Mommy Blogger McKMama's Bankruptcy Problems

[BankruptinNJ]

Eh, I have a couple of blogs and I never put anything too personal on it. Even though my blogs don't have my real name on them, it would be easy for anyone to find out, and if my real name ever got out, I would be embarrassed if I had talked about my bk or other problems. I mean I had THOUGHT writing about it when my bk was happening, but I decided not to. I thought at first that it would help others if I talked about it, but I decided against it. I started my blogs anonymously because I didn't want people at my job to know about them (the blogs, that is). Everything I have written on my blogs is true, but I don't use real names. I never make money on my blogs anyway, because that is not what I started them for.

It seems to me that this McMama uses a lot of religious talk to make herself out to be . . . what? It makes others sympathize with her, but not realizing that she is rather deceitful. She sure doesn't seem to mention on her blog about hiding assets during her bankruptcy. I'm sure that some of her "faithful" followers are shocked at her actions now.

TomTea: she (and her husband) seems to have underreported her earnings by a LOT, deliberately not paying her creditors even though she made so much money, traveling widely, cheated on her taxes, lying to the trustee, etc.

[TomTea31]

Do you get a 1099 for the advertising money you get from blog clicks, Tom?

Yes I do, if I make the threshold.

[ValleYum]

Yes I do, if I make the threshold.

Okay - she deffo made over the $600 threshold from Google AdSense. I don't see how she could possibly have neglected to list that money as an asset or income.

I mean I can see not listing the websites as an asset. Bankruptcy attorneys don't represent bloggers on the regular so that seems excusable to me.

She did not disclose the Paypal account that several advertisers and on-line photography students among others deposited money into. This was the Paypal account she failed to list at all - anywhere.

[TomTea31]

TomTea: she (and her husband) seems to have underreported her earnings by a LOT, deliberately not paying her creditors even though she made so much money, traveling widely, cheated on her taxes, lying to the trustee, etc.[/QUOTE]

Precisely why I say there could have been an alternative motive to filing. She certainly was, from what I understand, open about her filing bankruptcy. I have no idea why she thought she'd get away with hiding assets. Did she not have attorney?

Frankly I'm shocked at how much the Trustee claims she makes. holly cow, If I could do that I would be set!

[ValleYum]

Listening to the audio of their continued 341 was PAINFUL - I applaud her trustee, Mr. Doeling, for his patience. I would have yelled at her after about 10 minutes of her hemming and hawing.

[TomTea31]

Okay - she deffo made over the $600 threshold from Google AdSense. I don't see how she could possibly have neglected to list that money as an asset or income.

I mean I can see not listing the websites as an asset. Bankruptcy attorneys don't represent bloggers on the regular so that seems excusable to me.

She did not disclose the Paypal account that several advertisers and on-line photography students among others deposited money into. This was the Paypal account she failed to list at all - anywhere.

Oh she had to of known. They send you a 1099 and it's sent to IRS. My attorney thought I was nuts for insisting he put my blogging on my forms. He did not understand how lucrative it can be and I did not want the Trustee thinking I was one of those rich bloggers because I am definitively NOT at all.

My conspiracy theory What I am saying is I wonder if she filed for the publicity with the intention of not going through with it, with the goal of getting traffic, WITHOUT realizing she could not cancel the process? Traffic=click=mega buckaroos in the blogging world.

I dunno. I'm kind of stumped here. It's pretty strange to me that someone would be that stupid. I mean C'mon she's smart enough to make 148K a year blogging but can't ascertain that this isn't going to go well for her?

[BankruptinNJ]

Oh she had to of known. They send you a 1099 and it's sent to IRS. My attorney thought I was nuts for insisting he put my blogging on my forms. He did not understand how lucrative it can be and I did not want the Trustee thinking I was one of those rich bloggers because I am definitively NOT at all.

My conspiracy theory What I am saying is I wonder if she filed for the publicity with the intention of not going through with it, with the goal of getting traffic, WITHOUT realizing she could not cancel the process? Traffic=click=mega buckaroos in the blogging world.

I dunno. I'm kind of stumped here. It's pretty strange to me that someone would be that stupid. I mean C'mon she's smart enough to make 148K a year blogging but can't ascertain that this isn't going to go well for her?

My theory is that since she does not like paying her creditors or landlords or anyone else, she probably thought that by declaring bankruptcy she could get away with not paying them. She seems to feel very entitled.

Did she declare Chapter 7 or Chapter 13?

