Bought Franchise but Turns Out Product Was Stolen

[justiceforsc]

My question involves business law in the state of: SC

What recourse or restitution am I entitled too after I purchased a franchise only to learn the owner and a manager of a major chain craft company was stealing the product from the vendor while taking our money to purchase more product. I want to recover all my money that was put into the company along with humiliation, finanical distress. The manager of the vendor company was apparently let go from his previous job for grand larceny and the man we bought our franchise from is trying to weasle his way out.... What avenue should I persue? Isnt the vendor store liable along with their manager? They did not do a background check before giving him the position of authority in his store. HELP....

[Mr. Knowitall]

You need to explain that better.

If somebody stole from you, file a police report.

[KeyWestDan]

There is no requirement for anyone to do a background check. However you certainly should have.

In purchasing a business or franchise there is a thing called due diligence. Apparently you did not.

In a nutshell it sounds like you were the victim of a fraud.

I would go to local law enforcement and see about filing a criminal complain.

Then I would hire an attorney.

[Scott67]

Did you actually buy a franchise, or did you get caught up in one of the many scams selling non-existant business opportunities? I can't tell from your description if you got a storefront or not, but this sort of looks like one of those craft scams where they sell you the materials to assemble, agreeing to buy the completed products back from you. Is it something along those lines?