First identifying detail on another investor candidate — a classmate of Vince's from his school years whose son-in-law owns a large Texas-based security company. This is enough detail for counsel to identify the individual through discovery if the investor's $10K payment ever appears in bank records.

8. Vince referring to "our 3DGM investors" in present tense — 2026-04-14 (3 days before "severance" memo)

From: Vincent Lindow Jr.
Subject: Re: Distributed computing... by TJ

"All of this time, I could have been learning this stuff and maybe not even doing gaming if we had a plan for our 3DGM investors."

Why it matters: Three days before the "severance" memo, Vince writes casually of "our 3DGM investors" in present tense. The investors are still an active relationship. The LLC is still operating (despite being administratively dissolved). Vince is still the person managing the investor relationship. This is evidence that the April 17 action was retaliation against Todd, not a genuine wind-down.

9. Todd's written "I AM NOT YOUR EMPLOYEE" — 2022-09 era

From: Todd Tanner
To: Vince Lindow Jr.
Context: Documented in 2026-04-17-severance-check-analysis.md line 98, in the context summary.

"I AM NOT YOUR EMPLOYEE."

Why it matters: Todd's own written assertion, in caps, four years before the 2026 "severance" characterization. Establishes that Todd rejected employment framing contemporaneously — not retroactively for litigation.

10. Todd's "treat me like a partner / not a partner" assertions — 2022-09-23

From: Todd Tanner (lostit1278@gmail.com)
Subject: Re: Stopped to see you

"...partner in this company for the first time in 10 years, then we can talk strategy. If you wish to keep running the company like I am not a partner, you are welcome to make me an offer to buy me out."

Why it matters: Todd offering a buyout as the remedy for not being treated as a partner — the opposite of what an employee would write. Employees don't get "bought out." Partners / Members do.

11. Vince's documented abuse, devaluation, and financial manipulation (2013-2023)

[!CAUTION]
Vince uses a cycle of "lashing out" followed by "we're family" apologies, while consistently devaluing Todd's technical labor relative to Vince's family's cash investments.

A. Devaluation of Tech Labor vs. Cash ("My Family's Money")

  • "I would understand your position if you invested money or brought in investors money but you have not. So your main complaint is you do not have control over my family's money and Ilya's money before that. Money that I have been paying you with so you can bash me..."

    • Source: [2022-09-23] "Fwd: 转发:Re: 3DGM and Z2D co-operation"
    • Why it matters: Vince explicitly devalues Todd's 10+ years of solo engineering as having no "investment" value compared to the $30K-$50K Vince's relatives put in. He uses this to deny Todd's Member right to financial inspection.

  • "I work every day at this company... you who have put very little money in, turn your nose up to [revenue opportunities]."

    • Source: [2023-07-31] "Re: Email to Xin,"
    • Context: Vince demeaning Todd's professional decision to decline a project by framing it as a lack of "skin in the game."

B. Admissions of Outbursts ("Lashing Out")

  • "I am sorry for the way I handled the Z to D situation but that crushed me and I lashed out and I am sorry for that."

    • Source: [2023-11-03] "Re: Update"
    • Legal Weight: A formal, written admission by the Manager that his behavior during the August 2023 rupture was "lashing out." This corroborates the toxic environment claim.

  • "I am starting to look stupid when I can't answer [Ilya's] questions... I am afraid if something is not done by then of what he will do."

    • Source: [2013-06-21] "Crepes and Ilya"
    • Context: An early example of Vince using Ilya as a "boogeyman" to psychologically pressure Todd into overworking.

C. Financial Leverage and "Retirement" Carrots

  • "I am willing to talk about increasing your pay some if things are tough but I am done being ignored. ... As long as you are paid with our money every two weeks things are good."

    • Source: [2022-09-30] "If you do not want to do a meeting we can do a call."
    • Context: Using the payment stream as a leash to force immediate communication/compliance.

  • "In my opinion this is your best shot to make a lot of money for your family and we as friends could say we built this together and then sell it and retire."

    • Source: [2022-09-30] "If you do not want to do a meeting we can do a call."
    • Why it matters: Dangling the "retirement" carrot to keep Todd's 100% solo labor locked into the 3DGM structure without formal pay or royalties.

12. Structural fact: The post-dissolution continuation signal — 2025-09-26

Fact (not quote): The FIRST post-dissolution $200 weekly payment from "3D Game Market LLC" went out on 2025-09-26 — the exact day Florida administratively dissolved the LLC. 28+ weekly $200 payments continued thereafter through 2026-04-17, all from the LLC PayPal account, with no written notice of dissolution to Todd as a Member.

