A bit of information about Solomon Tulbure / Maximus Illuminati

For a while, he posted on the JREF Forum as "AtheistRevolution", on his own AtheistWorld forum as "Max". He's been banned from the forums at Internet Infidels and the JREF several times and under several aliases for spamming. He used to sometimes refer to himself as "Dr." Solomon Tulbure. I've not seen his academic credentials. He only used "Dr." on a few of his sites (now defunct). He may have had his name legally changed to Maximus Illuminati.

In the JREF forum, he has claimed to be a "Grand Master in The Illuminati Order" and a "master Telepath" -- see this thread in the JREF Forum. More recently, in the forum on his own AtheistWorld.com, I asked him whether he still believes in telepathy and still claims to be telepathic. He answered both questions affirmatively. Not surprisingly, when I asked his to back up his claim to be telepathic, he answered, "No, I do not have a need to demonstrate to anyone".

In email, he has claimed to be the target of Islamic terrorists and warned, cloak-and-dagger-style, by a mysterious foreign woman: see this thread on the Atheist Network board (that thread is no longer available -- I'll try to get a copy of the email -- update: the email was no longer available).

Tulbure runs various web sites, including the following:
Note: some of these are disappearing. Those that were dead the last time I checked them, or that merely pointed to an unrelated placeholder page, are marked with a dead link icon that looks like this:

illuminatiorder.org and oneworldorder.org
Illuminati Order, in which it is claimed that the Illuminati were formed 300 years ago, that all the members are objectivists and that objectivist principles (as set out by Ayn Rand in the latter half of the last century) are fundamental to the Illuminati. These claims are accompanied by links to Objectivist Center. I can't help but wonder what David Kelley and his crew think of Tulbure. His Illuminati Order site promotes his book, Illuminati Manifesto.
atheistrevolution.com
Atheist Revolution -- a site espousing atheism, Libertarianism and objectivism. There's a message forum. For some reason, my IP address was been banned from the forum before the site disappeared... ;)
atheistbannerexchange.com
Atheist Banner Exchange -- if you join this, you help Tulbure advertise his various sites.
christianityexposed.com
Christianity Exposed -- apparently dedicated to exposing the evils of Christianity, not to mention selling a book with the same name as the site.
objectivistforum.com
The Objectivist Forum -- an objectivist message board. I haven't been banned from there yet. I posted a little but got no response. Now, it seems to be no more...
islamexposed.com
Islam Exposed -- apparently dedicated to exposing the evils of Islam. He has written a book by the same title, which he flogs on many of his other sites.
authorzone.com
Author Zone -- a place for hopeful writers to interact and perhaps get some exposure. Alarmingly, Solomon posted a suicide threat in the forum at this site under the moniker "AuthorZone.Com" on November 24, 2002. He said that he was going to end his own life on New Year's Eve because he could no longer stand to live among such idiots -- or something like that. He didn't do it and, not surprisingly, he deleted the thread in which that post appeared.

Thanks to the Infidel Guy for telling me about the next two:

mymatchmaker.com
MyMatchmaker (aka Atheist Matchmaker.com) -- a dating site "4 Singles & Swingers".
mystockforum.com
MyStockForum -- a message board for stocks information. One of the forums on the board is called MyStockForum.Com Illuminati Hot Picks.

Recent additions:

atheistworld.com
AtheistWorld -- an atheist site for flogging Tulbure's books. I've been banned from the forum there. I very politely but persistently questioned him about his claims about telepathy. I guess he couldn't deal with it. He's probably deleted the thread. I posted most of it here on the GOTG site before Tulbure deleted it from his site: (click here)
jamesrandi.org
JamesRandi -- a rip-off of James Randi's real site, which is at randi.org. Among other things, Tulbure is using images stolen from the real Randi site. This site contains some of Tulbure's claims about telepathy. Some of the questions that got me banned from AtheistWorld.com had to do with this site.
politicsforum.com
PoliticsForum -- pretty self-explanatory, I suppose. It's a rip-off of PoliticsForum.org, though. See this update for more info.
pHpLords.net
pHpLords -- billed as a pHp script directory. There is, of course, a forum.
vB3Dev.com
PvB3Dev -- hacks and mods for vBulletin forum software.
BiologyForums.com
BiologyForums -- again, pretty self-explanatory.
BillOReillyForum.com
BillOReillyForum -- Max's "Bill O'Reilly Fan Club". 'Nuff said.

