Wally Moran has been running his little enterprises for years. In an online conversation with him a couple of years ago I challenged his legal presence in our country since he seems to always be around and is doing business here but is Canadian lwhen he admitted that he does not have a work visa. He responded by calling me vulgar names and blocking me.
By his "so called" actions for boater's rights and his "Pied Piper" style of sailing caravans (by charging inexperienced sailors' big money to follow him down the ICW known as "Fun in the Sun"), Moran has built an almost "cult like" following of naive people".
I believe that Moran leverages this to grow his online sales business of Sea Water Pro water makers and Mantus Anchors. It should be noted that US immigration law forbids the conduct of any business without a valid US work visa.
Your article is the first step in starting the process of rooting out this illegal alien.
It starts with his suppliers, CBP and most importantly, Moran's own pathetic defense of his actions online by claiming so many are conspiring against him.
Is Moran also a US citizen ? If not how does he get to spend so much time in the US ?
As Canadian Citizens it cost my wife and I $1100 to get a 3 month extension of our mandated 6 month limit in the US. This paid for an FBI check, fingerprinting and retinal scanning ... PS. Neither of us has any criminal record or civil judgements against us,
I read Mr Moran's note with its central theme of 'He alone can fix it', calling for volunteers to do all the work and take all the risk simply because he told them to. Presumably if he can get volunteers, their dedication will sustain his claim to authority and that's how it snowballs, while if he can't, it costs him nothing for the attempt.
This sort of barefaced effrontery is common in narcissists, which would make it of a piece with the unreasonable expectations, lack of self-accountability and rage when thwarted that were also reported.
Not all grifters are narcissists, but when fraud arises from narcissism there often is literally no other mode. Honesty, reasonableness and reciprocity are not part of the relationship and can't be motivated to occur.
In an earlier age, an inveterate grifter might be run out of town on a rail. In this age, it can take a legal judgement with substantial financial liability to make them move on to other hunting grounds.
But until that occurs, the sailing/cruising community has a high level of trust, reciprocity and pay-it-forward, making it an ideal place to prey.
I think that this is a valuable article, Peter. It demonstrates why such journalism is needed.
Very thorough and well-documented article, Peter. Thank you.
I listened to the SSCA audio. Very poor quality, but very informative and worth the effort to me. It was obvious there was no spirit of cooperation or good will with that board. While there may have been a case to be made, the confrontational style certainly closed that door.
With regard to the "Boater's Right Coalition" which Wally often disparages, I was the original founder of that effort and a founding member of the coalition's leadership team. I have several times, personally, explained to Wally why the coalition prefers to be, and to stay, independent from his efforts. First, while our respective efforts have some marginal overlap, in the main, they do not align. Wally purports to represent ALL ANCHORING INTERESTS, including on-water stored boats, long-term liveaboards and workforce housing liveaboards. The coalition represents the interests of short-term transients who cruise through communities, involving short-tern stays, via Florida state and federal waterways. The coalition does not represent those larger, different and legally complex interests. Secondly, and more importantly, the coalition members do not agree with Wally's interpersonal style, approach and tactics in dealing with community and state officials. We prefer a more collegial and cooperative approach, embracing mutual respect in dealing with legitimate, complex, conflicting needs between boaters and community leaders. Despite having explained this to him many times over the years, he continues to publicly bully and disparage the coalition, as though that would change our minds and embrace him. In reality, it just causes us to stay as far away from him as possible.
Thanks for bringing light to this unpleasant situation.
Thanks for your kind words. I fear the anchoring-rights battle will be lost because all power lies with the Florida legislature, and they are likely to oppose anything that Wally is for.
I met this scammer in Fernadina Beach in 2010. He had a female passenger that didn't look to happy about his false promises. We are from the same town in canada. He seemed genuine but I could tell something was off with this guy. I next seen him in marathon limping in with no prop and a new crew who was jumping ship because Waldo was broke and so was his boat. He tried to scam a friend of mine to give him a free prop in exchange for a review in his so called magazine that would make him lots of money. Fortunately the prop guy was smart enough to see his scam. I avoided him like the plague and never did see where he ended up. I hope he goes to another county where they seriously know how to deal with people like him.