Also, her income would certainly put her over the means test, wouldn't it?

She just neglected to mention way too much information for it to be an accident.

I wish that I could make that much money blogging, too! But I blog mostly for fun.

[ValleYum]

She filed a 7.

I am snipping from a post I made on another site [with a couple of edits] so I don't have to retype:

The corrected income discovered by the Trustee only put MckMama $40k over the median annual income for Minnesota [for a family of 7]. With correct bookkeeping to capture her true business expenses, withholding proper federal and state taxes, and paying a premium for health insurance for 5 children and 2 adults she likely could have covered that [overage] amount and breezed through her 341 meeting and straight to a discharge 60 days later.

Sure they may have lost one of the trailers or some other assets they could not cover with an exemption – but they would have also have lost all of their debt. Too bad she apparently decided to not be truthful and [will likely] end up with a staggering debt load because of her deceit.

[Sweetpea3829]

Vall...lol, I THOUGHT I recognized you from elsewhere...but didn't want to say.

We really do need a secret handshake though...those of us from "the other side." LOL!

Tom...For a very long time now, I've wondered if there was more to this story than we knew...something that would explain the sheer stupiditiy of this particular person's choices.

I have never bought in to some of the armchair psych diagnosing that goes on from folks at Ms. Mckinney's "hater blog."

That said...as more and more has come out...gosh, I think they're spot on. I truly think she has a serious personality disorder. It is the ONLY thing that can explain to me, how a person could POSSIBLY do something like this, and think they could get away with it. The only thing.

I'm also more convinced that her husband left her after they filed the BK7 because he previously had no idea just how bad things were. If I were him, I'd be incredibly peeved upon finding out that MY vehicle had been repossessed while my spouse was raking in over 100k a year and traveling in Africa (repossessed WHILE the spouse was in Africa...what a kick to the nads).

He doesn't get a free pass in any of this...no way. But gosh, it sounds to me like he left all of the financial stuff up to her, not really paying much attention and holy moly what a mess she dug them in to.

One other theory I have on why she may have lied so badly...

The McKinney's have a long-established history of not paying their income taxes. It's possible that she underreported her income on previous tax years. Lies breed lies. If she did indeed hide income from the IRS, she would have been more or less forced to lie about her income on her bk7 to prevent the IRS from discovering her actual income.

Now...NOW she's in a world of trouble.

Yet SHE'S claiming she's hiring a prominent attorney to go after anybody and everybody that's talking about her and spreading "untruths." I wonder if this includes her Trustee, Mr. Gene Doeling? Because he seems pretty convinced she lied.

[jst4f]

I am guessing but I bet she reported income in her BK filing consistent with what she reported to the IRS which is why she has tax liens. The IRS got 1099s and other reports that showed she made more than reported and I suspect she had illegal expenses listed.

Not sure what all this says about her attorney but it can't be good. Was he taken in by her too?

Given there are multiple tax liens, the husband had to know there was something very wrong with his wife or he has been in denial for a long time.

I wonder what is the value of her blogs without her? Reading just a little of her blog suggests people buy stuff from her site due to her writings and being the owner. They are buying stuff from her site because they trust her and want to support her. If the trustee sells the site, without her continuing to be part of it, what value would it have? Not much?

While I am fascinated by this story and trying to understand how her mind works, it is really a very sad tale especially for her kids.

[Sweetpea3829]

I'm not sure what the deal is with their attorney. After the 341, when it became quite clear that they had under reported income, everybody expected the amended docs to update the income to what it actually is. But that didn't happen.

As to the value of her blogs...it's hard to say. There are some who think they are worth thousands and some who think otherwise. She's already working on a new blog, yet to be revealed. If you look at her FB, it's clear that she still has hundreds of supporters. But, her supporters seem to be like a revolving door. They realize what she truly is (a scam artist) and leave, but then she is able to quickly replace them. She is quite capable of quickly rebranding herself. In the past year, she has been a crunchy granola homeschooling mommy living in a half million dollar home. Then she was an RVing, photographing, junk-food eating mommy living on the road full-time. Then they ditched the MckMansion and became goat-farming, chicken-raising poor homeschoolers making homemade yogurt. Then she became the weight-loss, exercising, farming, natural eating, homeschooling mommy. Then she started with the weight-loss supplements and is now a weight-loss guru, kids are in public school and she's on her way to a divorce. Oh, and they are renting another semi-glamor home.

All of this in one year!