There may be many more sites.

As another poster on the Atheist Network board pointed out, reason is generally considered to be implicit in atheism. What ever one thinks of Ayn Rand and her various followers, reason is certainly explicit in objectivism. How does that fit with these wild claims about being a high mucky-muck in the Illuminati (assuming that such a thing exists) and a "master Telepath" (which he conveniently claims to be unable to publicly demonstrate because of his position in the Illuminati)? You decide.

Update: October, 2002
I have removed the information that was previously posted in this space because I am not convinced that it is accurate.

Update: November, 2002
Several of Tulbure's web sites seem to be disappearing. I've marked them as noted above.

Update: November 24, 2002
Solomon posted a suicide threat in the AuthorZone forum under the moniker "AuthorZone.Com" on November 24, 2002. He said that he was going to end his own life on New Year's Eve because he could no longer stand to live among such idiots -- or something like that. Follow-up: He did not follow through with his threat and, not surprisingly, he deleted the thread in which that post appeared.

Update: August, 2003
After not hearing anything about Tulbure/Max for a while, people started emailing me about his latest activity. He got banned from the JREF forum and from the Internet Infidels forum for spamming the boards with ads for his new sites, AtheistWorld.com and PoliticsForum.com. I invited him to the Graveyard of the Gods board to discuss his take on telepathy and Objectivism but he refused to show up. Jeez. We're the only board, other than his own, that wants him to post and he won't do it.

So, I went over to AtheistWorld.com. I asked him about his belief in telepathy and he confirmed that he still claims to be telepathic. I politely but persistently questioned him about that and (big surprise here) he banned me. I archived most of the exchange here: (click here)

Update: September, 2003
September 10: In the last few days, I've been made aware of three more sites of Max's: phplords.net, vb3dev.com and BiologyForums.com (Thanks to the Infidel Guy for bring that last one to my attention). As usual, he registered on other's forums using the domain name of his own latest forum/site as his user name and tried to recruit users for his site. He's really not very good at this and always ends up getting banned -- and he generally comes back, sooner or later. For example, see this thread at www.InfidelGuy.com: this thread.

September 11: IG is on the receiving end of more abuse from Tulbure. He is documenting it here.

Update: September 27:
"Max" uses vBullentin for his forums. I've been informed that he has been banned from several official vBullentin sites, apparently for letting his sparkling personality shine:
www.vbulletin.com
www.vbulletin.org
www.vbulletintemplates.com

The same person invites us to view his thread of collected links illustrating why Max has been banned on those sites: http://www.digitalkore.net/vb3/showthread.php?t=57

Update on that: on October 4, I was told that he is no longer banned on those sites but his access is "severely limited".

Update: September 27, part two:
This one wins the inept and transparent self-promotion award: "Max" just sent out an email to one of his lists in which he makes this claim:

2. My Book "Christianity Exposed

I just got an email from someone with an @700club.com email address who offered me $100,000 for the full ownership rights to my book "Christianity Exposed"

I asked him what would he do with the book. He refused to say.

I bet they want the book taken off the market!

Puh-lease! He once claimed that the Islamic Brotherhood was out to kill him. Now he claims that the 700 Club wants to buy him out. Good thing he's protected by the Illuminati! ;)

Update: October, 2003
This episode is fairly minor but it amused me so I'll give it some space.

