Almost exactly five years ago Dan and Lisa Boaz, the founders and owners of the now defunct Vital Express, sold their expensive home in Sand Canyon and fled to Mooreville, North Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte. In case you have forgotten the trail of destruction left in their wake through the magic of the interwebs one can review the detailed stories at that time reported by KHTS and if you don’t have time here is a pithier report mysteriously posted by one “Dan Boaz” that provides a quicker summary.
According to KHTS, the Boaz’s allegedly ran the classic grift of “fake it till you make it,” where an individual uses family or borrowed money to support a lavish lifestyle and the appearance of success which then produces favorable knock on effects in the success of their nascent business. (“If they are so successful, I should be a customer and/or investor too!”) The biggest public creditor of the Boaz’s was the Foundation of the revered College of the Canyons (“COC”), where they “pledged” $2 million for the multi-decade naming rights of the COC Performing Arts Center. Only a modest amount of this pledge was ever paid and most went to the signs with the name “Vital Express.”
Well, the Boaz’s are back in the area in the form of Airfreight.com, a transportation broker with lots of pictures of shiny airplanes on its website that it does not own, and with an address in a high rise in Long Beach. One sees a smiling picture of Dan Boaz (who seems to have put on a fair amount of weight in the last five years) trumpeting his qualifications as a transport broker INCLUDING (ironically) a big amount of material about the “success” of Vital Express.
This proves at least two things: First, there are never a shortage of second (and even third and fourth acts) in America. Second, no one can stay away from Southern California for long.
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Anybody remember that employee who was killed at Mama Mia in Stevenson Ranch. I wonder why he was murdered. The restaurant was owned by Rich Brulato.
But Rich had sold Mama Mia long before that went down.
Hustlers gotta Hustle
If I were in charge at COC, I’ld drop a dime to the U.S. Attorney.
CC:
The beauty of this type of grift is that no laws are ever broken. People just make promises (like the COC pledge) that they probably hope and think they can actually fulfill, and it just doesn’t turn out well.
FWIW, I don’t believe COC ever made a Vital Express sign. IIRC, Vital claimed their initial delay in payment was because they weren’t agreeing on signage. The website and printed materials reflected the name, but the tacky sign the Boaz’s longed for never came to be.
also, FTW, LOL, IMHO, FVSC
Mike:
To refresh your recollection, the Boaz’s satisfied a portion of their pledge by providing some signs that were installed. They then made one and one half monthly cash payments which stopped, and ultimately the naming agreement was terminated.
One of the great footnotes to the story was the removal of the signs. When the Signal reporter asked some Facilities functionary when the signs would be removed, he said something lame about how their was no money in the budget for removal. I actually drove by the PAC the next day and those signs were GONE. I have an image in my head of Chancellor Van Hook ripping the signs down personally in the middle of the night!
These two sounded like a couple of greedy individuals who might do anything for the lifestyle they felt they were entitled to:
By early summer 2005, things began slowing down with the franchise rollout. Cash flow became a problem.
“I remember one meeting in early August. I couldn’t believe it,” another employee told us. “Dan and Lisa came in and instead of rallying the troops they started threatening. Dan began putting heavy pressure on us, threatening our jobs. He actually said we have to bring in this kind of money to support their lifestyle. This is while they are driving new luxury cars and renting a home on the beach in Ventura. The staff walked away from that meeting, flabbergasted. That was the first of many similar meetings. And what’s funny is Lisa was worse than Dan. She’d get up there and talk about how we needed to support their lifestyle. She kept pushing and pushing. It was like they would sit home over the weekend and look at the cash flow and realize it wasn’t covering the bills, so they’d come in on Monday morning in a rage. What a great motivator for their staff. They had no understanding of the negative impact it was having.”
I remember that quote from the KHTS story. Sometimes the weekend is a difficult time because one does not have the distraction of work to keep from focusing too much on a problem.
At the time this occurred The Signal kind of took a pass on the story. You will note that the only person that would speak on the record was Jonathan Kraut. Everyone else was anonymous and unnamed , probably because they did not want to admit to the losses they were taking because of the default and liquidation.
The Mighty Signal took a pass? I’m shocked…
Of course you wouldn’t want to write a story about someone entrenched in the GOBN.
NFIC
KHTS’s aggressive and somewhat vicious reporting on the story made some believe that Carl Goldman had actually lost money on an investment with the Boaz’s, something he to this day vehemently denies.
Dan and Lisa are at it again. The suite number they list in long beach is a virtual office rent by hour, day ,week or month. They are back scamming again