CUPPY’S COFFEE: Lawsuits Mounting Against Medina, Elite

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• I just spoke to Don Yarborough at the FBI field office in AL. The US Atty in that AL jurisdiction determined that since the contracts were executed with the entity in the State of FL, that we need to be in contact with the FBI Field office in Ft Walton Beach(unfortunately the number listed on the FBI website is disconnected). That field office should then be in touch with the US Atty there who will then decide if it is a civil or criminal issue.

• Krista, first, how can you blame the sales staff? They may have been unscrupulous in their initial sale, but after that, they had no idea what was going on in the rest of the company.
  They could repay the initial "unscrupulous" commissions they received to the franchisees whose money it is. I bet that would go a long way in proving that they are honorable and ethical.

  So, Rick & Krista... look for a little something extra in your Christmas card from your scrupulous Cuppy's Coffee sales rep this year. Now they know what they were involved with, I'm sure they'll be sending you back any commissions they received.

  Second, there were NO liens placed on stores PRIOR to Dale taking over.
  Not true. Here's one, posted right on this site.

  From: Mary Patrick: Construction Nightmare 1 (MCSI 3 Months)
  "January 19, 2007 – The Patricks received a phone call from Susan Boyd, the owner of MCSI.. She stated that she was stopping work on their building and site work due to monies being owed to her by Elite Manufacturing (Cuppy’s). She said their building was nearly finished, but she would not release it because she needed it for leverage against Elite."

  From: Mary Patrick: Construction Nightmare 2 (5 Months)
  "Wednesday, January 31, 2007 –The Patricks received a notification of a mechanic’s lien placed on the property by Ernie Craig due to the failure of MCSI to pay him."

  According to this account, Elite had received disbursements from the SBA backed lender, but had not paid their designated supplier MCSI. MCSI stopped work, and didn't pay the subcontractor who placed a lien on the property.

  Isn't this the same thing that later happened with SBT not being paid by Elite? This practice appears to go back before SBT... on Morg's watch.

  That would be pre-Dale. But keep trying...

• Admin says: "It seems to me that there’s a great amount of effort being put forth to try to create the illusion that these problems all started when Dale took over. In fact, this same pattern predates Cuppy’s itself - going back to Java Jo’z, does it not?"

  Absolutely!! I was a Java Joz victim under Morg. He was our "best friend" until he got our $30K. When we asked for the refund he definately wouldn't take our calls and had Danny Jones do all the bullying. By the way - we too were told by Danny Jones that they were deducting the sales commission from our deposit. Not sure why they thought that WE were paying commissions for them but I guess it didn't matter when they had no intention of refunding our whole deposit. I can still hear him saying "we have to all share in the pain". Not sure where their pain was coming from using our life savings to fund oceanfront office space.
  This whole thing started with Java Joz and the exact same pattern replicated itself under Cuppy's. You can change the awning and the letterhead but scam remained.

• Carol wrote: This whole thing started with Java Joz and the exact same pattern replicated itself under Cuppy’s. You can change the awning and the letterhead but scam remained.

  First, I should say, in fairness, that several ex-employees posted excellent comments here in which they apologized to the franchisees for their part in this and said that they regretted not having seen through this ruse right off the bat. I'm sure there are many who honestly regret having been part of what seemed like a promising organization but, in hindsight, seems like a charade. To those I say: best of luck in future endeavors. Pick your employers wisely.

  Others cling to the belief (or at least say they do) that they are as much victims as the franchisees, that this all started with Dale, and that Morg's reign was a Golden Age of truth and prosperity where stores got built and vendors got paid. In my opinion, this is, delusional thiking and/or a hidden agenda spin.

  Carol's comment prompts an important question: How could any employee who was working at the Fort Walton Beach office claim they thought this was an ethical company when they simply made a name and corporate entity change so they could not repay the Java Jo'z depositers? Families like Carol's trustingly gave $30K deposits to a group of nice nice people. They returned for their deposit to find all the same nice nice people sitting in the same office, at the same desks, but were told they were "Cuppy's" not "Java Jo'z" and that their money was given to "Java Jo'z"

  Now this may have been legal from a technical standpoint, but employees should have seen the deceptive nature of the organization clearly at that point. In fact, it's my understanding that employees were claiming "We work for Cuppy's, not Java Jo'z" on the phony internet blogs at the same time they were getting paychecks printed with "Java Jo'z" drawn from the same account.

  Employees: I'm sure Morg gave a great explanation (Snowden's fault) but didn't you see what this indicated about the real nature of the company?

• just to let all the franchisee's know whats going on, corporate left ALL the vendor and franchisee information at the FWB office's, along with all the company checks and accouting information. So if you want your personal file, its all in unit 36 in the financing department, ready for your pickup, along with all the financial statements from every company morg, kim, roy, doug, dale ever touched. I know this for a fact because i was just there because the landlord is liquidating all the stuff they left in the building, which also includes 40-50 BRAND NEW flat screen monitors, computer systems, fax machines, copiers, chairs, tables, supplies, server software. THOUSANDS of dollars in equipment just left there to rot. And yes all your financial information is still laying there in the building. Also in building #3 they had pictures of all the franchisee's at their grand opening, they took all those pictures and just threw them away in a garbage pile. Yes, they really did care for all of us and they DID NOT INTEND to do ANYTHING once they moved to Alabama.

• also they left a TON of monin and ghiradelli products in #3 in coffee college, along with a couple of the mascots (3 total), a ton of posters, a frame signs, smallwares products, more computer products....and more customer information they failed to take to alabama...again NO intentions of ever doing anything more with vendors, suppliers, creditors, banking, franchisee's, as ALL the information, banking records and CHECKBOOKS were left in Fort Walton Beach.

• Does this mean our personal identity information to include bank accounts, social security numbers, application paperwork, etc. is just sitting in a building and that anyone who goes there can have access to it? That's just great. Why not open us all up to be victims of identity theft along with the Cuppy's theft we have already been through? We are already facing bankruptcy, must we also have this additional risk? Perhaps the FL FBI should go and collect these items in case they would prove to be useful to them. Did anyone ever get in touch with the FL field office?

• correct, EVERYONES files are at the FWB office where finance used to be

  BTW, i did pickup my own files, just in case

• Does anyone remember the office space cuppy's had at Lovejoy Road? Where they built the k3b's before they farmed everything out? Well the official eviction has been filed for that complex...

  http://www.clerkofcourts.cc/court/PUBSEARCH.asp?CASE_NUM=2008+CC+003539+S

• Guest - any idea how to get in touch with the landlord or the name of the landlord? I would really like to be certain the personal records are at least shredded if not returned.
  Also - I have not recieved any response from the FBI HQ Ofc in Jax re: new contact information for the FT Walton Beach field ofc. Good thing this is not an emergency.