This company is a business brokerage. They have been in business for ~12 years. Although Jeff MacAdam, their “vice president” was courteous and seemingly professional, he is incompetent and should not be trusted with your money or with your future well-being in a business transaction. If you are considering buying a business, find another broker or find someone else to represent you. Jeff through his firm represented a seller who is a FRAUD and Jeff did not accurately assess the seller's financials or uncover the ways in which the seller lied about his business performance. Jeff’s incompetence and the seller’s lies have ruined me financially and I have lost my life savings as a result of numerous, egregious misrepresentations of the previous owner’s business that were kept out of his financial disclosures to the broker and me.
Background:
In 2012, I bought a business from an individual who hired Jeff and the Bridlebrook Group to represent him. I spent my life savings on the down payment, took on a 2nd mortgage to meet the 25% equity position that the SBA requires, and borrowed over $1.2MM from the largest bank in the US to finance the purchase. My bank put a lien on my home in order for me to secure the loan. I did this because I conducted a seven week, $10,000 due diligence with a very reputable forensic accountant and I was confident that the broker did his job and that the seller was telling the truth (the seller signed documents as part of our transaction stating that he was telling the truth and that his business made over $700,000 in the year prior to my purchase of it). These were all baseless claims that he fabricated by hiding expenses and inflating invoices that never existed. In other words: Lies.
After the transaction was completed and within TWO weeks of operating the business with the previous owner’s assistance, I uncovered new expenses from normal operations that the previous owner did not disclose to me, but that I later learned were cash expenses that he was hiding from his income statements. These expenses were massive enough that the Jeff MacAdam should have probed to understand how the margins could have been as good as the seller represented. Jeff should have known to ask and assess before representing the business for sale. Profit margins were nothing close to what was represented in the seller’s disclosure statements and in fact they were non-existent. As part of our purchase agreement (the contract) the seller stayed on with me for 90 days to provide a smooth transition; and in that time the business not only made nothing; IT LOST MONEY!
At this point, I found myself running a business that loses money, yet I still had a $14k bank loan to service each month. Had the seller told the truth and had the business broker been qualified in his craft enough to see through this, this business never would have been for sale, certainly for nothing close to what it sold for. The broker is apparently certified as a “CBI” which means that he had to pass a test and demonstrate capabilities that should him to be a capable and competent intermediary. Obviously, this certification played no part in Mr. MacAdam upholding his qualifications – or ethics – when it came to the transaction that I was defrauded in.
How to explain this? This brokerage was either also misled by the loser-seller (which goes to show how incompetent the broker is) or Jeff was in cahoots with the seller, knowing what was being misrepresented, but Jeff was willing to look the other way in order to close the sale. That’s fraud. This company had no right representing the business that I purchased and the broker never even had the courage to reach out to me to ask how we were doing or to apologize for the seller’s lies after he knew how the seller lied to me and my wife. Complete effing COWARD.
Now what?
On the day before I bought this business, I had an 809 credit rating, which is in the top 2% of America. I had a $1.6MM NET WORTH. However in the past year, I have had to declare personal bankruptcy, my bank took possession of my business assets, I have lost over $400k of my life savings, my bank has a lien on my home that is 4x the amount of what I owe on it and I am now paying on two mortgages for a home that I used to own 70% of. Does this sound like what should have happened to someone who bought a $1.5MM business that was represented as making $550,000 in income and $700,000 in CASH FLOW? Don’t let this happen to you!
Stay away from these clowns. Do not listen to anything they have to say. Do not trust them and ABSOLUTELY do not engage in any financial transaction with them or any other entity that they represent. Mr. MacAdam is the epitome of why business brokers need to be regulated by state and federal agencies. He and his ilk (and there are several of them all over the place) are essentially snake oil salesmen. He does not deserve the job he has, he does not deserve your trust and his firm absolutely does not deserve your money.
Let’s see if the coward has the courage to reply and explain himself. Given his silence since my transaction went through over two years ago, I doubt it. Even if he tries to explain away this horrible situation with run-of-the-mill platitudes like “agents are not responsible for conducting due diligence” and “buyers assume all risk in their transactions”, the fact that this happened to me and my family should give you pause about doing business with someone as incompetent as Jeff.
