KT I think you called it. This guys a scammer. I found this stuff out in 10 minutes!!! And i've only just begun!!!
By Wade Tyler Millward – Reporter, Tampa Bay Business Journal
Jan 15, 2015, 11:00am EST Updated Feb 13, 2015, 1:15pm
A founder of an Ybor City startup is suing a venture capital firm for defrauding her after failing to deliver the initial seed money on a $5.4 million investment.
Gr8code LLC Founder Virginia Barnett has sued the man said in court documents to be behind a company that promised Barnett an initial $100,000 by Oct. 30 for seed money, with the rest given over the next four years.
At the time of the deal's announcement, it was said to be the largest venture investment ever awarded to a woman-owned business in Florida.
Steven Brickner and two venture capital companies are named in a lawsuit filed Jan. 13 in Hillsborough County. The suit says Brickner is general partner of VC Fund LP and owner of VC Financial Management LLC, both Delaware companies.
The suit says he demanded half-ownership of Gr8code in exchange for his financing. VC Fund and VC Financial are aliases of OmniElite Financial Group, according to the suit. Gr8code initially identified OmniElite as its financier.
Barnett turned to Brickner for financing when she couldn't secure a bank loan for Gr8code, which offers nine-week programming courses for $10,000.
Virginia Barnett, along with co-founders Phuong Nguyen Cotey and Deborah Alvarez Neff, reduced their ownership by about 20 percent each to add one of Brickner's companies as well as two more owners, Justin Davis and Mitchell P. Neff. The suit does not say if the Neffs are related.
Cotey is a former Tampa Bay Times reporter. Deborah Neff is operations director at Tampa Bay WaVE, a startup accelerator in Tampa.
Read the lawsuit below. Story continues on second page.
Initially, Barnett had contributed $35,000 in capital to the company. Cotey contributed $2,000. Deborah Neff did not contribute capital, according to the suit.
Brickner never transferred any money by his Oct. 30 deadline, the suit says. "Essentially, Brickner hijacked Gr8code," according to the lawsuit.
The suit faults Brickner and his companies for fraud in the inducement and negligent misrepresentation.
Barnett's lawyer, V. Stephen Cohen, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Voicemails were left for numbers listed for OmniElite and emails were sent to email addresses found online for the company.
