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Steve Myers
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The man filing the suit is Rick Mansour, the former general manager at Patsy Lou Williamson GMC.
He admits that he began his employment in an unusual manner. He says he worked for free for the first seven months and put up his own money to help the business out of a financial bind. "The dealership was in serious trouble, financially, with cash flow...close to six figures short in the bank account," Mansour said.
Attorney Art Busch says there were no money problems. "Mansour's allegations that the company was in financial trouble when he first started, that's nonsense," he said.
Former Genesee County Prosecutor Art Busch is representing Williamson in this case. He maintains the entire lawsuit is without merit. "The facts speak for themselves. This is the number one Buick dealership in the U.S. You can figure out the math."
But Mansour stands by the charges he made in the lawsuit and during a follow-up interview. He says his position gave him access to information that few others had. "As general manager, I saw it. Every day you know where you stand in the bank. If there's not enough money to pay bills, you have problems. I offered to help."
Mansour says he offered to help with a $550,000 loan and then another loan of $300,000 a few months later.
Why would he loan so much money to an employer? Mansour admits that he expected a payoff from the loans and his unpaid employment.
He said he was paid $6,000 a week plus a percentage of the dealership's business.
That percentage of profits, Mansour said, was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars when the company became profitable in 2003
"After 2003, I'm sure it broke his heart to write the check and pay me the bonus," Mansour told abc12's Cathy Shafran.
Mansour explained that it after that bonus payment there were mounting differences over the amount of inventory in the used car lot. That is when his relationship with the Williamsons began to sour.
Williamson did not seek to renew his contract, so Mansour left in June of 2005 and tried to cash the $550,000 worth of checks he'd been carrying as collateral for his loan.
"I had the checks that were issued for the $550,000. I deposited (them) in the bank and they told me he had stopped payment on them," Mansour claimed.
Mansour claimed he still has yet to receive the repayment of the $850,000 in loans in addition to stock investments in Sports Resorts International he made at Williamson's urging. In Mansour's lawsuit, it is claimed that the value of that stock was inflated.
The total Mansour seeks is $1.5 million.
The Williamsons claim they owe Mansour nothing. "Their contention is that he is not owed any funds, that they have complied with his contract," countered Busch.
Busch says he has a letter from Mansour's attorney which says they would file a lawsuit and embarrass Williamson . Busch says this proves the suit is nothing more than an anti-Williamson smear tactic to discredit Mansour's former boss as a businessman.
Busch says the suit is baseless and should be thrown out by a judge.
Full Story and Video:
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/news/080705_NW_r2_mansour_williamson_suit.html |
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Sat Aug 13, 2005 2:23 am |
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