Spa810 LLC Spa810.com spa810laserskinmassage.com John Dunatov owner of Phoenix Global Consulting formerly Phoenix International Inc, Suez 2816, Inc Attempted to sell me a Franchise, Were Deceptive in their Business Practices, Sued Me For Commenting on an Existing RipOff Report Scottsdale Arizona

At some point around June 2014 I was searching for a business with the goal of remaining in Florida USA. I came across an ad on the internet on a business sales site. The ad seemed to be selling a business concern which was set up and already to be sold. I contacted the contact person and was basically pitched a Franchise called Spa810, LLC. 

The description was of a Dr. Timothy Reilly and Kana Reilly who saw a need for a one stop place for beauty treatments, hair removal and massage etc at affordable rates, you can GOOGLE it and will see the original description because though forced out of their own business by John Dunatov, the Reillys still are prominently credited, rightfully so, with founding Spa810. 

I had on and off contact with the "regional developers" for Puerto Rico and South Florida. The actual cost of the Spa was VERY high in comparison to similar opportunities I have seen but I was very impressed by the concept and really enthusiastic about the people. I had two sets of lawyers I knew vet it though they were not Franchise lawyers. I then basically had my funding fall through and was unable to proceed and wrote a very nice email to that effect. At the time, rather than return to Europe my intention was to move to California. John Dunatov, who was prominently involved (I have copious emails available to be reviewed upon request by any legal authority)advised me like a friend that I should look at Texas, where they incidentally opened their THIRD location, a corporate joint venture I later found out, and again seemed like a very nice man. In fact everyone I dealt with seemed quite nice. I blame FEW PEOPLE but for John Dunatov for the actual issues with the spa and the very devious business practices. 

After writing a very contrite email to the "REGIONAL MASTER FRANCHISEE" (who did not open their own Spa810, nor, to my knowledge, have any of the "REGIONAL MASTER FRANCHISEES" who pay a considerable amount for an "interest" in the company, as well as addressing John Dunatov and Samantha Theaumont on the email I basically received a response that again advised me to consider moving to Dallas for "lifestyle" as opposed to California (Texas being the new California) as I had expressed an interest in not burning the bridge but revisting things in the future. John also went on to more or less very subtly begin to feel me out as to how much money I did have to invest (basically all the money I had) which I told him at the time was almost 100K but that was for my child. John then did something I did not expect, he told me how lucky I was today. Apparently they were planning on opening a PILOT location anyway in South Florida so why not throw my money in and if I had good credit and could get the equipment under my name I would own that much more and we could go into a joint venture. 

Now I will admit, I LOVED the idea of this spa and John is, as his record shows a slick salesman (I will post a link to another RipOff Report that needs to be looked at by anyone considering ANY business dealings with John Dunatov for their own knowledge so they go in with their eyes wide open). 

I said I wanted to have Franchise attorneys look at the FDD, the FDD was dated May 2013...THERE IS A REASON FOR THIS WHICH I WILL EXPLAIN....I sent this over with John pushing me to reconvene Friday, that same week, to discuss proceeding and repeatedly reiterated getting me to a "Discovery Day" (this is a day in franchise industry where generally there is a meet and greet with all people involved, lots of camradarie and the day usually ends with the adrenaline and "kick" of the day ending in a signature for you to basically enter the world of being a Franchisee. Now the attorneys I had vet this were surprised I even came to them and thought it was quite clever of me as most people actually "wait until there are issues and litigations" is how they put it. For 2,000 Dollars they agreed to vet the documents and get back to me. We reconvened and they were dead against it. They told me the FDD was OUT OF DATE. That it was, in their words, "not legal" as it was in breach of FTC guidelines, the body that governs these documents. They also said it was curious that all the Master Franchises seems sold but no independent Spas other than corporate owned, bar one other joint venture in Texas, existed. This showed that the pockets of the company were lined or should be but the financials showed only 88 dollars in their account. Further they felt for such a new franchise, or such a small one that had few spas opened, the price was very high for a franhise fee and the royalties were VERY high with a middle man who they did not really understand why they were involved as they felt they simply "bought in" to own a region and recruit others to take the risks and make money vis-a-vis this manner. I could not disagree but I was still IN LOVE with the idea. 