Wally also uses alter-egos on FB 1) to get around their rules or group rules when he is suspended (usually for harrassing people with his bullying), and 2) to try to sell his stuff (including this new cruisers rights group). One of these fake accounts is Jayne Arpege. I think an Arpege is a type of Dufour and I know Wally's sad little flaccid red boat is a Dufour. "Jayne" is an account with no friends or personal posts, no online presence, and membership in only the groups that relate to Wally (posting especially when he gets put in FB jail). He has several Wally Moran accounts and I think is also Oscar McLean. Ironically, Wally's losing lawsuit against Jeffrey Siegel was for cyberstalking, but he appears to be the one stalking with all these accounts. He's a terrible ambassador for the cruising community, especially as he seems to be flagrantly ignoring the US immigration rules.
I've had the "pleasure" of a digital run in on FB with this nut. He was spouting all manner of erroneous bs before the November election (think cats and dogs and crime) and I called him out. He then proceeded to verbally attack friends of mine, accused me of having some super secret ability to selectively delete my FB responses so I wouldn't look bad, and then he got really nasty. I'm embarrassed he's got such a digital following in the cruising world.
Any balanced discussion about the current and proposed future status of anchoring rights in Florida has to include not only reasonable accommodation for cruisers, but funding for enforcement actions against those who abandon vessels in anchorages, or do not comply with pump out or approved discharge at sea laws that protect public health. As for Wally Moran, he’s just another worthless grifter from up north, come to Florida. His belligerence and record make him a poor representative for the cruising community. State is full to overflowing with recent transplants who don’t even know what has already been lost here. Old Florida didn’t draw big distinctions between cheap little homes on the water and a cheap old boats in the lagoon.
Wally Moran has been running his little enterprises for years. In an online conversation with him a couple of years ago I challenged his legal presence in our country since he seems to always be around and is doing business here but is Canadian lwhen he admitted that he does not have a work visa. He responded by calling me vulgar names and blocking me.
By his "so called" actions for boater's rights and his "Pied Piper" style of sailing caravans (by charging inexperienced sailors' big money to follow him down the ICW known as "Fun in the Sun"), Moran has built an almost "cult like" following of naive people".
I believe that Moran leverages this to grow his online sales business of Sea Water Pro water makers and Mantus Anchors. It should be noted that US immigration law forbids the conduct of any business without a valid US work visa.
Your article is the first step in starting the process of rooting out this illegal alien.
It starts with his suppliers, CBP and most importantly, Moran's own pathetic defense of his actions online by claiming so many are conspiring against him.
Is Moran also a US citizen ? If not how does he get to spend so much time in the US ?
As Canadian Citizens it cost my wife and I $1100 to get a 3 month extension of our mandated 6 month limit in the US. This paid for an FBI check, fingerprinting and retinal scanning ... PS. Neither of us has any criminal record or civil judgements against us,
Good question
He appears to run a business in the US. Is it possible he has a special work visa to do so?
I read Mr Moran's note with its central theme of 'He alone can fix it', calling for volunteers to do all the work and take all the risk simply because he told them to. Presumably if he can get volunteers, their dedication will sustain his claim to authority and that's how it snowballs, while if he can't, it costs him nothing for the attempt.
This sort of barefaced effrontery is common in narcissists, which would make it of a piece with the unreasonable expectations, lack of self-accountability and rage when thwarted that were also reported.
Not all grifters are narcissists, but when fraud arises from narcissism there often is literally no other mode. Honesty, reasonableness and reciprocity are not part of the relationship and can't be motivated to occur.
In an earlier age, an inveterate grifter might be run out of town on a rail. In this age, it can take a legal judgement with substantial financial liability to make them move on to other hunting grounds.
But until that occurs, the sailing/cruising community has a high level of trust, reciprocity and pay-it-forward, making it an ideal place to prey.
I think that this is a valuable article, Peter. It demonstrates why such journalism is needed.
Thank you for your kind words.
