Okay, I just replied to montonero via email, but since he felt the need to bring me into this publicly, I'll repeat here what I told him:
1) In 2009, I was brought into this topic here. I commented, but I have never personally been ripped off by Josh (I've only heard of others' situations).
2) I didn't work with Josh for a while, primarily due to the fact that my company wasn't doing many pixel games for a few years.
3) Last year (2011), my company brought Josh back on for some of our games (including Hotel Transylvania and Adventure Time on DS) and he did work for us. As far as I know, there were no issues.
4) I was asked to endorse Josh on LinkedIn, he was working for us fine at the time, so I wrote the following:
“Josh Astorian is one of the strongest pixel artists in the industry. He contributed character models, environments, and additional illustrations on several of our game projects. I can fully recommend him for any 2D game project that you are staffing. His artistry will elevate your product's visuals.”
Everything in there is 100% true, and remains true. Josh is one of the best character pixel modelers I've ever known.
5) DON'T EVER PAY ANYONE FOR WORK BEFORE THEY DO THE WORK!!!! Maybe this is the reason I've not had any issues with Josh on my own projects. It should be common sense. There is NO LOGIC to paying someone before they complete a task. If you're willing to do that, you should expect to kiss your money goodbye.
6) AGAIN, DON'T EVER PAY ANYONE FOR WORK BEFORE THEY DO THE WORK!!!!
I am not removing my LinkedIn recommendation because it was accurate when I wrote it, it remains accurate, and because I've personally had no issues working with him.