I don't actually recall whether I'd been banned from Tulbure's PoliticsForum.com or what but I received this email from him on September 27:

Subject: You are all set!
From: "Forums Mailer" < email address >
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2003 00:16:52 -0400
To: < email address >

Hey, I have manually actvated your forum user name on politicsforum.com

Max
http://politicsforum.com

I didn't pay much attention. I'm not particularly interested in discussing politics on Tulbure's turf. Then, on October 3, I received another email from him containing this link: http://politicsforum.com/showthread.php?p=7745#post7745 (it's now a dead link, as I'll explain shortly).

The link led to a thread started by "Max". The opening post included the following:

Ok, in this thread you can say anything you like about me. Go ahead, I will not ban you no matter what you post in THIS thread. Just know this. If you bash me in any other thread or forum on this board you will be banned.

So have it. Go ahead, make my day!

Tell me what an asshole I am (which I know I am)
tell me what an idiot I am too, and what a big racist I am.
Tell everyone what a bigot I am and what a horrible person I am.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, no, I don't give a shit what morons have to say about me.

So go ahead, make my day

So, I went in to ask a few questions. I didn't really expect to get any straightforward answers out of him -- and I didn't. One of his semi-literate minions asked me for "proof". I'm not sure to exactly what she was referring but I think it had to do with my statement about Solomon behaving badly on forums belonging to other people. So, I told her that I don't expect her to simply take my word for it. I invited her to visit some of the forums from which Max had been banned so she could ask the mods and admins there for herself. I listed four for her:

http://www.iidb.org/vbb/
http://www.randi.org/vbulletin/
http://infidelguy.com/
http://christianforums.com/

Then, in another message, I reposted the questions that had immediately preceeded my being banned from AtheistWorld.com. I suggested that my being banned from there might have been an accident. ;-) I reminded him that when, on AtheistWorld.com, I'd asked him for some kind of evidence regarding his claim to being telepathic, he had responded with this:

No, I do not have a need to demonstrate to anyone.
If you want a demonstration follow the instructions I posted on jamesrandi.org and you will have your proof.

I reminded him that I'd looked at his essay on telepathy (http://www.jamesrandi.org/lectures/tc.html) and that I'd also looked at his essay about "The Dark Lords" (http://www.jamesrandi.org/lectures/tdl.html). Then, I reminded him that I'd asked him the following:

That's interesting. To be honest, my initial reaction to the content of your jamesrandi.org site was that it might be intended as humour. I see that I was mistaken.

Can you point to any sort of evidence for the reality of the Dark Lords and their bioengineering of humanity?

How do you know that there are 888 universes? How do you arrive at that particular number?

I would ask you to provide evidence that there is an Illuminati and that you are a part of it but I expect that your reply would be something to the effect that you would not be permitted to do so.

He responded with an URL -- http://jamesrandi.org/legal.html -- and I followed the link and then responded to him:

Following that URL, I find this:

Quote:
If you take anything found on this site seriously please seek the help of a shrink.

Yet, a few posts ago, when asked to support your claim that you are telepathic, you posted this:

Quote:
If you want a demonstration follow the instructions I posted on jamesrandi.org and you will have your proof.

It seems to me that you are giving me contradictory information. First, you suggested that the answer I sought could be found at jamesrandi.org and then, in response to other questions, you directed me to a page on the same site which suggests that one would have to be crazy to take seriously anything on that site. Can you resolve this apparent contradiction?

...and then I reminded him that I'd been mysteriously banned after posting that. I suggested that he'd probably welcome the opportunity to set the record straight and I invited him to resolve the matter for me. The next morning, October 4, I checked for a response and I found that my IP address had been banned from the forum. What a surprise!

Thus ends another futile attempt at getting Solomon Tulbure to stand behind what he says, to take personal responsibility for his words.

Update: October 10, 2003
I received an email today:

Max Illumnati AKA Solomon Tulbure AKA authorzone3000 (@yahoomcom) AKA illuminatiorder (@yahoo.com) is promoting politicsforum.com on the lutheranbookreview (yahoo group). He's only promoting his site there. I guess this is a passive aggressive way for him to promote his books?

