I have asked Aladdin 4D 6.0's programmer many times for a status update. We put a lot of money into it so the silence bothers us most of all. I don't know what is going on.

Only Deron knows for sure.
FYI
It's not a payment problem, payments are ahead of schedule.
Wait, now you're telling us that you
- don't a actually have any control of or contact with your contracted programmer for who knows how long
- despite the lack of control you've found it acceptable to collect pre-payment money, and keep silent of the issues for months, if not years
Project management - how does it work?