So now I asked my lawyers if there was ANY way they could foresee this working out. My lawyers said they would have to have a conference call with John Dunatov and discuss how to mitigate my risk and expenses etc. (a lot of legalese). I wrote back to John Dunatov, his now CEO Samantha Theaumont and several other people, I believe the CURRENT owners of the two  Arizona locations. I copied my attorneys and expressed the concerns and their suggestions to proceed-with a conference call but as they had requested without the "Regional Developers" present on the call. Now far from hostile I was getting curious and very scared by the fact that John Dunatov, who had encouraged me to have this vetted, now kept removing my lawyers from the CC and would NOT even answer them let alone entertain a conference call. In fact he kept saying to put it in writing and that he has been down this road before and I explained they NEEDED to talk to him to proceed or feel comfortable with me proceeding. John Dunatov walked away from the deal at this point. 

A couple of days later I was still thinking about this, not only pretty bummed out that this was a no-go but also very curious as to why a businessman who was so confident in his business would not even respond in writing to lawyers let alone do a simple conference call for the sake of business. So for the first time instead of Spa810 I Googled John Dunatov and the first thing that came up was RIPOFF REPORT followed by other negative sites such as entitled "dirtsearch" which I did not even bother doing as I got scared enough reading the RIPOFF REPORT. 

PLEASE LOOK UP JOHN DUNATOV AND FIND THE OTHER RIPOFF REPORT, I HAVE GIVEN GREAT DETAIL ON THERE AS TO THE SITUATION INCLUDING THE LAWSUIT THEY FILED AGAINST ME APPARENTLY FOR LIBEL FOR SIMPLY STATING I WAS HAPPY THAT I HAD FOUND THE SITE AND WISH I HAD NOT GOT INVOLVED WITH THIS AND WASTED 2000 DOLLARS AND IN THE FUTURE I WOULD KNOW TO GOOGLE THE PARTIES, I KNOW NOW HE IS THE OWNER OF SPA810...AND NOT JUST THE BUSINESS. 

Within 48 hours I got an email with his lawyer copied on it threatening me with libel. I advised him that NOTHING I said was libellous and that he could feel free to pursue any action the truth is an absolute defence to libel, which is fact, yet he then gave me a dig saying something to the effect he hoped my son was proud of me etc. (I think my son would be proud I was not conned out of my life savings for him). I later came to find out that I was being sued by John Dunatov, though I was never and have never and now I can never be served anyway but I did want to deal with it despite every lawyer I know telling me to just walk away as once I moved abroad they could never serve me really. I chose to try and work it out and contacted a lawyer and had to spend another 8K dollars on a retainer in hopes to get this frivolous lawsuit dropped. They actually got hold of the lawsuit and to my SHOCK I was actually a co-defendant of a woman I never met and the allegations against me were shocking. 

Not only was libel, which is completely false and anyone can view and see the post they refer to as the original post says WOW (basically saying I wish I had found this before I dealt with them etc). Well in addition this woman, who I never met, and I allegedly were in collusion with each other and I was doing things like defaming them for the benefit of her marital estate and all sorts of way out there allegations intended to be creative and damaging at one point even accusing her of losing my Franchise Fee for Spa810 LLC (owned by John and Brandka Dunatov who own it under Phoenix Global Consulting, Inc). I was also accused of defaming Samantha Theaumont (I did not know writing someone's name amounted to libel) and worse, much worse. 

The lawyer believed the lawsuit was ridiculous and frivolous but I wanted to settle it as I actually learned quite a bit about John Dunatov and it seems he has made a career of being on both ends of civil lawsuits, mostly the receiving end (thanks RipOff Report and Maricopa County Court Website). 

