A lot of Santa organizations today owe their very existence to the group that started it all:

the AMALGAMATED ORDER OF REAL BEARDED SANTAS

For nearly 13 years, it was THE place for nearly every professional Real-Bearded Santa in the world to meet others like himself, to grow & to learn.

Then suddenly-- and quite incredibly-- our beloved AORBS was hijacked by a greedy manipulator and his not-so-gentle giant of a sidekick:

NICHOLAS L. "NICK" TROLLI and JEFFREY G. GERMANN

Trolli (who we later learned had lied about ever appearing as a Santa Claus), was allowed to join the Interim Board of Directors-- where, from the very first day, he began his now-famous "whisper campaign"-- spreading false rumors about any Board Member who disagreed with him (or simply outranked him) until the Board Meetings became battlegrounds, and most of the volunteers simply decided they didn't need the grief, and quit-- WHEREUPON TROLLI DECLARED HIMSELF President-For-Life of AORBS!!!

• He cancelled our group's State Charter in Montana, then used our name & logo to register a PRIVATE COMPANY in the State of Kentucky with THEMSELVES as its only two officers!

THAT'S WHY THEY CALL THEMSELVES AORBS, INCORPORATED

• They stole every dime we had in our Treasury-- firing SIX Treasurers in FIVE MONTHS (just for asking to see AORBS' books)

• Next, they signed HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS WORTH of contracts in various states, which they KNEW FULLY WELL they had no way of fulfilling-- pocketing along the way HUGE cash signing bonuses & other up-front incentives, then simply disappearing, never again to answer another phone call or letter from their victims.

• The growing number of complaints eventually prompted investigation by the Kentucky Attorney General-- at whose suggestion the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania formally & officially served AORBS, INCORPORATED with a Cease & Desist Order for illegal solicitation of charitable contributions

 The worst part of all was the fact that Trolli had aparently spent his adult life learning to USE THE LAW TO FACILITATE HIS CRIMES-- as demonstrated, for instance, by his afore-mentioned replacement of OUR Montana Non-Profit charter with HIS Kentucky CORPORATION charter!

Even the coordinated last-minute efforts by dozens of senior AORBS members ultimately proved insufficient to prevent its demise in a cloud of controversy-- amid towering liabilities and civil & criminal rulings.

The sad & wretched wreck which remains of our once-proud organization is now a bankrupt company, still privately owned by those same two men-- and they still arrogantly call themselves AORBS,Inc.