Why it matters: This is structural. A dissolved LLC continuing to disburse funds from its own PayPal account for 28+ weeks, while one Member is kept in the dark about the dissolution, is the textbook piercing-the-veil / failure-of-formalities fact pattern.

13. The 67-week payment stream — Jan 2025 to Apr 2026

Fact (not quote): 67 consecutive weekly $200 payments from Jan 2025 through Apr 17 2026. 66 of 67 were sent from the "3D Game Market LLC" PayPal account. Only one (2025-11-14) was from "Vincent Lindow Jr" personally.

Why it matters: Vince's repeated written framing that the money was coming "out of my check / out of my paycheck" is contradicted by 98.5% of the actual payment instruments. The LLC is the payer. Vince's rhetoric is not the financial record.

14. The dual-PayPal-account structural fact — disclosed 2026-04-17 PM

Per TJ direct testimony: two separate "3D Game Market"-named PayPal accounts exist:

  • "3DGameMarket" — Ilya Sorokin controls; deposits to a bank account Ilya controls.
  • "3DGameMarket LLC" — Vince Lindow Jr. controls; deposits to a bank account Vince controls.

Todd's historical access (clarified 2026-04-17 PM): Todd had operational access to the PayPal accounts when he set up the Drupal/Ubercart storefront on 3dgamemarket.com — that access was required because Vince and Ilya could not configure the storefront themselves. However, the PayPal accounts were only ever used for retail site transactions — customer purchases of displays, games, subscriptions. Todd has seen the destination bank account numbers in the PayPal deposit-configuration settings (those numbers are visible to any PayPal admin, because PayPal has to know where to sweep collected funds), but Todd has never been allowed to view the destination bank accounts directly — no statements, no transaction histories, no balances, no non-PayPal deposits. The actual business money (investor $10K contributions, wholesale / Dimenco / Acer / KDX / Philips / psHolix deals, licensing revenue) never flowed through PayPal; those went straight into the manager-controlled private bank accounts.

Why it matters: Two parallel manager-controlled financial rails with no Member oversight of the destination bank accounts is textbook commingling and a predicate fact for piercing-the-veil analysis. Even more importantly: Todd knows the destination bank account numbers (he saw them in the PayPal settings) but was denied inspection of the accounts those identifiers point to. That is a perfected, specific denial of the FL Ch. 605.0410 Member inspection right — not a speculative one. Counsel can make a targeted inspection demand by account number, not just by category.

Documentary backup: 2017-09-29 screenshots preserved at D:/3DGM Legal/2017-09-29 PayPal Screenshots/ and documented in D:/3DGM Legal/_research/docs/EVIDENCE-PayPal-Screenshots-2017.md. The screenshots show the Ilya-controlled PayPal Merchant ID XMUJ4UQ48EPZY and primary destination bank account TD Bank NA x-4837, along with Todd's authorized sub-user login ToddT3DGM — proving both the existence of the dual-rail structure and Todd's formal (but limited to the PayPal surface) access.

15. Ilya's own writing on Dec 26/27 2023 — treating the transaction as a Member share sale, not employment

From: Ilya Sorokin (sorokin.ilya@gmail.com)
To: Todd Tanner
Subject: Re: My dog is sick
Dates: 2023-12-26 → 2023-12-27

Ilya's numbered proposal to Todd (quoted back in the reply):

"1. I would like you to be a part of the company, so I will buy 23% for $10k, you will keep 10%."

Ilya's follow-up after Todd provisionally accepts:

"Thanks for your answer. I definitely want you to be the part of the team. You worked too hard to just walk away from it all. I need your address in order to complete the wire."

And Todd's reply in the same thread:

"Honestly, I would rather sell it all and become an employee as I am tired of trying to get treated like a partner instead of a form of cheap labor who is otherwise ignored. ... If required, I agree."

Then Ilya wires the $10K to Todd's personal address (8377 Main St Apt 1, Interlaken NY).

Why it matters: This is Ilya — the registered Manager (MGR) on the LLC's Florida filings, and the Member who became the largest single equity holder after the December 2023 purchase (approximately 56% post-purchase: roughly 33% founding interest plus the 23% he bought from Todd). He is characterizing the December 2023 transaction IN HIS OWN WRITING as (a) a purchase of 23% of Todd's equity, (b) leaving Todd as a 10% Member of the company going forward, and (c) explicitly REJECTING Todd's offer to "sell it all and become an employee." Ilya chose Member-retention over employee-conversion. That choice forecloses any 2026 characterization of Todd as an employee terminable "for cause" via PayPal memo. Vince retains approximately 30-33% of his own — or whatever is left after his undisclosed 1%-per-$10K investor sales, which have never been documented to the 10% Member.

