Richard Friedberg formed Advantage Rent-to-Own LLC in May. I was approached by him at the time to develop a website. Richard didn't have the money to pay, therefore he promised me a fixed monthly payment and 10% of the net profits on the company. I invested a lot of my time and energy into developing a very functional and powerful database-driven website with the hope of getting paid back a piece of the company profits. This arrangement is normal for many startup companies but there is much more to the story.
In I believe Advantage Rent-to-Own LLC pulled in over $300,000 in revenue but apparently had $0 in profits. Since I was supposedly a 10% partner, in early 2008 I asked to see the 2007 accounting records but this was never provided. Every time I asked for these records, excuses were made as to why they weren't available yet.
I terminated my partnership with Richard Friedberg and his LLC on Sept 3 because of trust issues, his bad ethics, his terrible decision making, and his ongoing excuses for not being able to pay for my discounted bill rate, or even the website hosting bill. Over the course of 16 months, Richard Friedberg had paid a GRAND TOTAL of $3,000 towards a website that has a development cost of NEARLY $35,000.
On Sept 3rd, Richard Friedberg was 90 days past due on making ANY payment toward the website development. I mailed Richard a certified letter on Sept 3, indicating my termination from the partnership along with an invoice for $31,706. This was the full cost of all of my unpaid web development time, which according to contract was owed to me. Richard was well aware of this cost as I emailed invoices every month for over a year showing him what the ongoing cost was.
Richard Friedberg claims that I "stole" his business, but I believe the facts are simple. Richard did not pay for the website and he doesn't OWN anything. At this point, he is just TRYING to blame everyone he can, including innocent people, to try to shift the blame away from himself. This is what manipulators do!!!
There are many other complaints on this website against Richard Friedberg, of Advantage Rent-to-Own by multiple customers regarding the sale of real estate rent-to-own licenses. Apparently multiple customers have asked for refunds and the status of those complaints are unknown at this point. Richard also promised and wrote contracts giving other individuals "ownership" of a website that he never owned.
Richard Friedberg was convicted of tax fraud in Philadelphia in the early 1990s and there is evidence in the Philadelphia Inquirer news archives. Read about Richard's history and you will see a long pattern of unethical, devious, manipulative, fraudulent behavior with MANY different companies.
Richard has been spreading false rumors about me and trying to destroy my reputation. Anybody who knows me knows I am ethical, honest, and provide value to my clients in the information technology field. Anybody who REALLY knows Richard, knows he is a scam artist, a liar, a coward, and tries to leverage other people for his own financial benefit. Richard is bankrupt financially, morally, and ethically. This is what I truly believe.
Richard "ripped me off" by making false promises and causing me to invest roughly 450 hours of my time in developing a website for what turned out to be a fraudulent operation. That 450 hours was equal to $35,000 of my billable time as a professional web developer. My claim against Richard is for $31,760 ($35,000 minus the $3,000 I was paid for).
Richard needs to be stopped from any further fraudulent business practices and prosecuted to the full extent of the law!!!
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