I went there to take a look. "Max" had indeed posted there, following his usual MO of posting off-topic content-free messages in an attempt to attract people to his one of his forums. He posted the following there:

From: "illuminatiorder"
Date: Fri Oct 10, 2003 6:16 pm
Subject: :::PoliticsForum.Com:::

:::PoliticsForum.Com:::

PoliticsForum.Com is in need of articulate writers and members who
care about making the world a better place!
If you are interested please come join us:
http://politicsforum.com

Max

From http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LutheranBookReview/message/185

I answered my correspondent like so:

Thanks for the tip. "Max" has a long history of spamming various forums to promote his own forums. It does seem likely to me that his ultimate goal in doing that is to flog his books.

Update: November 19, 2003
A few days ago, Max registered a new username at ChristianForums, where he has previously been banned. As usual, the name is the name of a new site of his: BillOReillyForum. Of course, his profile lists his homepage as http://billoreillyforum.com/ and he has posted at least one message trying to attract users to his site.

The part that I find amusing is that he is claiming to be a Messianic Jew in this particular guise.

Update: November 20, 2003
Today, I received an email from someone who is an administrator at PoliticsForum.org (not Max's Politicsforum.com). Understandably, they're not happy with his ripping off their site. Here's the bulk of the message:

I'm an administrator over at a website called politicsforum.org... we'll have been around for about a year now... anyway, one day about 5 or 6 months ago we realize that someone has created a site called politicsforum.com... lo and behold, it's Max... similar design, layout and everything.... of course he registers on our board and starts spamming mercilessly, both through regular messages and PMs... we warned him, and realized that he wasn't interested in changing, so we banned him... since then he's registered a couple of times on our forum and done the same thing... including the usual shameless self-promotion of his "books"; he's also done the same on a couple of other forums I'm part of.. which isn't old news... but hey, it's nice to know what that idiot is up to....

we of course, can't do anything about it because most of the admin/mod team has been banned from politicsforum.com

anyhoo, just figured you'd wat to know, I had also hoped you would add this to your list because Max's website is giving a bad name to "politicsforum" in general... when people see politicsforum.com blacklisted on so many sites... people often don't notice the .org difference in our site... a little selfish, I know, but hey...

Cheers

Update: November 25, 2003
Today I finally checked out a report about something "Max" had posted. I'd been told that he'd stated that it's okay to have sex with children. I found the thread on PoliticsForum.com, in which he posted the following on October 9, 2003:

Personally I do not consider sex with a person who has reached puberty as paedophilia.

If a person has reached the point where he/she can enjoy sex and is willing to participate then there is nothing wrong with it.

To me paedophilia is sex with children who have not reached puberty, that is all.

From here.

Update: November 26, 2003 (a)
Today I got two emails about this next matter. I'll post the one that contains the most information:

Hi, Regarding "Dr." Solomon Tulbure: This idiot has just been banned from the Mambo Open Source (MOS) CMS forum. He joined on the 23rd of November 2003 under the name 'pHpLords.com', and began by rubbishing developers for charging for components while in the same breath asking for people to port his programs. He made a number of controversial posts where he criticised the MOS community and now on the 26th (3 days later) has been banned.

I see that dear old Maxie's people skills are as sharp as ever...

Update: November 26, 2003 (b)
Another email about Tulbure's activities at yet another open source product forum:

vB3Dev is giving us a hard time on xoops.org as well, and my friends at mamboserver.com have banned him from their forums the other day. We had no idea that he was such a pest...

Gosh... doesn't this guy have any friends at all?

Update: December 15, 2003
The general manager of www.xoops.org contacted me via instant messenger today to let me know that they'd banned Max "for being rude, obnoxious and disrespectful to our members." As of this writing, Max is using their software for his politicsforum.com and now he's got himself banned from all the xoops support sites.

Herko concluded with this: "anyways, I just wanted to let you know this, and to add us to the list of people and sites warning others about this person." I have done so.

Update: January 3, 2004
This one from "Max" arrived in my email today. I got a chuckle out of it:

Dear all,

I am starting a new website called MyStockForum.Com which will be a stocks discussion forum, mainly penny stocks.

