Lawyers Fees to save our business
Donation protected
Dear friends we need your help, this is our last resort as we have exhausted every other avenue. As many of you know Si started a business 4 years ago with 2 partners, a designer and a salesman. Along the way one of the business partners left (which we thought was of his own accord, but later learnt he was pushed out by the salesman director.)
Si has worked tirelessly on the business for the past 4 years, while still holding down a full time job and having our little girls in between all that. All of that was for no pay while the salesman was in the business drumming up work and getting paid a salary. Our moment came this year in Feb when there was finally enough money in the business to support Si. He quit his job and was full time in the business. Everything was great for about 4 months when the salesman started getting greedy, he started drawing more money out of the business than was allocated to him leaving not enough money in the account for Simon to get paid. For June and July we didn't have enough money for food and were living off crackers. Thank goodness for the kindness of friends who when they found out brought us some food. By mid July when the same pattern was showing Si was forced to go and get a full time job again, as the salesman now started threatening him saying that if he didn't start doing sales he was going to steal all the clients and leave Si with the tax debt that the salesman created.
Since July while Si has been back in full time work, the salesman said that he didn't want to do the business anymore and then demanded that they shut down the business or he would go off and start his own and take all the clients. Si said to him that seeing as he was a 50% shareholder, he would get his shares appraised so that he could bow out gracefully and at least see something for all his hard work over the last 4 years. Being the super admin on all the company emails we saw an email come through the moment Si asked to get his shares evaluated from the salesman to an accountant to immediately set up a company with him as the sole director in an almost exact copy of the business name they run together. Then he sent an email out to all the clients telling them a new bank account was coming and not to pay invoices. We found out that he's stolen around $50k from the business, spending it on first class tickets overseas for himself and his now wife, kitting out his home with a delux home theatre system that he wrote off as office equipment, paid for his car and fuel on the business, his phone, his wardrobe - and that's all we know of for now - none of which was agreed upon between Simon and the salesman.
Since then we have been fighting every single day to keep this business alive. He has sabotaged the company to such an extent that every single one of the clients that they had, except one has left and we know for a fact that some are being invoiced from the company the salesman set up cause one was loyal enough to forward us an invoice from the new company he's set up all the while still being a Director of this one (which is illegal and fraud).
We have approached a lawyer and send the salesman more than 5 letters asking to sit down and talk, to mediate and come to an agreement - all of which he has blatantly ignored.
He has threatened us on multiple occasions and continued to break the law.
Our only option now is to legally remove him as a Director from the company because he refuses to resign even though there is a mountain of evidence against him. Simon has been working his ass off to try and salvage client relationships and service who's left or been leaving. He's also frantically been trying to get new work on board to cover the tax debt payments that this Director has left on the business all the while stealing all the paying customers and leaving us with the mess.
We have tried to get loans to pay for the proceeding to remove him, but every time you mention the loan is for legal fees its denied.
And that leaves us with you our friends and family. To remove the other Director and salvage the company we need between $10k to $20k max. We were hoping you could help us out, we've tried on our own but the last few months have left us close to bankrupt. We cant just walk away as there are tax implications and money the business owes that Si would still have to pay, but with no money to be able to do so. Hopefully a little from a lot of people will get us to where we need to be. We would prefer not to ask, and its really hard to do, but there is nothing else we can do.
As this chaos has already been going on for a while we need to be able to remove him as a director pretty much asap. A timeframe for needing the money would be within the next two weeks - otherwise legal implications start falling on Si cause he's trying to run the as a sole Director while the salesman has baled.
If you can help we would be super grateful, if not we understand and still love you anyway xx
Big loves Simon and Pippa
Si has worked tirelessly on the business for the past 4 years, while still holding down a full time job and having our little girls in between all that. All of that was for no pay while the salesman was in the business drumming up work and getting paid a salary. Our moment came this year in Feb when there was finally enough money in the business to support Si. He quit his job and was full time in the business. Everything was great for about 4 months when the salesman started getting greedy, he started drawing more money out of the business than was allocated to him leaving not enough money in the account for Simon to get paid. For June and July we didn't have enough money for food and were living off crackers. Thank goodness for the kindness of friends who when they found out brought us some food. By mid July when the same pattern was showing Si was forced to go and get a full time job again, as the salesman now started threatening him saying that if he didn't start doing sales he was going to steal all the clients and leave Si with the tax debt that the salesman created.
Since July while Si has been back in full time work, the salesman said that he didn't want to do the business anymore and then demanded that they shut down the business or he would go off and start his own and take all the clients. Si said to him that seeing as he was a 50% shareholder, he would get his shares appraised so that he could bow out gracefully and at least see something for all his hard work over the last 4 years. Being the super admin on all the company emails we saw an email come through the moment Si asked to get his shares evaluated from the salesman to an accountant to immediately set up a company with him as the sole director in an almost exact copy of the business name they run together. Then he sent an email out to all the clients telling them a new bank account was coming and not to pay invoices. We found out that he's stolen around $50k from the business, spending it on first class tickets overseas for himself and his now wife, kitting out his home with a delux home theatre system that he wrote off as office equipment, paid for his car and fuel on the business, his phone, his wardrobe - and that's all we know of for now - none of which was agreed upon between Simon and the salesman.
Since then we have been fighting every single day to keep this business alive. He has sabotaged the company to such an extent that every single one of the clients that they had, except one has left and we know for a fact that some are being invoiced from the company the salesman set up cause one was loyal enough to forward us an invoice from the new company he's set up all the while still being a Director of this one (which is illegal and fraud).
We have approached a lawyer and send the salesman more than 5 letters asking to sit down and talk, to mediate and come to an agreement - all of which he has blatantly ignored.
He has threatened us on multiple occasions and continued to break the law.
Our only option now is to legally remove him as a Director from the company because he refuses to resign even though there is a mountain of evidence against him. Simon has been working his ass off to try and salvage client relationships and service who's left or been leaving. He's also frantically been trying to get new work on board to cover the tax debt payments that this Director has left on the business all the while stealing all the paying customers and leaving us with the mess.
We have tried to get loans to pay for the proceeding to remove him, but every time you mention the loan is for legal fees its denied.
And that leaves us with you our friends and family. To remove the other Director and salvage the company we need between $10k to $20k max. We were hoping you could help us out, we've tried on our own but the last few months have left us close to bankrupt. We cant just walk away as there are tax implications and money the business owes that Si would still have to pay, but with no money to be able to do so. Hopefully a little from a lot of people will get us to where we need to be. We would prefer not to ask, and its really hard to do, but there is nothing else we can do.
As this chaos has already been going on for a while we need to be able to remove him as a director pretty much asap. A timeframe for needing the money would be within the next two weeks - otherwise legal implications start falling on Si cause he's trying to run the as a sole Director while the salesman has baled.
If you can help we would be super grateful, if not we understand and still love you anyway xx
Big loves Simon and Pippa
Organizer
Pippa Scheepers
Organizer
Mount Hawthorn WA