So she cycles through readers pretty quickly. But, she also has a lot, a LOT of readers that support her no matter what. Kind of cult-like.

[jst4f]

I'm not sure what the deal is with their attorney. After the 341, when it became quite clear that they had under reported income, everybody expected the amended docs to update the income to what it actually is. But that didn't happen.

As to the value of her blogs...it's hard to say. There are some who think they are worth thousands and some who think otherwise. She's already working on a new blog, yet to be revealed. If you look at her FB, it's clear that she still has hundreds of supporters. But, her supporters seem to be like a revolving door. They realize what she truly is (a scam artist) and leave, but then she is able to quickly replace them. She is quite capable of quickly rebranding herself. In the past year, she has been a crunchy granola homeschooling mommy living in a half million dollar home. Then she was an RVing, photographing, junk-food eating mommy living on the road full-time. Then they ditched the MckMansion and became goat-farming, chicken-raising poor homeschoolers making homemade yogurt. Then she became the weight-loss, exercising, farming, natural eating, homeschooling mommy. Then she started with the weight-loss supplements and is now a weight-loss guru, kids are in public school and she's on her way to a divorce. Oh, and they are renting another semi-glamor home.

All of this in one year!

So she cycles through readers pretty quickly. But, she also has a lot, a LOT of readers that support her no matter what. Kind of cult-like.

Cult like may be on target. Without her, or a devout and well known follower, runnig the site the blog and other websites would be of little value to anyone and won't bring much to the trustee and creditors. I would think the value of the site lies with her ability to 'cycle through readers'. I am curious how the trustee will handle the sale of the websites.

[TheBajan]

I'm not sure what the deal is with their attorney. After the 341, when it became quite clear that they had under reported income, everybody expected the amended docs to update the income to what it actually is. But that didn't happen.

As to the value of her blogs...it's hard to say. There are some who think they are worth thousands and some who think otherwise. She's already working on a new blog, yet to be revealed. If you look at her FB, it's clear that she still has hundreds of supporters. But, her supporters seem to be like a revolving door. They realize what she truly is (a scam artist) and leave, but then she is able to quickly replace them. She is quite capable of quickly rebranding herself. In the past year, she has been a crunchy granola homeschooling mommy living in a half million dollar home. Then she was an RVing, photographing, junk-food eating mommy living on the road full-time. Then they ditched the MckMansion and became goat-farming, chicken-raising poor homeschoolers making homemade yogurt. Then she became the weight-loss, exercising, farming, natural eating, homeschooling mommy. Then she started with the weight-loss supplements and is now a weight-loss guru, kids are in public school and she's on her way to a divorce. Oh, and they are renting another semi-glamor home.

All of this in one year!

So she cycles through readers pretty quickly. But, she also has a lot, a LOT of readers that support her no matter what. Kind of cult-like.

This all really just blows my mind!! How terribly sad for her children! I can't even imagine being so stupid or bold as to try the stuff she is trying to do. Somehow, I don't think this will end very pretty. I have a blog but I don't make any money from it at all. I wouldn't even know how to do that. While my blog is not anonymous and it is about personal experiences, I never post about anything TOO personal. My posts are only related to one particular aspect of my life and only in an attempt to encourage others. I decided before I began blogging just how transparent I was willing to be and to never impose on the privacy of my family with it. I'm not much into Facebook or reality shows or the like. I just don't get the whole craze with following other peoples lives. I really have enough in my own life to keep me busy. Having said that... I DID JUST READ THIS THREAD! Wow.... all I can say is wow!!

[nohoneymoney]

It is amazing how making lots of money, can make people begin to believe they can get away with anything. Headlines are full of these kind of stories. I don't think she is a crook in the strict meaning of the word but rather someone who believes they are above the law. She lives in her own little world where bad things happen to others. Like in her blog, she can talk her way out of anything.

A few years back we were almost taken advantage of by a true con-artist. Conning people was his only job. We were within an hour of losing $500 to this guy before the light went on and I figured out his scam. This blogger is not in the same league. Not only did this guy bilk others for millions, he got them to initially send money for his legal defense so he would be free to get their money back from the government.

In both cases it is the innocent and family members that are truly hurt. Her kids could be the real losers.

[papie]

Vall...lol, I THOUGHT I recognized you from elsewhere...but didn't want to say.

We really do need a secret handshake though...those of us from "the other side." LOL!

I thought some of the information you guys presented was from another site I frequent, I think we all come from the same place! Ironic.