Santiago’s resignation, ostensibly because he didn’t feel qualified to give Axanar’s financials the review they merited from someone trained in budgets and accounting, raised several questions about how the committee was set up.

The formation of the committee was announced on Axanar’s website on November 18, 2015. According to Yau, the committee:

• Was required to sign non-disclosure agreements.
• Was not paid for its review.
• Met for one day with Peters in Los Angeles. Santiago said he was not present for that meeting.
• Communicated via conference calls and email in compiling the forthcoming report.
• Sent clarification questions by email to Peters.
• Agreed to have Rubio take the lead in drafting the report.

Yau said Peters had not yet seen a report draft. More than one committee member was surprised to hear that Peters publicly announced the report would be released the following week. “We are … working on our own timeline NOT [Axanar’s],” Rubio wrote.¹⁾

Despite not having seen the as-yet unfinished report, Peters also sounded confident the review would absolve him of any inappropriate personal spending:

It became evident the review committee members were only given part of Axanar’s financial records, namely, those directly related to funds raised via Kickstarter and Indiegogo. They were not, according to Yau, given records covering the totality of Axanar Productions Inc.'s finances.

Alec’s quote about just donor dollars

$150,000

Yau “He did an excellent job of not commingling.”