Not naive. I'm asking questions on the other side. Naive would be only listening to one side of the lawsuit.
Really? It didn't sound like that when you removed yourself from the conversation when this was still about being out of trust on collected sales taxes.
I'd like to hear CF's take on the filing if he can comment. I know he may represent clients in that part of downtown and can't comment on the merits of the suit. I know Blake's business interests also involve at least one or two members on this forum.
I question some of the wording in the suit and I'll be curious how it stands up when it goes to court.
Taking the allegations in the Zenthoeffer suit, this suit, and the 19 tax liens, it would
appear there's been a cash flow issue amongst the businesses at various times. Whether or not that was due to personal enrichment or simply over-extension and Blake was directing the cash flow to cover losses is for someone else to judge.
He may only be guilty of being too deft in his management style and trusted the wrong people to manage his affairs. I did that once and assumed if there was money in the account when I needed it, all was good. After that management style imploded on me, I've never forgotten that lesson. I am a partner in four different business entities and still have a full time day job. Every day, I know- to the penny- how much cash I personally and each business has on hand and how much is owed. Taxes are always a priority and vendors are always paid on time.
People do make mistakes. Blake may have trusted the wrong people or perhaps too many people trusted his ability to return a great ROI and he got over-extended with easy credit to over-extend his resources too quick without time to adjust and find the right people to manage his interests with limited input from him.
I have no axe to grind with Blake, but this is taking on the appearance of a business empire which grew too quick, trying to take advantage of lower rents and real estate prices which existed 6-8 years ago. One thing about Blake is he is a visionary. Perhaps he saw the upshot on downtown and he wanted in before it got too expensive to to be a player.
You do have to question how a business like Joe Momma's which was reporting a profit of $1.2 million ended up only showing a net income of 2% unless it was shifting money via the Engine Room to support other entities. Creating a marketing or management arm like The Engine Room to collect marketing or management fees is a pretty brilliant move if you need to shift cash around.
Just my opinions, mind you. Better legal minds will eventually get to the bottom of it.