I am writing on your website in hope of finding an unbiased opinion as to what would be the best course of action for me to pursue.
I bought a business at the end of 2002. I later discovered that the previous owners did quite a few unethical things. I hope you can tell me if any of these things were illegal and if it would be worthwhile for me to sue them or if it would be better to press criminal charges if they did, in fact, break the law.
The previous owners lied to me saying the sales numbers for the second half of 2002 were not available. I found out much later that sales had dropped significantly during that time period. The result is that I paid considerably more for the business than was justified
They were selling refurbished equipment as new.
When customers sent in checks for invoices that they had already paid (duplicate payments), the previous owners kept the checks rather then returning them to the customers and then entered false invoices to match to the duplicated payments.
They were making cash sales and not recording them — at least one per month according to one of them.
One of the previous owners broke our contract by refusing to continue to train me for the amount set in the agreement, after the first month. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to lose him at that point, so I was forced to agree to pay him more.
I had asked if any of their customers were friends or family and they lied about this — at least one major customer who was a friend stopped buying from us as soon as the previous owners left and would not even take or return my calls.
I had asked how customer relations were and they lied saying that they were good - their home school district would not buy from them and then us. One customer call them shysters.
Had I known any of this prior to buying the business, I would not have purchased it. I’d like to get back the money that I paid for the business, hopefully this will be possible.
Please help.
Thanks,
S