16. Ilya's 2023-07-31 three-way partnership description + confirmation Vince borrowed from relatives

From: Ilya Sorokin
To: Todd Tanner
Subject: Re: Email to Xin,
Date: 2023-07-31

"In our relationship, it was always clear that I was providing funding, Vince was dealing with operational responsibilities and you deal with tech."

And in the same email:

"He borrowed money from his closest relatives so that he could pay you, he even increased your pay using this money."

Why it matters:

  • Three-way role division in Ilya's own words. Ilya = funding; Vince = operations; Todd = tech. This is an owner/partner structure, not an employer-employee hierarchy. No employer describes their relationship to an employee as "you deal with tech" equivalent with "I was providing funding" and "Vince was dealing with operational responsibilities."
  • Independent second-source corroboration of the secret-deal narrative. Ilya admits on the record that Vince borrowed from "closest relatives" to pay Todd. This aligns exactly with Vince's own 2022-04-12 admission that his mom and sister Lisa were investors at $10K each. Ilya knew about it. The $30K+ that flowed into 3DGM from the Lindow family is corroborated from two independent Manager-level sources.
  • "Increased your pay using this money." Ilya is stating that the Lindow-family investor capital was used to fund payments to Todd — i.e. that the investor funds were commingled with Member distributions via Vince's PayPal rail, not segregated on LLC books.

17. Ilya's 2023-08-07 "OUR business / your business as much as it is ours"

From: Ilya Sorokin
To: Todd Tanner
Subject: This is urgent
Date: 2023-08-07

"I want to talk about OUR business. ... I hope you make a smart decision — it is your business as much as it is ours."

"For years we let you do whatever you wanted, at your own pace and unknown deliverables. You can thank Vince for that, by the way, he was your biggest supporter."

Why it matters: Ilya is describing an owner-level relationship — Todd's autonomy over his own pace and deliverables, the company described as "your business as much as it is ours," peer partnership phrasing throughout. This is not how any employer describes an employment relationship. Ilya's own words here, four months before he bought 23% from Todd, are directly inconsistent with the 2026 "severance" framing.

Direct rebuttal to "unknown deliverables": The deliverables were not unknown. See EVIDENCE-Todd-Deliverables-Projects-Inventory.md in this same folder, which catalogs 40+ distinct Visual Studio solutions authored solo by Todd for 3DGM (2014-2026), a public GMRender API SDK with worked DX9/DX11 example renderers distributed to third-party integrators, custom Drupal modules powering 3dgamemarket.net, and the open-source Rendusa 2D+Z media viewer served live at 3dgamemarket.net/rendusa/ and published at github.com/LostBeard/rendusa. Every page of the company's own public website carries the footer "3DGameMarket by Todd Tanner" — Ilya cannot credibly claim not to know what Todd was building while Ilya's company was publicly attributing authorship to him.

18. Ilya's documented abuse, financial threats, and psychological manipulation (2015-2023)

[!CAUTION]
Ilya consistently weaponized Todd's family's survival (rent/food) and his disability (anxiety) to enforce compliance, while explicitly denying employment status to avoid liabilities.

A. Coercion via Financial Survival (Rent/Food/Family)

  • "Meanwhile your family goes without pay. I hope you can explain to them why."

    • Source: [2023-07-31] "Re: Email to Xin,"
    • Context: Retaliation for Todd declining Z2D work. Direct coercion using Todd's family's well-being.
    • Legal Weight: Establishes a pattern of "economic duress" and predatory management.

  • "If I hold back, you will not have enough money to pay rent or to buy food, what I promised in order for us to have a payday as a team."

    • Source: [2017-01-06] "Re: Copyright"
    • Context: Explicitly linking payment (survival) to "partnership" compliance.

  • "This is what will put food on your family table! If you do not do it, we are done!"

    • Source: [2023-04-06] "Wake up call"
    • Context: Demanding participation in a late-night conference call despite Todd's documented anxiety.

B. Attacks on Disability (Anxiety/Mental Health)

  • "I hope your common sense prevails in spite of the mental issues that you are fighting with."

    • Source: [2023-07-31] "Re: Email to Xin,"
    • Context: Weaponizing Todd's anxiety/disability to dismiss his professional refusal of work.

  • "You asked me not to call you because you 'freeze' when I call. But I do not hear from you. ... I will pay today, but I need you to send me weekly update..."

    • Source: [2016-01-18] "Re: Work"
    • Context: Ilya acknowledges Todd's "freeze" response (disability) but immediately leverages payment to force a communication style that triggers it.

  • "It would be a lot easier if you just email your questions. It also would give me a chance to think about your questions as I get anxiety on the phone and it makes me babble."

    • Source: [2015-10-10] Todd to Ilya ("Re: Phone Call")
    • Context: Proves Todd formally notified Ilya of his disability and requested an accommodation (asynchronous communication) as early as 2015.

  • "not even capable to talk to me after 12 years of knowing me."

    • Source: [2023-08-07] "This is urgent"

C. Explicit Denial of Employment (Partnership Framing)

  • "You are not my slave, you are not my servant, you are definitely not my employee, etc. What you are - is my partner in 3D Game Market."
    • Source: [2017-01-06] "Re: Copyright" (Email idx: 115)
    • Why it matters: A definitive "smoking gun" where the Managing Member explicitly rejects the employer-employee relationship to enforce "partnership" duties.
    • Legal Weight: Establishes Equitable Estoppel; Ilya cannot legally claim Todd was an employee in 2026 after explicitly disclaiming that status in 2017 to secure Todd's "partner-level" commitment.

19. The August 2023 Rupture: Coordinated abuse and "Teaming Up"

[!CAUTION]
In late July and early August 2023, after Todd declined a 3rd-party project (Z2D), Ilya and Vince launched a coordinated psychological and financial assault to force compliance.

A. Coordinated Berating (July 31, 2023)

  • Ilya (1:33 PM): "Meanwhile your family goes without pay. I hope you can explain to them why... I hope your common sense prevails in spite of the mental issues that you are fighting with."
  • Vince (5:49 PM): "You reap what you sow... I work every day... you who have put very little money in, turn your nose up to [opportunities]... I am thinking about calling a vote to remove you."
    • Source: [2023-07-31] "Re: Email to Xin,"
    • Legal Weight: Demonstrates a same-day "tag-team" approach to pressure a Member through financial threats and attacks on mental health.

B. "Friendship" Retraction and Devaluation (August 2, 2023)

  • "I considered you a friend and do not any more. We are business partners and that is it. I will no longer defend your ridiculous actions... Your days of holding this company hostage are over."
  • "You are great at programing and sadly because of this you think you are some sort of genius. Well in programing maybe but that is where it ends."
    • Source: [2023-08-02] "3DGM user TUFEIXP needs his account extended..."
    • Context: Vince explicitly moving the relationship from "friendship" to "adversarial partner" while demeaning Todd's cognitive abilities.

C. Admission of Partnership While Threatening Legal Action (August 6, 2023)

  • "You are listed as a partner of 3D Game Market and it will be up to the court to decide that matter if it comes to that."
    • Source: [2023-08-06] "Re: Debts"
    • Why it matters: Vince explicitly acknowledges Todd's status as a "listed partner" while simultaneously using the threat of litigation to coerce labor for the Z2D project.

20. The "Safe Battery" (Oct 2017) - Ilya's Exclusive Control

From: Vincent Lindow (vlindowjr@gmail.com)
Date: 2017-10-18
Context: Todd is asking for a code-signing certificate to continue work. Vince explains why the paperwork is unavailable.

"Ilya locked all of our paperwork up in his safe and the battery died. He has to go through a lot of hoops with the company of the safe to get it open. So he is getting duplicates sent out to him from Delaware. ... We need that paperwork for not only the code signing certificate but also Ali pay."

Why it matters:

  • Exclusive Control: Documented admission that the Managing Member (Ilya) maintained exclusive physical control over corporate records (Delaware formation docs, etc.) in a private safe.
  • Access Refusal (Proximate): The "dead battery" excuse serves as a contemporaneous documentation of TJ's inability to access corporate records, supporting the 2023-2026 "books and records" refusal claims.
  • Jurisdictional Proof: Confirms the company was still "Delaware" in 2017, predating the fraudulent Florida move.

21. The "German Team" Pitch (Oct 2025) - Sole Programmer & Dormancy Admissions

Source: Audio Excerpt 2025-10-21-vince-reads-german-team-pitch-five-years-stopped.md
Date: 2025-10-21
Context: Vince reads aloud a written pitch he sent to a German prospective partner (3D Global / Stan).

Admission: Sole Technical Contributor

Vince: "Because as we all know, we only have one programmer, and that's you." [00:17:16]

Admission: Five-Year Development Stop (Dormancy)

Vince: "As far as the artifacts go, I agree with everything they are saying and that is why we quit working on this code over five years ago." [00:10:28]

Admission: IP Negligence (Patent unfiled)

Vince: "We have a patent written for this, but not filed." [00:13:37]

Why it matters:

  • Misclassification: Vince admits on tape that 100% of the LLC's technical work is performed by Todd.
  • Governance Fraud: Admits the LLC (controlled by Ilya/Vince) has been technically "dormant" since 2020, despite Ilya soliciting investment/buy-ins (like the 2023 TJ equity buy-back) under the premise of an active development company.
  • IP Leverage: The unfiled patent is not just "negligence"; it is a documented defensive action by Todd. He explicitly informed the partners that he would not sign over his software ideas to the LLC until they cured their breach of his statutory right to inspect the company's books. (See Section 23 for verbatim quote).

22. The "Army Simulator" & "Mako" (Oct 2022) - Customer Identifiers

Source: Audio Excerpt 2022-10-04-vince-partner-in-florida-and-payroll-stall.md
Date: 2022-10-04
Context: Vince discussing customer pipeline and past failures.

Vince: "America's best working" / "The Army simulator" (identifying 3DGM customers/projects)
Vince: "The Mako" customer identity - took 3DGM free work and went to competitor.

Why it matters:

  • Deliverable Documentation: Identifies specific third-party projects (Army simulator) that rebut any claim of "unknown deliverables."
  • Exploitation: Identifies "Mako" as a case where 3DGM (via Vince) gave away Todd's labor for free to a competitor.

23. The "Patent-for-Books" Leverage (Aug 2023) - Strategic Refusal

Source: Email archive-3, idx: 836 / "LLC Advice addendum"
Date: 2023-08-02
Context: In a comprehensive memo outlining the partnership's breakdown, Todd documents his reasoning for refusing to cooperate on Intellectual Property filings.

"Vince and Ilya want to patent my methods and techniques but again I told them I refuse to consider it while they are refusing to give me access to our companies financial data. They of course again attack me for damaging the company."

Why it matters:

  • Intentional Defense: Proves that the "unfiled patent" mentioned by Vince in 2025 was the direct result of Todd exercising his rights as a Member to protect his IP until the LLC complied with governance requirements (FL Ch. 605).
  • Notice of Breach: Confirms that the partners were put on notice that IP cooperation was contingent on legal compliance, which they refused, choosing instead to "attack" Todd for "damaging the company."
  • Rebuttal to "Job Abandonment": Reframes the refusal to "do the job" (Z2D/Patents) as a legitimate protective measure by an owner, not a failure of an employee.

24. The "$1,000,000 Debt" Fraud Attempt (Circa 2020)

Source: Email archive-3, idx: 836
Date: 2023-08-02 (reporting 2020 event)

"Vince has lied about how much we owe our other partner Ilya. He told me at 1 point that we owed Ilya around $1,000,000.00 (this was around 2020.) I told Vince 'I did not owe him that' as I never had access to any money or even information about what money was being spent on. Vince eventually told me never mind. I can only assume because he knew I would want proof."

Why it matters:

  • Financial Misrepresentation: Documented attempt by the partners to fabricate or grossly inflate LLC debt to a Member (Ilya) to dilute Todd's interest or justify withholding payments.
  • Pattern of Deceit: Supports the claim that the financial records were obscured specifically to facilitate this type of accounting fraud.

25. Admission of Work Effort (70+ Hour Weeks for Minimum Wage)

Source: Email archive-3, idx: 836

"I spent countless days frequently working 18 hours and easily 70+ hour weeks while getting nothing more than as much pay as a minimum wage employee would for 2 days. I had hoped that when we started making more money it would even out."

Why it matters:

  • Labor Exploitation: Establishes the extreme disparity between the value provided (technical development of 2 separate 3D conversion methods) and the compensation received.
  • Investment of Sweat Equity: Bolsters the argument that Todd's interest in the company is rooted in massive uncompensated labor (quasi-partnership) rather than a simple at-will employment relationship.

26. Admission of Project Valuation ($100,000 Z2D Value)

Source: Email archive-3, idx: 836

"The job I have refused to do is being valued at $100,000.00. We would supposedly be paid partially in cash, product discounts from the 3rd party asking for the project which we would resell, and a % of all sales they make on the project."

Why it matters:

  • Economic Value of TJ's Labor: Admission that a single project Todd was asked to perform had a market value of $100,000, contradicting any claim that his work was "personal indulgence" or of negligible value.
  • Damages Basis: Provides a concrete baseline for calculating back-pay and lost equity value.

27. The "My Shares" Admission (Sep 2022) - Equity Allocation Dispute

Source: Email archive-2, idx: 815
Date: 2022-09-23

"Fine I will pay the investors out of my shares. Problem solved that was easy. One less thing for you to worry about." — Vince Lindow Jr.

Why it matters:

  • Equity Affirmation: Vince's admission confirms that Todd's ownership interest was NOT diluted by these investors, as Vince conceded the equity came solely from his own personal allocation after Todd challenged the lack of financial transparency.

28. Vince ties "the books" to source-code access and admits "partners withhold things" — 2023-11-03

From: Vincent Lindow Jr. (vince@3dgamemarket.com)

To: Todd Tanner (lostit1278@gmail.com)

Subject: Re: Update

Date: 2023-11-03 (same thread as Todd's "broke LLC law by violating my legal right to see the books" reply)

Context: Todd had been demanding Member-level financial transparency; Vince and Ilya had been pressuring Todd to deliver / characterize 3DGM source code. In this reply Vince explicitly juxtaposes books visibility with how often Todd "let" them see source code, then mirrors that as mutual "withholding" between partners.

Longer paragraph (books justified by low revenue + source code seen only once):

"This was never intentionally held from you as before these, there are no books that I know of and any money we got from Deepub went back into the business. I never thought this was a bad thing with the books as we had no or little revenue and you have only let us see the source code once. Thousands of dollars that was supposed to be paid by DeePub was not paid and I have copies of the emails requesting it and there responses. No money was ever withheld from you."

Admission (same message, immediately after QuickBooks / bank-access promises):

"I do understand your frustration with not seeing the books. I have seen the source code once. It does suck when partners withold things. I will not do it anymore."

(Original email spells withold; preserved verbatim.)

Todd's same-thread rebuttal (IP vs books — not a wage demand):

From: Todd Tanner

Date: 2023-11-03 (reply same day)

"I told you and Ilya from the get go that the source code and IP is mine and that 3DGameMarket has an exclusive license to the product. The fact you even saw the source code once is due to the extortion you and Ilya used to get it. You and Ilya however broke LLC law by violating my legal right to see the books for 10 years."

Why it matters:

  • Conditional / reciprocal framing in Vince's own words: He links frustration over books to frequency of source-code visibility ("only let us see the source code once"), supporting Todd's narrative that access to records was bargained against delivery of IP — not a clean employer "work for hire" pipeline.
  • Partner-level characterization: "It does suck when partners withold things" is Vince describing the relationship as between partners who withhold from each other, inconsistent with a simple at-will employee who must surrender all code on demand.
  • Written concession: Vince admits understanding Todd's complaint about not seeing books and labels the dynamic as withholding he "will not do it anymore" — useful for timeline and pattern (books/access disputes) even if later conduct diverged.
  • Todd's contemporaneous IP + statutory framing: Exclusive-license model and "legal right to see the books" stated the same day counters any retroactive story that Todd was always treating company code as purely corporate property with no Member conditions.

Documentary backup: Full thread extraction, Message-IDs, and Gmail thread ID 1781472207089318487 in D:/3DGM Legal/2023-11-03-todd-to-vince-broke-llc-law-and-vince-admission.md. Cross-index: EVIDENCE-Books-Refusal-Pattern-Master-Index.md.

29. Supplemental Ilya-authored material (controlled tone — high legal signal)

Purpose: Ilya’s writing is usually less chaotic than Vince’s, but these passages are not fully broken out elsewhere in this cheat sheet. They show (a) IP / “company owns the product” pressure, (b) personal dependence / “carrying you” framing, (c) explicit owner-not-employee + funder leverage, (d) funding cut-off threats, and (e) minimization of books requests while acknowledging anxiety. Sources preserved in _research/docs/_scan_ilya_abuse_CURATED.md and _research/docs/_debug_ilya_threats_FULL.txt (grep ethical values, kiss your ass, not funding 3DGM).

A. [2017-03-15] Re: How to make 3DGM and KDX work together? — IP, reciprocity, dependence, NY verbal agreements, “ethical values”

From: Ilya Sorokin

To: Todd Tanner

"…The product that we have developed belongs to the company not just to Todd Turner. I have been funding your work for over 4 years in good faith, and definitely expect the same in return. … Right now you might feel like the king of the mountain, but you would not get where you are now without me and Vince. If you do not see it, you are short sighted.

Just for your info, verbal agreements are legally binding in the state of New York, just in case my assessment of your ethical values is incorrect."

Why it matters: Controlled, lawyer-adjacent diction — but content is IP capture (“belongs to the company not just to Todd Turner”), quid pro quo on funding vs deliverables, economic dependence, and an implied threat (NY law + questioning “ethical values”). Pairs against Todd’s exclusive-license and Member books positions.

B. [2017-03-15] Same thread — numbered clarification (employment denial + “OUR business”)

"3. MOST IMPORTANT - you are not my employee, I am not paying your salary, I do not own 3DGamemarket. It is OUR business which I am keeping afloat in hopes that all of us will make money from it."

Why it matters: Second 2017 Ilya not-an-employee statement (distinct thread from the Jan 6, 2017 “Re: Copyright” email already cited in Item 18). Reinforces equitable estoppel pattern across multiple dates.

C. [2017-05-05] Re: Coding — “paying your bills,” “carrying you,” crude humiliation

From: Ilya Sorokin

To: Todd Tanner

"…I appreciate your work and efforts much more than you appreciate me paying your bills for the last 4 years. Instead of thank you, I get a feeling that you feel that I owe you something. … if I thought of you as my employee we would not have these conversations. … Does it men that I will kiss your ass - absolutely not! Nor would I expect to kiss mine because I have been carrying you for so long. … your are kicking ass and we would not be here without you. You just have to realize that we would not be here without Vince or me either!"

Why it matters: Patron / funder dominance and degrading language while still admitting partner framing (“if I thought of you as my employee…”). Useful for hostile-environment / severity and for rebutting any portrait of Ilya as a distant passive investor.

D. [2017-10-26] Re: Deepub Contract — “pizza” / owner status / “carrying you and Vince for 6 years”

From: Ilya Sorokin

To: Todd Tanner

"Your argument about delivering pizza would be totally valid if you were an employee of the company, but you are not - you are the owner. And the only reason you still have this status is because I have been carrying you and Vince for 6 years (like it or not). You and Vince have been working very hard, but you did not do it for me or my company, you did and still doing it for yourself and your company."

Why it matters: Ilya in writing calls Todd the owner, admits years of financial carry, and uses contemptuous analogy (“delivering pizza”) to dismiss Todd’s grievance — inconsistent with a arms-length employer treating a minimum-wage worker, and inconsistent with later employee/severance framing.

E. [2023-04-03] Re: Coffee — books minimization + anxiety + “hundreds of thousands”

From: Ilya Sorokin

To: Todd Tanner

"Thanks for the update. I understand your anxiety and that is the reason we have not been communicating. … You keep on asking about financial reports - frankly I am not sure what you are hoping to find there, every dollar (as little as we have) goes to pay you and Vince … I have been funding this company for years and years, hundreds of thousands of dollars without getting one penny in …"

(Truncated in corpus; full body in _scan_ilya_abuse_CURATED.md §2 and emails-from-ilya.md.)

Why it matters: Acknowledges anxiety then dismisses books (“not sure what you are hoping to find”) — same period as escalating pressure. Supports pattern: financial opacity + disability-aware management.

F. [2023-04-08] Re: Meeting Recap — funding ultimatum (Z2D pipeline)

From: Ilya Sorokin (mobile)

"Just want to put everyone on notice - if my emails are ignored I am not funding 3DGM any longer."

Why it matters: Plain economic coercion in one sentence — three weeks before the July–Aug 2023 Z2D rupture window. Shows Ilya’s controlled voice still issuing all-or-nothing funding threats.

G. [2017-08-03] Re: $300 left to pay on car — Ilya to Vince (triangulation about Todd)

From: Ilya Sorokin

To: Vincent Lindow Jr. (not Todd)

"…It is almost like Todd saying that he is the only one working and we are having a free ride, even though both of us know he would not be anywhere without our support."

Why it matters: Not sent to Todd, but admissibility is for counsel; it shows how Ilya characterized Todd internally during the same era as the “carrying you” emails — undercut / free ride narrative while Ilya funded.

30. Second-pass Ilya — Jul/Aug 2023 completeness + Jan 2019 “falls on Todd” (attribution note)

Purpose: Another pass through emails-from-ilya.md surfaced Ilya-only lines that were easy to miss because the 2023-07-31 message in the archive embeds a long quoted block from Vince (profanity, “moron,” lawyer/police threats) below Ilya’s own paragraphs. Do not attribute Vince’s quoted text to Ilya. Ilya’s own paragraphs are still high-signal for control, pay conditioning, and character attacks. This item also pulls Aug 7, 2023 lines not quoted in Item 17, and the Jan 14, 2019 “friend and partner / all falls on Todd” block (cross-ref EVIDENCE-2015-2024-Z2D-KDX-Biao-Decade-Long-Customer-Plus-Ilya-2019-Partner-Admission.md in _research/docs/).

A. [2023-07-31] ilya@3dgamemarket.com — “Re: Email to Xin,” (Ilya’s own words to Vince, Todd & Parts Cc’d)

From: Ilya Sorokin (ilya@3dgamemarket.com)

To: Vince — Cc: Todd, Peter Parts

"You are not running your own show and can not make the decisions that hurt the company (and you in the process by the way). If you are not working you are not getting paid, I believe even you understand this."

… "But as far as business is conserved your actions are detrimental to it."

"In the past you came around after a few days past your ridiculous outbursts apologized to Vince and completed the work. So I will hope for her same."

… "On the last note - if you are not going to do it, we are done as a company - we loose the revenue and the monitor for which we waited for more than 10 years."

Attribution: Immediately after this, the same email in emails-from-ilya.md contains Vince’s reply (starting “The letter you wrote to Xin is unacceptable…”) including threats of lawyer, police, sue — that block is Vince, not Ilya.

Why it matters: Ilya in his own voice: denies Todd unilateral Member-level decision rights, pay-for-work, “detrimental” / “ridiculous outbursts” characterization, and company-death conditional — same day as the family / “mental issues” lines already in Item 18–19, but these sentences are the business-control half of the tag team.

B. [2023-08-07] “This is urgent” — additional lines (beyond Item 17)

From: Ilya Sorokin (ilya@3dgamemarket.com)

To: Todd Tanner

"If they go to another vendor or hire people internally to get this done, we loose not only this opportunity and money, but also our position in the market place."

"I do not know if you inherited money or do not need the money anymore, it is your and your family's call."

Why it matters: Vendor-loss / market-position pressure plus wealth-shaming (“inherited money”) in the same Z2D escalation week as Item 17 — useful for severity and pattern alongside “OUR business” / “not capable to talk to me.”

C. [2019-01-14] “State of the affairs” — sole engineer + explicit “partner” sign-off

From: Ilya Sorokin (sorokin.ilya@gmail.com)

To: Todd Tanner

"I know it all falls on Todd, and I am sorry that neither Vince or I can help you with this. We can not learn programming, and we can not even bring somebody else to help because it would take too much time to teach that person."

… "Your friend and partner,

Ilya"

Why it matters: 4.5 years before the Aug 2023 “unknown deliverables” insult, Ilya admits the engineering bottleneck is entirely Todd and that substitution is impractical — inconsistent with treating Todd as a fungible employee. “Your friend and partner” is his own closing, not Todd’s label.

D. ActForex / ActTrader addresses (is@actforex.com, is@acttrader.com) — this pass

Finding: Outbound 3DGM-related content from those addresses in this export is mostly operational (e.g. 2014-03 logo thread to you and Vince; 2018-11-10 is@acttrader.com — “Just sent you $1000” for car repair). 2013-05 thread shows Todd raising security concern that a server might be Actforex-shared; Ilya/Vasyl arrange VPS — useful for infrastructure / control themes, not a new “smoking gun” sentence from Ilya.

How to use this file

  • Take to counsel. These 30 items are the highest-value individual pieces of ammunition in the file.
  • For each, the exact source email ID / thread can be pulled from _master-all-sources.jsonl via grep on the quoted text.
  • Strategic Narrative: These quotes prove that 3DGM was a partnership when they wanted to exploit Todd's labor and "owner-level" commitment, but was suddenly framed as an employment relationship in 2026 when they wanted to "fire" him without Member-level buyouts. The abuse quotes (Items 18-19) prove that this "partnership" was maintained through economic duress, coordinated bullying, and exploitation of a known disability. Item 28 documents Vince tying financial transparency to source-code access and admitting partners were "withholding things" — the code-for-books pressure in his own words. Item 29 pulls additional Ilya lines (often more restrained than Vince’s) that still show IP pressure, funding leverage, owner-not-employee admissions, books minimization, and funding ultimatums — useful when defendants portray Ilya as a detached funder who “could not have known.” Item 30 adds (a) full Jul 31, 2023 Ilya control/pay/detriment language with an attribution wall against Vince’s nested rant, (b) extra Aug 7, 2023 coercion lines, (c) the Jan 14, 2019 sole-engineer + “friend and partner” admission, and (d) a negative finding on ActForex/ActTrader outbound (mostly logistics / payment stub).

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