Because I am trying to build a reputation in this industry I have posted a BONUS hot stock tip for you on my new bonus email list found here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mystockforum/

Kind regards,

Max
http://PoliticsForum.Com

New? That web site has been in operation for 10 months or more. I suppose that calling it "new" might be more likely to attract positive attention than saying something like, "Hey, I've had this site for almost a year but nobody is using it. Won't you come over and make me feel better?"

As for the reputation he's trying to build in the stocks industry, I wonder if he'll be using his Master Telepath powers to his clients' advantage? If not, then surely a Grand Master in The Illuminati Order can arrange things so that the markets conform to his predictions. ;-)

Update: January 5, 2004
Today, someone emailed me to complain that Max is spamming the Yahoo! group LutheranBookReview with ads for his MyStockForum.Com. Apparently, Max doesn't care whether he appears to be an atheist, a messianic Jew or a Lutheran as long as he can try to sell something to somebody. I could admire his enterprise if he could only go about it with integrity.

Max, when you make a practice of trying to deceive people, the word gets around and it's bad for business. A rational and self-interested capitalist would realize that and would behave accordingly.

Also, Max sent out the following email today:

I have placed my domains MyMatchmaker.Com, AuthorZone.Com and WritersClub.Com for sale on eBay

Max

For the first two, he has set the minimum bid at $25,000. The minimum bid for the third is $10,000. Apparently, he believes that these domains are quite valuable. One can't but wonder why, if he is correct about that, isn't he making a fortune with them instead of trying to unload them?

They're seven-day listings, about 10 hours in as I write this. If any of you would like to put tens of thousands of dollars into Max's hands ;-) here are the links:

MyMatchmaker.Com on eBay
AuthorZone.Com on eBay
WritersClub.Com on eBay

[Seven days later, the listings have expired and there were no bids.]

Update: February 9, 2004
I received an email yesterday from someone who has some interesting things to say about various dealings with Solomon. This person asked me to withhold the real name, so I have done so. It's quite a long letter but a good one so I am putting it on a separate page, here: supplemental page

Update: February 19, 2004
I received another email today from another person with a story to tell about this guy. Again, I'm puting the letter itself on a separate page: supplemental page

The same person also sent me this link which contains the following text, in which SoloMax claims to be the creator of the HIV:

Posted by Solomon Tulbure on November 24, 2002 at 01:16:01:

It is my deepest regret to inform you that the Illuminati Order is no more. Due to the overwhelming attempts on my life by the Christian Coalition and the Islamic brotherhood in alliance with the higher order members of the Illuminati who have turned their backs on me, I have folded under the pressure. I cannot stand their constant attacks upon my life. Only a few days ago members of the higher order Illuminati tried to inject me with the HIV virus which I developed for them myself. It is not fair. I cannot take this anymore. The pressure is to much for me. I apologize to all those who paid me for memberships in the Illuminati. I cannot afford to reemburse you. I need every cent that I have to merely survive.

kindest regards,
max

Update: March 5, 2004
On March 4 and 5, I received emails about a new Maximus Illuminati site, PayPalAlert.com. On it, there are claims of consumer complaints against PayPal. What I find most worrying on that site is this:

On behalf of all the victims of PayPal who wish to take legal action in higher courts I am seeking to establish a Legal Fund. If you are a business or an individual who wishes to contribute money for this fund-to-be please contact me as soon as possible.

Maximus Illuminati

You can do as you please but I would not be comfortable with trusting this guy with any of my money.

This is not the first PayPal warning site. Tulbure probably got the idea from PayPalWarning.com. (I have nothing to say about whether or not people should use PayPal.)

Update: March 14, 2004
I received an email today about one of Max's sites:

Have you been to mymatchmaker.com lately. It appears as if Max is going public with other peoples money. Wasn't there a Devito movie with a similar title? (;

Well well. Here's an excerpt from that site:

MyMatchmaker.Com founder Maximus Illuminati, President and CEO has decided to take the company public on the Nasdaq OTC In order to raise the needed funds to cover the legal fees involved in taking the company public we are offering 200 shares of preferred stock for $1,000 each and 10,000 shares of common stock for each 1 share of preferred stock purchased. We are seeking to raise twenty million dollars through our public offering.

