Dude, there are a lot of details of your story that just don't add up...
...you live in a $1.2m dollar house...clearly you aren't a moron when it comes to money....and people with money like that don't just hand it over without asking questions and without a lawyer triple checking everything.... especially when you are dealing with someone you've never met over the Internet like you claim.
You aren't some trailer trash getting fleeced for $100...and saying "yeah well I should've checked better"....that would at least be understandable.
There is clearly more going on here, and saying "this is boring, k bye!" Whenever someone asks legit questions is really only making look like you are trying to hide something.
Just because you want there to be more …sometimes there isn’t.
You’d be surprised how many businesses have been started with less.
The plan was I/me being more or less absentee owner with deliverables upon theis. Progress was being made just not fast enough or on the agreed timeline.
At times there needs to be additional funds infused if delays are understandable in the market.
Example, original machine shop was closed by parent company…that will cause delays as can be imagined.
So, by the time s new ship is found, purchase order confirmation, discussions about said plans, lead times, possible revisions…etc
The timeline can be pushed out months.
That delay is not something that I can blame him for, it was out of our control. So additional funds for fixed expenses and what came to be more important…a excuse for theis to kick the ball down the road.
Additionally, when someone is supplying fake financials that “add up”, there isn’t much to dig through.
Just so happens what he was coming to the table more often than not were wrong decisions. We would speak on the phone and come up with a conclusion, I later find out he was unable to communicate well enough so the “change”, was never implemented or was incorrect in execution.
which I was not aware of until I became non-absentee…which is the exact opposite of the original plan. And that even happen to be the expo when I finally had several days in front of him.
We must remember, hoplite coincided with COVID, so travel was extremely limited. Not only nationally, NYS, but also my main business.
Traveling, and coming back with a COVID positive has ramifications outside hoplite. Work, office staff, mfg staff, kids school, etc.
From a 10,000 foot view the expenses were more than expected but IF he was meeting and speaking with the people he said he was…those expenses could be possible.
Just a perfect storm of poor management and poor employee…really there isn’t more to the story.
Knowing what I know now, even though he signed legal paperwork in good faith…he was lying. There is only so much you will find out when the “scammer” is willing to go that far and break the law.
It’s a fun story to jump on and pick apart but at its core it’s very simple.
