After ripping off vendors at his other companies, Bromwell Housewares and Michiana Forge, Steven Bandawat continues his campaign of fraud, theft, lies and deception at Misty Mate. He makes his money by stealing from both vendors and customers alike. Following are some choice examples:

1) He orders supplies and services from vendors then refuses to pay. FedEx is planning to sue him for non payment of invoices. He ordered die cut boxes from Weyerhauser which were received. Bandawat attempted to place an additional order for the same item and when Weyerhauser requested payment for the previous order, he switched vendors, incurring the die charges again with a new vendor, rather than paying the money owed to Weyerhauser. He owes money to Inline Plastics, Apple One, FedEx, DHL, Bentonville Software Associates, Rosenbaum & Associates, Sound Packaging, Kentak & others.

It would be one thing if he were honestly struggling, but he takes large amounts of money out of the company for personal use, purchasing a $20,000 Rolex for his son's undergraduate college graduate along with a BMW 745i for the same son, a BMW X5 for his middle son and Land Rover for his 19 year old. He himself drives a Mercedes S550 and lives in a multimillion dollar estate, owns a great deal of property and still feels the need to steal from others.

2) Obtains credit fraudulently because his credit rating is horrible. When asked for trade references, he listed Michiana Forge and Bromwell Housewares as references. These are both companies he owns and listed his wife as one of the contact people. Besides being unethical, this is also illegal. If you check his or Misty Mate's D&B rating you will see it is awful.

3) He rips off his wholesale customers in many ways. For one, he has been known to tamper with customers purchase orders by increasing the price of the item(s) ordered and increasing the quantity, then shipping and billing the customer for the tampered amount. Highly illegal. He lied to QVC after they requested to cancel a late shipping order by telling them it already shipped, when it hadn't. He then went ahead and shipped the order. He won't publish any official internal price list or wholesale catalog because he attempts to gouge each customer for as much as possible.

It's worse with his retail customers. He charges outrageous prices on the web site. For example, one item he charges $14.99 for can be purchased at CVS or Walgreens for $7.99. An item he charges $50 for can be purchased for $12.99 at Wal*Mart.

4) He has been known to deduct Federal Withholding Tax from employee paychecks, which is required by law, and then not to pay the money deducted to the IRS.

5) He is abusive to his employees. In a seven month period: Five sales people started and resigned. None of them lasted more than two months, most less than one. None of them gave notice when leaving. His CFO and entire accounting department quit with no notice after first depositing the salary and vacation pay due to them into their accounts (knowing they would never collect) and telling him off. Two administrative assistants quit. That's 10 people all within the seven month period and the staff size is only about 12 people. He would regularly berate female employees calling them stupid and ordering them to fax, copy, and perform other tasks as one might expect someone to speak to a slave. He hires personnel promising them bonuses and commissions then never pays them.

He is a raging misogynist and anti-Semite. He regularly referred to one vendor as Jew-boy and that &#$%*# Jew. His treatment of women, including his own wife his deplorable

6) He doesn't pay his sales reps. Frequently, the outside manufacturers reps have to fly to town and apply extreme pressure to get money that is way overdue. Hoffman Sports and Kim Jacobson are just two of his victims.

7) He lies about who he is. When customers call he will sometimes use a fake name, say he is the export manager, sales manager, etc. He takes no responsibility for the damage he does to his vendors, customers and employees.

This guy belongs in jail.

Roger
Phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.