In case he takes it down before you get a chance to see it, click here.

Update: March 23, 2004 (a)
I received two emails about Max today. The first is a letter from a site admin who has had unfortunate encounters with Max. It's longish so I've posted it on the supplemental page, here.

Update: March 23, 2004 (b)
Also today, someone who wishes to remain anonymous sent this:

Brad,

All of max's sites bar mymatchermaker.com and phplords, have gone? Including his mystockforum.com. The one he was getting a lot of money from people signing up for his advice on shares All at the same time as well. Suspicious wouldn't you agree?

Actually, when I checked them later in the day, a number of his sites were up. Perhaps they were temporarily down. I found that these are up: MyStockforum.com, AuthorZone.com, PoliticsForum.com, and AtheistWorld.com, but JamesRandi.org and BiologyForums.com appear to have been taken down. BillOReillyForum.com and vb3dev.com were simply "not found" and may be just temporarily down or may be gone. I'll have to check those later.

Update: March 26, 2004
These next three updates were received on the dates shown but were posted on August 15, 2004. See the [i]more info[/i] at the end for news. Here's the March 26 entry:

SoloMax sightings

One of Maxie's favorite haunts is on the Yahoo! message board for Applied Digital Solutions (ADSX) - a penny stock company (notice a pattern here) selling implanted microchips and, mainly, shares of stock.

Submitted for your entertainment:

http://search.messages.yahoo.com/search/messages?tag_M=mystockforumdotcom&fname_M=txt_main

There is also suspicion that he posts under the handle MadMax_2x...

http://search.messages.yahoo.com/search/messages?tag_M=MadMax_2x&fname_M=txt_author&n=300

...based on the style and content.

Personally, I can't figure out whether to be disgusted by him, amused by him, or feel sorry for him...so I will do all three!

Update: May 3, 2004
Another update on a new site for Max:

FYI, another site he is launching and "taking public" is www.microcapwire.com

He is soliciting for fund on www.mystockforum.com. Here is a link to some information on it. http://mystockforum.com/index.php?showtopic=1246

Update: July 30, 2004
Another person who ran afoul of Max's "unorthodox" ways of separating people from their money:

Hi Brad,
I love your site. I too have had the unfortunate experience with Max. I paid him $250.00 to become a lifetime member to mystockforum.com with the promise I would pay the remaining $750.00 in a year. He promised everyone who joined a money back guarantee that wasn't satisfied. 3 months into our agreement he tells all members that did what I did that they have 5 days to pay, or they will be cut off from the site. I told him to refund my money, and what do you think happened, he cut me off from the site.
I started to get suspicious of him awhile back when I noticed he always seemed to have the need to ask members for more money. It was either a new website that he claimed was going to make us all rich, or some other scam.
I never made a dime off any of his picks, and I know very few did, because I monitored all of his picks and they continually dropped in value. When you questioned him about this he would call you a loser, or some other nasty names.
I want to thank you for posting the truth about him. If I can help you in any way with putting this clown out of business before he screws anyone else let me know.

Thanks,

[name withheld]

Do you have additional information to contribute?

I used to have people send me email which I would then post here. Instead, I've decided to set up a forum so that people can post their experiences and information without needing me to act as an intermediary. The forum has a double opt in registration so you will need to provide it with a real email address. Of course, you will have the option of hiding your email address from the public.

The forum is here: SoloMax forum.

Links to more info about Solomon Tulbure:

The Yahoo! group Solomon Tulbure Exposed

The Yahoo! group Maximus Illuminati Exposed

I am not confident that all the information presented in the above two Yahoo! groups is accurate but there is still some interesting reading there.

"Dr." Solomon Tulbure

A little bit of collected information

No deity required!

Links to more info about Solomon Tulbure: