FRESH HEALTHY VENDING Ties to Mark Trotter, Nick Yates Disclosed
October 1, 2012
The Fresh Healthy Vending franchise disclosure document used to sell hundreds of franchises nationwide is “materially deficient,” according to a consent order issued by the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, Security Division.
Fresh Healthy Vending failed to disclose that its predecessor is YoNaturals.
Fresh Healthy Vending failed to disclose that Mark Trotter and Nicholas Yates actively hold franchise management positions with the company.
Fresh Healthy Vending failed to disclose that Mark Trotter and Nicholas Yates and their partners were previously fined $10 million and $3.5 million respectively in unrelated fraud cases.
Washington State has issued a Consent Order (see below) requiring Fresh Healthy Vending to come clean in regards to its ties to Trotter and Yates.
Mark Trotter owns all preferred shares of FHV (Fresh Healthy Vending)
According to the WA Consent Order, “Mark Trotter (“Trotter”), a California resident, is the president, secretary, and sole shareholder of FHVHC, which holds all preferred shares of FHV. FHV consults Trotter before selling FHV vending machine franchises.”
The Consent order states that since Trotter manages franchise sales, Fresh Healthy Vending must disclose his relevant litigation history:
Trotter’s relevant litigation history includes his being the subject of an action involving the alleged violation of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, and the Texas Electronic Mail Solicitation Act, and the Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act in connection with sending unsolicited e-mail messages containing false, misleading, or deceptive information. On June 6, 2006, the US District Court for the Western District of Texas entered a Final Judgment and Order for Permanent Injunction and Monetary Relief against Mark Trotter.
Nick Yates has sales and operations oversight at FHV (Fresh Healthy Vending)
According to the Consent Order, both Trotter and Yates have management responsibility over franchise operations and sales. Nick Yates should have be fully disclosed in the Fresh Healthy Vending FDD, along with his relevant litigation history:
Yates’ relevant litigation history includes a February 2006 judgment involving a monetary penalty that was entered against him by the Federal Court of Australia for misleading and deceptive conduct regarding the operation of pre-paid phone card and vending machine distributorships.
Fresh Healthy Vending concealed its true ownership & management
In 2008 – 2010, numerous negative comments appeared on such websites as Ripoff Report and ComplaintsBoard warning would-be investors to steer clear of the YoNaturals vending opportunity because of its connection to Trotter and Yates.
It appears that YoNaturals changed its name to Fresh Healthy Vending and installed Jolly Backer as the new owner. Jolly Backer and then-Sales Director Chris Wyland claimed that Trotter & Yates no longer had any connection to the company.
According to the WA Consent Order, Fresh Healthy Vending represented to at least one Washington franchisee that Backer bought YoNaturals, that FHV had taken over YoNaturals’ franchisees, and that Yates and Trotter were not involved with FHV.
In a conference call with FHV, Jolly Backer and Chris Wyland (now CEO of Sprout Healthy Vending) assured the Administrator of UnhappyFranchisee.Com that Yates and Trotter had no ownership of management role with the company.
In February, 2011, a prospective franchisee of Fresh Healthy Vending allegedly met with FHV Sales Director Chris Wyland, who assured them that Mark Trotter and Nick Yates had no relationship with the company. The franchisee prospect reports that after the meeting, Wyland accidentally sent the franchise prospect an email update intended for Nick Yates (see below).
After catching Wyland in the obvious lie, the franchise prospect declined to move forward with Fresh Healthy Vending.
Read the Consent Order here: Fresh Healthy Vending – WA Consent Order (PDF)
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HEALTHY VENDING Franchise Companies Hide Unhealthy Pasts
September 3, 2012
Healthy vending franchise companies seem to be going to great lengths to hide the past activities of their top management and shareholders.
And for good reason.
HUMAN Healthy Vending, it seems, would rather you didn’t know that its Vice President of Sales Bill Wotochek is former President of Revive Franchising, LLC, a company that abandoned its franchise owners and left their businesses to rot, wither and die, and was Senior Director of Business Development of a company charged with fraud by the Federal Trade Commission.
YoNaturals, it seems, would rather you didn’t know that it is owned by convicted spammer Mark Trotter and is associated with convicted Australian vending and phone card scammer Nicholas “Nick” Yates.
Fresh Healthy Vending, it seems, went to great lengths to make everyone think it was owned solely by businessman Jolly Backer, but its preferred stock is actually owned by the same company that owns YoNaturals, run by the aforementioned & infamous Mark Trotter and Nick Yates.
Bill Wotochek, Vice President of Sales, HUMAN Healthy Vending
In a recent post (HUMAN Healthy Vending: the Next Revive Energy Mints Scam?), we posted excerpts from the HUMAN Healthy Vending Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) that HUMAN is providing to prospective franchisees and is providing to franchise registration and filing states.
In the sworn and signed documents, HUMAN Healthy Vending fails to disclose its Vice President of Sales Bill Wotochek’s key role in the Revive Energy Mints travesty by saying that Mr. Wotochek only “was a sales representative for Sito Marketing, Inc. from January 2008 through July 2011.”
Sito Marketing LLC (not Inc.) was an affiliated company that marketed the Revive Energy Mints distributor opportunity.
Revive Franchising LLC sold the Revive Energy Mints franchise opportunity.
Bill Wotochek was certainly much more than a “sales representative”; he was Vice President of Sito Marketing and President of Revive Franchising LLC.
The Revive Franchising 2011 Franchise Disclosure Document stated:
- In September, 2008, Mr. Wotochek was hired to work in business development with Sito Marketing, LLC, our affiliate, in Denver.
- In January, 2009, Mr. Wotochek was promoted to Vice President of Expansion for Sito Marketing, LLC.
- In October 2010, Mr. Wotochek was promoted to President of Revive Franchising, LLC.
Right around the time Mr. Wotochek left Revive Franchising, LLC, in summer, 2011, Revive distributors could no longer reorder products, nor receive critical support they had paid for.
Read the sad accounts of Revive’s hard-sell tactics and subsequent abandonment here: Revive Energy Mints Posts.
HUMAN Healthy Vending: Not so Squeaky Clean?
HUMAN Healthy Vending, which claims to be an altruistic company, also fails to disclose that from 2007 to 2008, Mr. Wotochek worked at the Dalbey Educational Institute, LLLP, as Senior Director of Business Development.
Dalbey Educational Institute, LLLP ran an infomercial scam called “Winning in the Cash Flow Business,” that misled consumers to believe they could get rich quick by dealing seller-financed promissory notes or cash flow notes.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, only 0.8 percent of consumer who purchased less than $500 of the Dalbey Education Institute’s products ever sold a promissory note, and only 2.8 percent of consumers who paid $500 or more for Dalbey Education Institute products ever sold a promissory note.
After lawsuits and injunctions from the Colorado Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission, Dalbey Educational Institute, LLLP ceased operation and declared bankruptcy.
HUMAN Healthy Vending Response Invited
UnhappyFranchisee.Com invites HUMAN Healthy Vending to provide clarification, corrections or a rebuttal to our opinion and conjecture that they are intentionally misrepresenting Mr. Wotochek’s background.
Coming soon:
HEALTHY VENDING Franchise Companies Hide Unhealthy Pasts Part 2 (YoNaturals)
HEALTHY VENDING Franchise Companies Hide Unhealthy Pasts Part 3 (Fresh Healthy Vending)
Also Read:
REVIVE ENERGY MINTS Vending Scam Information UPDATED
REVIVE ENERGY MINTS Vending Franchise: What Happened?
h.u.m.a.n HEALTHY VENDING: A Scam?
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