Rule #1 of the Amiga world:
Never, EVER pre-pay for anything, no matter how legitimate the creator looks.
Seriously though, I sympathise. Although I didn't pre-pay, I really wanted the Aladdin project to succeed. I would be interested in knowing if Daren Kazimer (sp?), the programmer, is also wondering where his paycheques are. If that is the case, they should just give him the rights to the code in lieu of pay and he can develop it as his own project.