The Bridlebrook Group Reviews
This company is a business brokerage. They have been in business for ~12 years. Although Jeff MacAdam, their “vice president” was courteous and seemingly professional, he is incompetent and should not be trusted with your money or with your future well-being in a business transaction. If you are considering buying a business, find another broker or find someone else to represent you. Jeff through his firm represented a seller who is a FRAUD and Jeff did not accurately assess the seller's financials or uncover the ways in which the seller lied about his business performance. Jeff’s incompetence and the seller’s lies have ruined me financially and I have lost my life savings as a result of numerous, egregious misrepresentations of the previous owner’s business that were kept out of his financial disclosures to the broker and me.
Background:
In 2012, I bought a business from an individual who hired Jeff and the Bridlebrook Group to represent him. I spent my life savings on the down payment, took on a 2nd mortgage to meet the 25% equity position that the SBA requires, and borrowed over $1.2MM from the largest bank in the US to finance the purchase. My bank put a lien on my home in order for me to secure the loan. I did this because I conducted a seven week, $10,000 due diligence with a very reputable forensic accountant and I was confident that the broker did his job and that the seller was telling the truth (the seller signed documents as part of our transaction stating that he was telling the truth and that his business made over $700,000 in the year prior to my purchase of it). These were all baseless claims that he fabricated by hiding expenses and inflating invoices that never existed. In other words: Lies.
After the transaction was completed and within TWO weeks of operating the business with the previous owner’s assistance, I uncovered new expenses from normal operations that the previous owner did not disclose to me, but that I later learned were cash expenses that he was hiding from his income statements. These expenses were massive enough that the Jeff MacAdam should have probed to understand how the margins could have been as good as the seller represented. Jeff should have known to ask and assess before representing the business for sale. Profit margins were nothing close to what was represented in the seller’s disclosure statements and in fact they were non-existent. As part of our purchase agreement (the contract) the seller stayed on with me for 90 days to provide a smooth transition; and in that time the business not only made nothing; IT LOST MONEY!
At this point, I found myself running a business that loses money, yet I still had a $14k bank loan to service each month. Had the seller told the truth and had the business broker been qualified in his craft enough to see through this, this business never would have been for sale, certainly for nothing close to what it sold for. The broker is apparently certified as a “CBI” which means that he had to pass a test and demonstrate capabilities that should him to be a capable and competent intermediary. Obviously, this certification played no part in Mr. MacAdam upholding his qualifications – or ethics – when it came to the transaction that I was defrauded in.
How to explain this? This brokerage was either also misled by the loser-seller (which goes to show how incompetent the broker is) or Jeff was in cahoots with the seller, knowing what was being misrepresented, but Jeff was willing to look the other way in order to close the sale. That’s fraud. This company had no right representing the business that I purchased and the broker never even had the courage to reach out to me to ask how we were doing or to apologize for the seller’s lies after he knew how the seller lied to me and my wife. Complete effing COWARD.
Now what?
On the day before I bought this business, I had an 809 credit rating, which is in the top 2% of America. I had a $1.6MM NET WORTH. However in the past year, I have had to declare personal bankruptcy, my bank took possession of my business assets, I have lost over $400k of my life savings, my bank has a lien on my home that is 4x the amount of what I owe on it and I am now paying on two mortgages for a home that I used to own 70% of. Does this sound like what should have happened to someone who bought a $1.5MM business that was represented as making $550,000 in income and $700,000 in CASH FLOW? Don’t let this happen to you!
Stay away from these clowns. Do not listen to anything they have to say. Do not trust them and ABSOLUTELY do not engage in any financial transaction with them or any other entity that they represent. Mr. MacAdam is the epitome of why business brokers need to be regulated by state and federal agencies. He and his ilk (and there are several of them all over the place) are essentially snake oil salesmen. He does not deserve the job he has, he does not deserve your trust and his firm absolutely does not deserve your money.
Let’s see if the coward has the courage to reply and explain himself. Given his silence since my transaction went through over two years ago, I doubt it. Even if he tries to explain away this horrible situation with run-of-the-mill platitudes like “agents are not responsible for conducting due diligence” and “buyers assume all risk in their transactions”, the fact that this happened to me and my family should give you pause about doing business with someone as incompetent as Jeff.
STAY AWAY