Ullja Kuntze engaged in fraud to gather personal information about Etsy and ArtFire sellers for the sole purpose of posting fraudulent reports of tax evasion and licensing violations against them on two Online Fraud Investigation blogs, one of which is still online.

Ullja promoted the two blogs on Twitter accounts @amalfi, @TaxEvaderWatch and @Kendrasshop (all closed due to strange activity). Ullja buys and sells online using various names such as Beads4u, beadsnsupplies, Portofino and many others, and recently reopened a bakery called "Ullja's", a tax preparation service, and "Ullja's Gusto" in Waco, TX.

On the Online Fraud Investigation sites, she accuses multiple small-business artisans of tax FRAUD, Paypal account FRAUD, zoning FRAUD, and licensing FRAUD without any factual evidence that ANY fraud has indeed occurred.

Misrepresentations of Other Beadmakers' Work

In 2008, it came to the attention of various lampwork bead artists that Ullja Kuntze DBA Beads4u was purchasing beads under her name and under the name of her mother Melek Kuntze, then reselling them as her work on Etsy and at bead shows. Following are a few examples.

The following images are a side-by-side comparison of Ashton Jewel's Ebay auction photos and scans from Ullja's 2008 show brochure. In the brochure, Ullja claims that all her lampwork beads were made on the outskirts of Venice, Italy, but two of the beads in the brochure were made by Lydia Muell of Ashton Jewels (images used with permission or under the Fair Use provision of the U.S. Copyright Act).

The beads used above were part of the following auctions, purchased by Ullja Kuntze and delivered to Melek Kuntze in Texas:

[link to jpg of larger image of set sold in Ebay auction 140116275295]
[link to jpg of larger image of set sold in Ebay auction 140116959500]
[link to jpg scan of page one of Ullja's 2008 show brochure, with context notes by Lydia Muell]
[link to jpg scan of page two of Ullja's 2008 show brochure]

This set of beads was created by Ginny Hampton Schmidt (image used with permission).

Ullja purchased the set and sold the beads individually as her own work, made in her Milan studio, in the following Etsy transactions (although the colors are shifted in her photos, they are the same beads):
[link to pdf of single bead sold 2008-04-30]
[link to pdf of single bead sold 2008-04-30]
[link to pdf of five bead set sold 2008-04-30]

This set of beads was created by Anke of AV-Beads (image used with permission).

Ullja purchased the set and sold the beads individually as her own work, made in her Milan studio, in the following Etsy transactions:
[link to pdf of single focal bead sold 2008-04-18]
[link to pdf of single bead sold 2008-04-18]
[link to pdf of two beads included in a set sold 2008-04-23]
[link to pdf of three beads included in a set sold 2008-04-16]
[link to pdf of three beads included in a set sold 2008-04-16]
[link to pdf of two beads included in a set sold 2008-04-16]

This set of beads was created by Kathleen Urato (image used with permission):

Ullja Kuntze purchased the beads under the ebay name gerbera28 on 4/27/2007 and sold them in pairs as her own work, made in her Milan studio, in the following Etsy transactions:
[link to pair of beads sold 2008-04-30]
[link to pair of beads sold 2008-04-30]
[link to pair of beads sold 2008-04-30]
[link to pair of beads sold 2008-05-05]