Pages

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Former AMX VP-turned-felon David Goldenberg tells his side of the story


It's a good thing that former AMX exec David Goldenberg was sentenced to psychological counseling along with his three years probation for intercepting emails from a Crestron rep.

There is something seriously wrong with him.

In a blog titled Don't Believe Everything You Read, Goldenberg tells his side of the story because the press evidently got a few things wrong.

"Let me explain a few things that have been written about me, but are completely untrue or misleading," he says.

Then he goes on to re-publish two very unflattering AP stories written about his arrest and subsequent guilty plea for federal wiretapping, followed by this:

Let me first say that I am truly sorry for the things I did and never meant for things to transpire the way they did. That being said, let me set the record straight on a number of issues.
These are some of the things that shoddy journalists (like myself, presumably) got wrong, according to Goldenberg:

1. Marla Suttenberg, owner of Sapphire Marketing, the Crestron rep firm whose computers were hacked by Goldenberg, was never really a friend of the felon's. Those ballets they attended together were nothing more than business affairs. OK, now I get why he hacked into Sapphire's computers.

2. Goldenberg did in fact interview with Crestron before taking a job with archrival AMX, but the interview was arranged by Suttenberg herself, of all things!

3. When Goldenberg took the job at AMX, people at Sapphire bad-mouthed him! Worse, Sapphire hired one of his AMX employees without so much as a courtesy call to Goldenberg! Now if that doesn't warrant wiretapping, I don't know what does.

4. To call Goldenberg a hacker is "an insult to real hackers." (He actually says this.) The press reported that Goldenberg guessed Sapphire staffers' passwords. The press evidently got it all wrong. Goldenberg wants us to know that he didn't guess the passwords; he learned that the employees were using their default passwords (their first names).

"I don't have to tell anyone that you shouldn't have your first name as your password," he writes. That'll teach 'em.

(To this, Marla Suttenberg notes that Goldenberg only hacked four of 11 email accounts, so not all of the employees were using their default passwords.)

Justification #4 is just too priceless to gloss over. In Goldenberg's words:

I'm not a hacker. The idea that I used pets names or personal information to access Sapphire's email is an insult to real hackers. I happened across one individuals information on his computer when he left AMX. I assumed that the ID (first name@sapphiremarketing) and password (first name) were default passwords and that the person who's information I lucked upon would change it immediately. What I didn't realize was that all of the employees passwords were their first name. Every ID was their first name@sapphiremarketing and their passwords were their first name. I don't have to tell anyone that you shouldn't have your first name as your password.
5. "Competition between AMX and Crestron is always fierce," Goldenberg says. AMX policy was to discount Crestron bids by 20 percent anyway, so it wasn't like Goldenberg was just underbidding Sapphire.

6. And anyways, Crestron managed to see AMX bids, too. So there.

7. Crestron must not have suffered too badly from Goldenberg's espionage if they declared December 2008 was a record month. "How could Sapphire have lost $1M and Crestron $10M if AMX was down for the year and Crestron had it's [sic] best month ever?" he asks. Good detective work, Mr. Goldenberg.

8. Goldenberg writes, "During my sentencing hearing, Ms. Suttenberg claimed that I had done irreparable damage to her firm. That her salespeople had to be more aggressive to win business and that the publicity of this case made it harder for her to win projects. What she doesn't mention is all of the publicity was generated by her firm."

OK, I'll give him that one.


Dude, how about that you stole emails from regular people – personal emails? That's just gross.

Dunk David Goldenberg in the EHX virtual dunking tank (top right poll)

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is what happens when you tread the psycho path. Or is it socio path? I wouldn't want the publicity of being corrected by the felon.

Anonymous said...

How come all you so called reporters vilify Goldenberg for what he did, but no one, I mean no one asks who or what was known by AMX. Are you all stupid? The guy may not have been the brightest, but what we're all supposed to believe is that no one at AMX knew. He was a VP, hired directly by the CEO and had access to Crestron information in their biggest region in the country.

How about doing some investigative reporting instead of just repeating what everyone else has said. Oh, that's right, you would actually have to do some work.

Anonymous said...

"How come all you so called reporters vilify Goldenberg for what he did, but no one, I mean no one asks who or what was known by AMX. Are you all stupid? The guy may not have been the brightest, but what we're all supposed to believe is that no one at AMX knew. He was a VP, hired directly by the CEO and had access to Crestron information in their biggest region in the country.

How about doing some investigative reporting instead of just repeating what everyone else has said. Oh, that's right, you would actually have to do some work."


Settle down Mr. Klein. I know it's killing you that the focus has been shifted off of AMX. Especially since Goldenberg has not implicated them in any way, when doing so probably would have made his life a whole lot easier. The big, bad CEO fired and rebuked him for his actions, so I'm sure he feels no loyalty there.

My God man, you think the authorities didn't do any investigation as to what AMX did or did not know or do? Don't you think the Suttenberg / Klein media machine would be all over the press if there were one teeny little shred of evidence that AMX was invloved in any way?


The funny thing is that Crestron / Saphire have always been the bad guys. They threaten dealers and customers if they want to use a different product. They'll flat out lie about AMX product or personnel. They are so incestuous with the Klein / Suttenberg husband / wife relationship.

AMX always had the high road. Mr. Goldenberg's actions have given fuel to Crestron machine as evidenced by this idiotic post.

Julie Jacobson said...

I truly believe AMX had no knowledge of Goldenberg's shenanigans.

Anonymous said...

Do you really believe Goldenberg didn't share whatever information he obtained with anyone at AMX? And if he did wouldn't you as either an employee or senior manager wonder where he was getting the information, especially if it was confidential information? You assume that the crack investigative staff of the Paramus, NJ police department would have verified whether AMX knew anything, but they never interviewed or spoke to one single employee.

Julie Jacobson, you are very naive. Do some research.

Julie Jacobson said...

Everyone gets everyone else's bids. Goldenberg just made it a little easier for himself.

Anonymous said...

So your response is "everyone gets everyone else's bids"

What your saying is what Goldenberg did was illegal and that everyone else is just unethical in our industry? So it's ok to you that Crestron gets AMX or Extron quotes or Polycom sees Tandberg's. What you're essentially saying is that the industry as a whole is basically corrupt and that there should be no expectation that if you send a dealer a quote for a product and provide them a fair price that they're not going to immediately send it off to a competing vendor.

And that's OK????

Anonymous said...

"...Paramus, NJ police department would have verified whether AMX knew anything, but they never interviewed or spoke to one single employee."

And how exactly do you know that the police never talked to a single AMX employee? Now look who's being naive. You are absolutely ridiculous. With all the charges that were brought against Goldenberg at his initial arrest, you think that there was NO investigation into AMX or it's employees?

Jeez Louise man. You got it bad for AMX. And you don't work for Crestron or Saphire?

Anonymous said...

I am not naive. Can't tell you how I know, but trust me. No one at AMX was ever questioned, not one person. The discovery documents only show Goldenberg and Sapphire employees being questioned. BTW - "Discovery" are the documents, emails, tapes, whatever shared by the prosecution with the defendant prior to a trial or plea.

Anonymous said...

This guy now works for a small boutique AV design build firm called JVN systems. Couldn't get a job anywhere. How is Crestron and Sapphire going to feel when they find out that JVN, a company registered with them, hired a felon who committed espionage against those said companies?

Anonymous said...

9/17/2017- don't you think that they would have figured that out by now? Or are you just stirring the ice cold pot?