Just received an email from my credit card provider that the chargeback investigation is now complete, they were unable to contact the merchant during the 45 day dispute/investigation period so the chargeback is now permanent in my favor.
I guess those 3% credit card processing fees are good for something after all.
FYI, it looks like at least one legal case has been filed against Scott... Looks like he took out a cash advance for $118k in March and failed to repay all of it. Looks like Scott repaid $86k then flaked on the balance.
SUMMONS + COMPLAINT - S & C November 14, 2023. Read court documents, court records online and search Trellis.law comprehensive legal database for any state court documents.
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I'm starting to build a picture. He and his wife doesn't live in Montana full time. Cash advance is probably to pay attorneys for a failed age discrimination lawsuit in Florida (filed 10/22/22 and cased closed 06/22/23). He was working in Destin Florida as was his wife Lorraine rather than living in Montana. Both names, Scott J Berish and Lorraine Berish are found as names associated with Liberty Optics LLC. The Montana address is probably an investment rental property. Scott J Berish is associated Kalispell, MT and Valparaiso, FL. Valparaiso is less than 10 miles away from Destin, FL. Liberty Optics LLC principal address also used to be 2436 Cove Rd Navarre, FL 32566, which is around 30 miles from Destin. If I'm correct, Scott J Berish is the person on the left in the pic below.
Case # - 3:2022cv21061
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I think perhaps we might be able to get a pretty good idea of the why this suddenly all happened.
Predatory lenders and people too short sighted, too quick to rush for something or too ignorant to know what they are getting into.
Here is a possible explanation that is purely conjecture but offers some things that may be good for thought / research.
Scott didn't set out to try to rip anyone off, he had a decades long successful business going on that made decent just not huge money.
Something happened with employment for him or his wife while living in Florida and they were pretty angry about it.
Some lawyers around there were happy to take a suckers money and probably told them they had a slam dunk case and couldn't lose and everyone was going to be in the money very shortly.
BUT... said lawyers wanted money up front or pretty much pay as you go for some pretty expensive rates.
But don't worry, they said, it's all worth it, you'll get so much more back in return.
Scott and wife see $$$ in their eyes and rush for what seems to be an easy windfall, they just you know need to get their hands on like $100k right away to pay the lawyers.
Somebody (could have been the lawyers, could have been their own stupid searches for easy but expensive money) hooked them up with the worst kind of lender a business could possibly go to. Those NYC "lenders" that are pretty much guaranteed to bankrupt your business and bleed you dry.
Typical terms, sky high interest rates, direct access to your bank accounts, daily withdrawals of money from your deposits, probably signing of of those crooked documents that NY allows that lets them skip court proceedings and just grab all your stuff if there isn't enough money in the bank account to pay that day's takings. (do a bit of research, you'll find hundreds of pages of horror stories of dealing with those lenders, it almost always ends the same, business bankrupt, owners bust or worse).
So Scott and wife make the deal with the devil. All Scott's income from his business is now being sucked up daily by the "lenders" from NY.
Not a great situation but hey the lawsuit should be won shortly and then all will be good.
Well reality hits and either they don't have as good a case as they thought and it becomes clear it's basically going to be settled for next to nothing, or the lawyers say we've used up all that $100k you paid us, so either settle or pay us another $100k
So now Scott and wife are stuck between the devil and a hard place.
So Scott goes all in on trying to generate raw daily income to keep the devil at bay and starts using customer money for orders to pay off the devil that is daily hounding at his heels, hoping to get more new orders in to keep the previous orders dribbling out.
(Anyone intelligent knows how this is going to end, but the desperate hopeful always think that like "true communism" they will be the ones to get it done right and come out good)
Scott mentions they are having one of their slowest summers in like forever.
Scott tries more sales, tries everything and by this time is playing a desperate game of who can I string along vs. who needs their stuff now so as not to cause huge uproar.
Eventually one day there isn't enough money in the bank account for the daily feeding the devil demands.
The "lender" seizes every last drop of money in the bank account and any other assets they have their tentacles allowed to touch, probably without any warning, then says now you owe us a huge lump sum way more than agreed, and here is the lawsuit.
Scott is bust, no options, shuts down the business.
Can't face anyone after what went down and simply goes silent and disappears.
The devil will still keep looking for their pound of flesh until they decide they can't find anything to make it worthwhile, then they sell it to a lesser demon to try and down the chain until it's junk that some imp is trying to rattle. Credit card companies and payment processors will try to get theirs but eventually see it's not worth it as there is nothing left to have and just write it off against vast profits, while selling the noncollectable debt to imps that deal in junk.
And history is left with the story of yet another person who thought they were decent and good and went along very well for a long time but then got enticed by the dark side and lost it all.
. 
