Robert Bertholf, Air Force Embellish-er Blog of Shame =
910/05/2012 by militaryphonies
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| First and foremost he is claiming to be highly decorated and he is not. Secondly , he is claiming to be a veteran of OEF when he has no campaign medal for it. He also claimed he was in Bosnia but has no NATO campaign medal. |
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| http://rob.bertholf.com/ |
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| https://twitter.com/rob |
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| http://www.linkedin.com/in/bertholf |
Rob Bertholf is a con-artist. He currently operates out of Honolulu, Hawaii and uses his past service as a foothold to gain the confidence of his victims. He mainly takes advantage of small business owners by offering to build/optimize their website, web development, or for social media management services. He will take an upfront payment but never complete the work. He's taken advantage of countless victims, don't be one of them.
“Anonymous” is not a very credible source. From my understanding Rob Bertholf has lived in Honolulu since 2003, is on two local charity boards and has taught at the University of Hawaii for the past 3 years.
Not sure what the point is, from the above documentation it looks like he is far more decorated than most in their first military enlistment.
Claiming to be a Military Combat Veteran when he isn't is a very big deal. That is called embellishing & he is stealing Valor from those who have earned it.
It doesn't look like he was claiming to be a Combat Veteran. I see where he wrote that he is “highly decorated” but I agree that a commendation and 3 achievement medals is a lot for 4 years. Why are you slandering our troops? You should be ashamed of yourself!
Claiming OEF & two tours on active duty.
This is shameful but not surprising. I was a client of Rob Bertholf and ended up working for 2 companies who also used him, and I can attest that he is con artist! He took thousands from us and never delivered the work. The places I worked for told the same story, that he ripped them off, charged them a lot of money, or sold them a product that he later abandoned and left people scrambling. I am appalled he is still around because of word of mouth in this town. He should be embarrassed, if this were the mainland he would have been sued.
I saw an endorsement from Tara Coomans from the Social Media club and am disappointed she would do anything to support this man. She should distance herself from him if she wants to maintain any credibility.
ROB you are a scoundrel and a crook. You ripped off some very powerful and high profile people and it is just a matter of time before you get your ass sued.
Rob Bertholf here, this really is not even worth a response. First impulse is just to simply remove this listing from any visibility on the internet (Google “Search Engine Optimization Expert”, I am #1 in Google, it would be easy to do this) but for the sake of transparency I will leave it and respond as I have nothing to hide:
My military career was spotless–as you have taken the time to detail–I received an honorable discharge after serving my country for two overseas tours. During this time I had the honor to play my small part of the bigger mission keeping the radar signal operational through computer support while in Kuwait a few kilos from the border of Iraq –to– playing a key role in consolidation of all Air Force web servers in Europe. For this and many other non-combat achievements I was awarded a 3 achievement medals and a commendation medal. I was also a two time Comm & Info Airman of the Year at the USAFE MAJCOM level which in of itself is no small honor. I was also awarded a commendation from the J3 Joint Chiefs of Staff for my role in developing a tasking application used at the Pentagon. While I never fired a gun in combat I was in direct support of our airstrikes stationed at the further most deployed base at the time. My military career is something I am very proud of.
As for the faceless slander in the comments, this is clearly a smear attempt but it will not work as I have a solid reputation in the local community for being honest and community minded. My clients include some of the largest brands in Hawaii who I have delivered results for for years. I have taught at the University of Hawaii’s outreach college for the last several years and I am on the board of several local nonprofits.
If there is ever an instance where you were a client from one of my companies and did not feel we lived up on our end of our contract please advise specifics and I will ensure it is made right. I have serviced over 1000 businesses here in Hawaii over the last 10 years (I would bet that is more than any other consultant in the state) and I stick by my reputation and work.
As for the haters, don’t be jealous, come have a beer with me sometime, I am a lovable guy 🙂 As always, if you have something to say, say it to my face, I am easy to find…
Con artist indeed. Countless stories of this clown taking deposits for online marketing and squandering. Bet his wife doesn't know half the story. When Empowered Internet dissolved after Rob was caught red handed taking investor money for personal use, he disappeared to the Philippines for a long time until things cooled off in Hawaii. Hard to believe this deuchebag is back. Self proclaimed marketing god, he will end up on MSNBC someday for being a crook.