Hello, My name is Ben S. I am a small business owner; I was a franchisee of Elliott's Off Broadway Deli which is headquartered in Oakbrook, IL. I've owned this business for five years and invested over $70,000 in it. A little over a month ago, I lost it all. The reason is that the leaseholder of Elliott's Off Broadway, Daniel Perillo who owns Brandino Corporation, told me that he would not continue the sublease for me. As a result, he mandated that I move out Friday, March the 21st. Ever since my opening, each month I have paid the rent, franchise royalties, maintained my license, paid the taxes; however Perillo required me to pay additional rent to his company. He claims that I owe him backpay on the additional rent and told me to move out. There was a prospective buyer whom I had made a deal with and was willing to take over the business, however Perillo had secretly made a deal with the buyer - that he would force me out and sell the business to the buyer for a lower price. Perillo knew that I had invested over $70,000 in my business, and he wanted to take over my investments. As there were never any eviction proceedings or court order returning possession, I still had the legal right to possess the premises; and as such had the legal right to protect and move out my investments. However by that Friday night, he had already changed the locks on the business illegally without a court order or eviction notice in order to obstruct me from taking back out my investments. Anyway, I did my best to protect my investments and move out everything during the Easter weekend. This is not the first time that he has done this; I am not the first victim of this. I also know of other franchisees who were forced to walk away from their businesses and investments in similar manners. In each case, he would resell the business and the investments to a new owner. That's the way they really make money from the businesses. This trauma has given me the feeling that this corporation is not legally and morally running a business; they are scamming and exploiting the weakness of the small business owners. This franchise has about 80 establishments in suburbian office buildings and a few in Chicago downtown. Majority of the business is low at each location. Daniel Perillo is very good at tactly getting people to buy into this franchise business. Because the approximate startup is from $50,000 many first time small business owners can afford it so hence they buy into it. However once you are in the business, it is very difficult to get out of it unless there is someone else to take over your business, otherwise you would lose all of your investments. That's why there are many of the franchisees who do their best to hold on to their business and the others try their best to sell their business. Daniel Perillo then uses this point to eat each of the franchisees and take over their investments. I feel that I am being robbed of five years of my hard work by Daniel Perillo and all of my investments around $70,000 have all but vanished. I wish that I will be able to let other be aware of this company and its actions. I would hope that this would never happen to anyone else.
Sincerely, Ben S.
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