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Tom Bobak / American Craft Beer
Months of whispered speculation among industry insiders came to an end early Monday morning when American Craft Beer’s Founder and Editor-In-Chief, Tom Bobak, was arrested by Federal authorities and charged with 23 counts of “beer-hyping” – an unfortunate practice thought to be widespread in craft beer media.
Swept up at his Washington, DC home in a pre-dawn raid, the handcuffed Bobak exuded an arrogant smugness as he was led away in swat team-style entourage of police cars, to be booked and eventually charged by the DOJ.
According to a DOJ spokesperson, Bobak, an outspoken advocate for the craft beer industry as well as self-acknowledged “party-animal prone to bad habits,” had been under surveillance for more than six months…a period that saw hundreds of bottles of free promotional beers make their way to the American Craft Beer compound.
Armed with warrants and an ardent desire to put an end to what was seen as blatant beer-hyping, DOJ officials spent the day searching the American Craft Beer’s DC office for evidence.
Several computers were seized, along with numerous boxes of brewery swag and hundreds of promotional bottles of collectable craft beer releases.
Unnamed sources surrounding the investigation, expressed shock at the scope and scale of Bobak’s beer holdings, sent to him by some of the nation’s most prominent craft brewers in an under-the-table effort to secure American Craft Beer’s valuable online endorsements.
“I’m a cheerleader for the industry and can find something to like in most of the beers that I’ve sampled,” Bobak has famously said in the past…
But after years of “sketchy” beer reviews by the popular “craft beer news, entertainment and lifestyle daily,” it appears that Department of Justice officials had finally had enough…
Bobak, a polarizing figure at best, was released after posting a $250,000 bond. And he left without comment, uncharacteristically avoiding the swarms of reporters that had gathered outside a Federal facility in Washington, DC.
Although today’s actions were seen by many as not only necessary, but inevitable, authorities remain cautious and expect this case to be tied up in the courts for years once ACB’s high-priced legal team get involved.
One unnamed source expressed his concern this way, “Bobak may have acted foolishly…and be up to his neck in this beer-hyping scandal…but he’s nobody’s APRIL FOOLS.”