Very thorough and well-documented article, Peter. Thank you.
I listened to the SSCA audio. Very poor quality, but very informative and worth the effort to me. It was obvious there was no spirit of cooperation or good will with that board. While there may have been a case to be made, the confrontational style certainly closed that door.
With regard to the "Boater's Right Coalition" which Wally often disparages, I was the original founder of that effort and a founding member of the coalition's leadership team. I have several times, personally, explained to Wally why the coalition prefers to be, and to stay, independent from his efforts. First, while our respective efforts have some marginal overlap, in the main, they do not align. Wally purports to represent ALL ANCHORING INTERESTS, including on-water stored boats, long-term liveaboards and workforce housing liveaboards. The coalition represents the interests of short-term transients who cruise through communities, involving short-tern stays, via Florida state and federal waterways. The coalition does not represent those larger, different and legally complex interests. Secondly, and more importantly, the coalition members do not agree with Wally's interpersonal style, approach and tactics in dealing with community and state officials. We prefer a more collegial and cooperative approach, embracing mutual respect in dealing with legitimate, complex, conflicting needs between boaters and community leaders. Despite having explained this to him many times over the years, he continues to publicly bully and disparage the coalition, as though that would change our minds and embrace him. In reality, it just causes us to stay as far away from him as possible.
Thanks for bringing light to this unpleasant situation.
Thanks for your kind words. I fear the anchoring-rights battle will be lost because all power lies with the Florida legislature, and they are likely to oppose anything that Wally is for.
I met this scammer in Fernadina Beach in 2010. He had a female passenger that didn't look to happy about his false promises. We are from the same town in canada. He seemed genuine but I could tell something was off with this guy. I next seen him in marathon limping in with no prop and a new crew who was jumping ship because Waldo was broke and so was his boat. He tried to scam a friend of mine to give him a free prop in exchange for a review in his so called magazine that would make him lots of money. Fortunately the prop guy was smart enough to see his scam. I avoided him like the plague and never did see where he ended up. I hope he goes to another county where they seriously know how to deal with people like him.
He will be elected as the next senator from Florida. Oh wait - he needs to defraud millions more for that to happen.
Wally also uses alter-egos on FB 1) to get around their rules or group rules when he is suspended (usually for harrassing people with his bullying), and 2) to try to sell his stuff (including this new cruisers rights group). One of these fake accounts is Jayne Arpege. I think an Arpege is a type of Dufour and I know Wally's sad little flaccid red boat is a Dufour. "Jayne" is an account with no friends or personal posts, no online presence, and membership in only the groups that relate to Wally (posting especially when he gets put in FB jail). He has several Wally Moran accounts and I think is also Oscar McLean. Ironically, Wally's losing lawsuit against Jeffrey Siegel was for cyberstalking, but he appears to be the one stalking with all these accounts. He's a terrible ambassador for the cruising community, especially as he seems to be flagrantly ignoring the US immigration rules.
Can you attach a copy of the Ontario Superior Court decision to this article?
I have a copy and I think everyone should be able to read the full text of the judge's decision
Cheers
Do you think Wally will be disappointed to learn how few pennies are in that piggy bank!
Great work!
I've had the "pleasure" of a digital run in on FB with this nut. He was spouting all manner of erroneous bs before the November election (think cats and dogs and crime) and I called him out. He then proceeded to verbally attack friends of mine, accused me of having some super secret ability to selectively delete my FB responses so I wouldn't look bad, and then he got really nasty. I'm embarrassed he's got such a digital following in the cruising world.
Any balanced discussion about the current and proposed future status of anchoring rights in Florida has to include not only reasonable accommodation for cruisers, but funding for enforcement actions against those who abandon vessels in anchorages, or do not comply with pump out or approved discharge at sea laws that protect public health. As for Wally Moran, he’s just another worthless grifter from up north, come to Florida. His belligerence and record make him a poor representative for the cruising community. State is full to overflowing with recent transplants who don’t even know what has already been lost here. Old Florida didn’t draw big distinctions between cheap little homes on the water and a cheap old boats in the lagoon.