IN FACT...THIS IS VERY GERMANE TO THE ENTIRE ISSUE, I GOT A MAY 2013 FDD AND WAS TOLD IT WOULD NOT BE VERY DIFFERENT THAN WHAT I WAS RECEIVING ONCE UPDATED SO YES GO AHEAD AND HAVE YOUR LAWYERS VET IT, WELL THIS WAS NOT ONLY NOT TRUE IT BROKE ANOTHER FTC RULE WHICH IS THAT ALL LITIGATIONS CURRENT AND PAST MUST BE LISTED. 

DR. TIMOTHY REILY AND KANA REILLY HAD A LITIGATION GOING AGAINST JOHN DUNATOV. THEY WERE THE FOUNDERS, HAD I KNOWN THIS I WOULD NEVER HAVE PROCEEDED, WOULD YOU HAVE? I CAME TO FIND OUT THROUGH THEIR ATTORNEY THAT THE REILLYS SUED JOHN AND BRANDKA DUNATOV AND THEIR COMPANY PHOENIX GLOBAL CONSULTING, INC DUE TO THE FACT THAT THEY FELT HIS REPUTATION AND HIS BUSINESS PRACTICES HAD DEVALUED THEIR BUSINESS SO MUCH THAT THEY WANTED OUT OF THEIR OWN BUSINESS AND THE SETTLEMENT WAS TO BASICALLY SELL UP TO JOHN DUNATOV AND LET HIM HAVE THE WHOLE THING AND START ALL OVER, WHICH THEY HAVE. 

FURTHER TO THIS, MY CO-DEFENDANT, WHO WAS CEO AS OF MARCH 2014 WHEN I GOOGLED HER (AS I HAD NO CLUE WHO SHE WAS DESPITE A SUIT THAT ALLEGED I WAS IN COLLUSION WITH HER) HAD FILED AN INJUNCTION AGAINST JOHN DUNATOV FOR HARASSMENT, NOW WOULD YOU HAVE PROCEEDED NOW? NO I DOUBT IT, NOR WOULD I HAVE. THIS WAS ALSO DUE TO BE LISTED ON MY FDD, THE FDD AGAIN WAS DATED MAY 2013. 

In their emails to me not only did they never provide me with an updated FDD even within the 14 days I believe they believed I would sign on and give my life savings to them, but they also sent me the joint venture agreement. Samantha Theaomont sent me the Franchise Agreement to sign, THIS WAS COMPLETELY AGAINST FTC GUIDELINES AND HAS BEEN REPORTED BY ME ALREADY. 

In addition to this I discovered on the Maricopa Superior Court Website that there were about 17 cases involving the Dunatovs, most involved judgements against them and companies they ran, the highest was for nearly 6 million dollars, this is all public record and I posted almost every suit on the post that lists John Dunatov so if you search his name on this site you will find the suits I refer to. Some were also predatory suits, like the one he has initiated against me. 

IN MY OPINION, knowing today what I know I have to question if this is not a Ponzi scheme and will be reporting this to IC3 (the FBI internet crimes, as that is how they procured my business and presumably others and white collar crime division). I encourage anyone else who feels they have been victims to also visit the IC3 site at www.ic3.gov you can do it from USA or abroad. 

Now I was very willing to settle. They wanted me to stipulate to libel and take a judgement against myself, produce documents between myself and a woman I never met as well as affidavits as to our contact etc and they wanted, get this, FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS FROM ME. I told my lawyer to get rid of this man and have nothing more to do with him I was willing to do some things but I felt that taking a fall for something I did not do so he could delist a link was wrong. I also felt that whereas I had this incredible story to share and hopefully save someone from what I have had to go through, I really had a stronger hand, especially if I were to be leaving USA. 

I tried until the last minute to get them to be reasonable but now I am just of the belief that justice will be served. 

OH and BTW, I never defamed Samantha Theaumont but just as a matter of fact she went on Yelp and against their guidelines posted GLOWING reviews of her company's two Arizona locations, which were removed for breach of guiedlines.