Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Andrew Roberts (businessman)

Andrew Roberts (businessman)

Andrew Roberts (businessman) (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (delete) – (View log)

Roberts Investments Group (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Stefan Roberts (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

This is a more elaborate hoax than most - credit to HagenUK for spotting it and doing most of the research to demolish it. A quite pretty but markedly uninformative website has been set up for "Roberts Investments Group", which doesn't give an address or even a telephone number. There are also even less informative web-sites for "Chateau Le Mont", the "Howard Art Gallery" of New York, and something called "Call for Change". None of these gives a telephone number - all invite contact by email only.

When we try to make any independent checks, we get nowhere. Andrew Roberts is claimed to be #184 on the Sunday Times rich list, but a search for "Roberts" doesn't find him. The links provided to Time and Forbes don't take you to any mention of him. A search of the London telephone directory does not find the Group. A Google search for "Roberts Investments Group" finds a couple of others - a real estate broker in Norcross, GA and another in Cedar Hill, TX whose CEO is Tim Roberts - plus some blog-type mentions, but no independent reliable source.

The sole author Fuzzybuddy (talk · contribs) has some earlier contributions, but has worked on nothing but this since May. I can't imagine why anyone would go to all this trouble, but the failure of the rich-list check and the absence of any independent confirmation leave me quite clear - it's a hoax. For what it's worth, an article called "Stefan Roberts" was deleted in 2005 as "self-admitted hoax". Delete all. JohnCD (talk) 21:54, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

• Delete all - appears to be an elaborate hoax. PhilKnight (talk) 23:11, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
• Delete all - Not verifiable (WP:V and self published sources). blue520 23:59, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

• Note: This debate has been included in the list of Businesspeople-related deletion discussions. -- Fabrictramp | talk to me 23:18, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
• Delete I'm having problems verifying as well. I'm 99.9% sure at this point that the nominator's right and that it's a hoax. On the off chance it's actually not, at some point we'll get a reliable source and can recreate the article. In the mean time, having a false article is far more damaging to WP than the the .1% chance that it's actually true. Vickser (talk) 00:04, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
• Delete all 3 per the above, with a tip of the hat to User:JohnCD and user:HagenUK for sorting them all out. UnitedStatesian (talk) 01:05, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
• Comment Author has removed AfD prod and hoax tags from all 3 articles. JuJube (talk) 01:18, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
• Delete All as hoax. Also recommend Salt as they may be an investment hoax. Edward321 (talk) 01:52, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

• And especially since it appears that two of the articles have been deleted four times before, see:

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Andrew Martin Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Stefan Roberts

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Stefan Roberts (second nomination)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Stefan David Andrew Roberts, Viscount St Pierre

UnitedStatesian (talk) 02:23, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

• Delete all 3 and salt. Complying with the policy of identifying oneself as involved, I am the contributor who spotted the hoax and did the research. Many thanks to JohnCD (talk) to bring this to AFD. The Wikipedia AFD is a bit daunting ;-) HagenUK (talk) 05:34, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
• Delete I agree that some information in these articles is unverifiable. I see how it is therefore wrong to keep these articles in place. I would, therefore, move for deletion as a point of making sure everything on Wikipedia is as correct as possible, to comply with WP:V. It is all correct (except for the Sunday Times stuff, which I am in the process of investigating as I type) but I can't prove it, so I move for deletion. Fuzzybuddy (talk) 14:54, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
• Two comments: If you want a laugh, take a look at this page from the Roberts Investments Group web-site, about a day in the life of a typical employee. The main features seem to be that RIG pays for his Starbucks, and that by shaving 15 minutes off his lunch hour he gets to go home at 5:15. If only I had known life in a hedge fund was so relaxed...

Looking at the previous AfDs listed above, it occurs to me that it's a sign of the times that the Roberts family fantasies have moved on from being old-style Debrett aristocracy to being new-style hedge-fund-billionaire aristocracy. JohnCD (talk) 15:03, 16 July 2008 (UTC)