This article will provide an update to the previous article, Is Dread Administrator, HugBunter, Scamming Vendors as Ghost. This article and several others have been delayed due to my ongoing health issues.

In this article I'll go over HugBunter's response to the article.

1. Conversation with NextGeneration
2. Response to the Article
3. More Lies
4. HugBunter's Desperate PMs and More Proof

HugBunter's Conversation with NextGeneration

In the previous article I posted a conversation between vendor NextGeneration and HugBunter:

When I asked HugBunter to explain the conversation he said:

My involvement with helping Ghost establish his server setup and recommendations before I parted ways with him is very much known, so don't manipulate it into something its not.

Something it's not? The screenshot shows HugBunter spent 10 months setting up all the vendor stores. Including configuring crypto nodes, demo links, DDOS protection and permissions fixes.

HugBunter initially censored this screenshot from Dread, and claimed all he did was help Ghost "with his setup scripts and infrastructure planning".

During the conversation HugBunter repeatedly states things like:

I promise you I have been working non stop.

I appreciate your patience, you will not be disappointed!

Staying awake now until these 2 shops are live at least.

I just took a 2 hour nap I couldn't keep my eyes open any more, but I'm working until you are up and running

Again, the article should end here as it's obvious Ghost is HugBunter, but I'll continue.

Response to the Article

HugBunter responded to the article publicly on Dread after it was published. His main quotes from the response:

Ghost is someone who has been around in the community for a long time and has the technical knowledge to run a platform of this caliber, as well as I trust in his morals enough that I believed he would be an ideal candidate to be running shops for vendors.

So "Ghost" has the the technical knowledge to setup and run the stores, and HugBunter trusts him, but HugBunter was the one who setup all the servers and did all the work, while Ghost did nothing.

Initially when vendors asked me, I vouched in this same way, which I later retracted as I shouldn't be vouching for anyone regardless of what I believe, I don't know their true intentions.

So suddenly HugBunter doesn't trust Ghost anymore, after spending 10 months doing all the work for him, and being the point of contact for vendors.

The shops were taken down with all vendors paid out for their orders, so no one lost any funds from the closure itself, they are only out money from what they put into their servers.

HugBunter repeatedly states "no one lost any funds from the closure itself, they are only out money from what they put into their servers" and "only a handful of vendors lost a 10k total to their servers". He consistently minimizes the money the the vendors paid Ghost for their servers, as if it doesn't matter.

Now for him to solve this, he needs to replace their servers, which I believe he is still in the process of doing and I've read messages as well as spoke to vendors directly, where he has updated them infrequently on this. At this moment in time, I believe him to be working on getting the shops restored, so no one would be out of money as well as he had offered them part solutions to help them up until that point.

Nearly a year later, no shops are online and Ghost has vanished.

Any comments wiped were what I set up in a cron because the same user or group of users were also pushing this FUD.

This doesn't make any sense because the comments were from a wide range of users and vendors. The only constant were all the comments claimed HugBunter was Ghost. When I asked for more information about this HugBunter ghosted me.

Read HugBunter's full response here.

More Lies

When initially addressing the claims that he was Ghost, HugBunter said:

I do not have time to be fucking about with vendor shops, its another reason I stopped doing so many years ago.

I also don't have time for shit like this, I'm working on many things to expand the Dread network and we handle a lot of things that go on here

I literally wasn't even online to be aware of this.

These are blatant lies, which he even disproved himself when admitted he "helped" setup the stores.

He spent 10 months working tirelessly, to the point where he "couldn't keep his eyes open anymore", on the stores. Somehow, HugBunter wants people to believe he did this all for someone he doesn't even trust.

The whole reason this became a problem is because I wasn't online when they had a problem and they assumed my referral was some scam attempt, when in reality I had no other involvement.

Not be behind the Ghost stores either, I gave my recommendation based on it being a respected member of the community, no conspiracy needed.

Another lie. He left out that he setup all the stores, and was the point of contact for the vendors.

HugBunter's Desperate PMs and More Proof

Recently HugBunter commented on a post regarding Ghost's disappearance:

The Tor Times article was cooked up as an attack on my reputation for their gain, they don't just run Tor Times

Apparently it's okay for HugBunter makes baseless claims like this, but when others provide several pieces of evidence it's called spreading FUD.

When I asked HugBunter why hasn't replied to my messages for over a month he said:

Already answered everything regarding it, especially in comments on the article. Your PMs became irellevant, so I decided to not let anything else become twisted with it. I'm only ever here trying to do good, if I wanted to make money I could quite easily without involving myself with vendors. Anything I'm asked you get a straight answer, your article is completely incorrect and there is nothing more to it.

More

I'm bored of it at this point, its disrespectful towards me and I'm used to this type of shit, its been happening for years. I'll continue doing what I do, but you lost your position as a reputable news source that is for sure. I see a lot of things, I would never publish it to the community without actual evidence. There are and have been many things I have been 100% sure of in my mind, DS' intentions for example, that's not enough for me to publish anything about it still because I don't have proof, I do not share any possibly bias theories I have.

Why would I answer anything further to you now, you've done nothing but set up a news site, which I supported you on and now you're looking to create controversy for your own gain. End of conversation, I won't be involving myself in this further again, unless there is anything necessary to warn about regarding Ghost. If I can catch him online over the next week I will be telling him its time to address the public rather than just the vendors.

So HugBunter has made it clear he won't be addressing the situation anymore or responding to me further.

However, after he said all this I then responded:

the link to the shops puts Dread at risk and myself. The point was to always distance myself from them, because of the heat it brought when I launched my original shops years back.

The idea was to not publicize the fact I am running them, all the vendors are comfortable now that I am back. Baring in mind, when I couldn't be here, the last thing I had done was leave them with the demo shop for bug testing.

Shortly after I posted this it was completely wiped and HugBunter quickly spammed me with messages:

He first insults me, then resorts to begging for me to reply, and saying that if I made a article of what "really happened" it would be good content, lol.

Initially he said my PMs were irrelevant and this site wasn't reputable anymore, but now suddenly they are relevant enough for him to spam me with messages.

This is HugBunter's ever changing story:

1. Initially he claimed he only referred the vendors to Ghost and had no other involvement.
2. Then he claimed he helped Ghost with infrastructure planning.
3. After that he claimed he only helped setup the initial shops.
4. Now he claims the entire operation was his, but he "passed it on" to Ghost, someone he states he doesn't trust.

There is a reason that, nearly a year after the initial controversy, HugBunter still insists no one was scammed. This is because in addition to him being a liar, it would make him a scammer.