Complaint Review: American Pride Technologies - Lexington Kentucky

Ole Robert Ritch only took me for $500 dollars, but that was nothing to me to wipe our rears with him. I have a Patent and Trademark on a new product about to be released and can be cross-referenced at our new website found at HillBarrow.com He thought I was stupid and didn’t have any money or an attorney, but he found out that we surely did have both, and needless to say our agreement was dissolved legally and naturally by all the false and misleading info. he breached and falsified in said contract. He also didn’t realize that I have a "real" legal background in law myself, so as he tried to fear and bully me with his made up law terms and his lighting speed ninja reflexes, but to his dismay I was compiling a list of things that didn’t add up and his writing skills was one of them......literally!

My attorneys also found out that Robert Ritch's address was phony per the contract as well, and they had to locate him by other legal means. He tried to do exactly to me what others have claimed in their reports, but when he wouldn’t show me the money when I asked him for ONLY $20,000, (at a 32% ROI for parts for to begin assembling the product), nowhere near his agreed upon $250,000 line of credit, I then set into motion a plan to call his bluff. To his not knowing and sincere stupidity, our messages were getting forwarded directly to my attorney as he began to make his legal threats, and as it all played out. He tried to make it sound as if he didn’t know the product before he signed his contract, my patent was all the sudden challengeable, then he revealed and posted signs of clear collusion with the competitor while he was under "Fiduciary duty" per our contract as well. As a direct result he chose to scapegoat by belittling and discrediting me and the product with numerous, outrageous, false, and phony claims; in an online posting(s) keyboard courage type of deceptive way of course. All these good guys comments by the way, their all Ole Rob, he sends me emails from other addresses and thinks we don’t know its him. He actually told me he is capable of distributing mass reviews whether good or bad!

It was a no-brainer to us after some time passed that he was a total scam artist and a phony fraud that couldn’t lawyer or fight his way out of a fat paper sack. Mr. Ritch was unaware of my financial well-being and he took me for a dumb Hillbilly from WV, but he should've known that if I had the money for the rewarded patent and trademark, I have the money to deal with a fake like him. He talks as if he is some sort of obese ninja in disguise, but just like all his other smoke he blows, he never considered what my tough up-bringing and background might consist of. Being raised by my grandmother in the sticks of Boone County WV, home of the "Wonderful Whites of West Virginia", Pill capital of the world, I've dealt with all sorts of people looking to scam someone for their next high; my experience as a 13 yr. business owner of American Pride Concrete Construction Co. helped call him for what he really is as well too.

Because he had no legal leg to stand on and I actually felt kinda sorry for someone so desperate that he has to lie, scam, and cheat his way through life, that I chose not to file suit in hopes he wouldn’t go away mad, but just go away instead. Today, February 10, 2018 we found out that Mr. Robert Ritch went to our HillBarrow Facebook page and give the HillBarrow a "1-star review" at a time when the product is not set to be released to the public until April 30th 2018....Imagine that!?

He was fore-warned by my attorney in written form per the letter provided below, to stop decimating my character and stop trying to damage my product and business reputation. Apparently though he is not as smart as he thinks he is and truly believes his is above the law, and he believes I won’t prosecute him to the fullest extent of it if he don’t remove the "1-star" review immediately and never attempt such a petty, self-centered, and decimating act ever again. Mr. Ritch, I advise you to not mistake my kindness for weakness, cause I'm telling you I am not skeered of you in ANY way....not one bit!

I ask that any and all people that have been scammed by Robert Ritch and have experienced his deceptive and fraudulent ways 1st hand please contact the Stockwell and Smedley law firm to put your name in our already growing pot. 

My attorneys, whom reside at the Stockwell & Smedely lawfirm here in Lexington, Kentucky, can be reached by visiting their website found at: Stockwell-Law.com. Please review our letter sent to Robert Ritch by my attorney(s) below:

Respectfully,

Gary WV

August 10, 2017

PRIVILEGED SETTLEMENT COMMUNICATION

Mr. Robert Ritch                                     VIA EMAIL

(((REDACTED)))                        ORIGINAL VIA MAIL

(((REDACTED)))

Franklin, Tennessee 37067

          Re:  Gary Vandelinde/Tinker Tech, LLC

Dear Mr. Ritch:

          Our firm represents Gary Vandelinde. Our client recently brought to our attention the issues surrounding your agreement with our client, Tinker Tech, LLC, and your proposed termination of the agreement.

          First, we reviewed your email of August 7, 2017 to our client wherein you state you are “dissolving” the agreement of January 27, 2017. It is our understanding that agreement included the requirement for you to make available a line of credit in the amount of $250,000 to Tinker Tech, LLC, in consideration of you receiving a 55% ownership interest in Tinker Tech, LLC. The agreement also included some type of license to the rights to Mr. Vandelinde’s patent, US Patent No. 8,997,903.

          We note that our client has not been provided a copy of the agreement referenced in your August 7, 2017 email to Mr. Vandelinde allegedly “dissolving” the agreement. Therefore, please provide us with a copy of the agreement in order for us to better assess the best manner in which to accomplish both parties’ goal of moving on.

          That said, our client agrees that termination of the agreement, including the license of our client’s patent and trademark to Tinker Tech, LLC, along with your redemption of your membership interest in and to Tinker Tech, LLC and resignation from any positions with the company, is for the best. While our client acknowledges termination of the agreement and your interest in Tinker Tech, LLC, it is likely that additional documentation is necessary to appropriately reflect these changes within the LLC.

          We would also remind you that as a member and officer of Tinker Tech, LLC, you had a fiduciary duty to the LLC, up to the date you left the LLC. This would include not taking any actions to negatively interfere with or harm the company’s business.

          Despite our client’s shared desire to terminate the relationship, we must also request that you immediately remove the blog entry on your website robertritch.com, dated January 29, 2017, and updated July 18, 2017. This entry includes several false allegations against our client that ultimately defame his character and reputation. Please immediately remove this post, as well as any other written or electronically disseminated statements to third parties that defame our client.

          The blog entry at issue, as well as your August 7, 2017, email contain a reference to our client being unable to produce a prototype that would result in a product that would yield at least a 15% profit margin on sales. We again can only assume that this was a requirement from the agreement. However, we understand that you were aware of and copied on all correspondence our client had with potential vendors, and as you saw from those emails, Mr. Vandelinde expended a significant amount of time and often staked his reputation with these vendors based on moving forward with product. Our client maintains that despite the difficulties in scaling that would be involved with the small scale production of a new product; the product would have ultimately exceeded the 15% margin referred to in your blog entry.

          Please also return all copies of any proprietary or trade secret materials provided to you by our client, including, but not limited to, prototypes, drawings, designs, vendor lists, customer lists, and financial information related to Tinker Tech, or Tinker Tech’s products.

          As we said, our client has determined that it is in his and his family’s best interest to move on from this deal.

However, we must ensure that this is done properly, and in order to do so, we require a copy of the January 27, 2017 agreement.

          We look forward to receipt of a copy of the agreement, along with your confirmation that you have removed any potentially defamatory and false statements from your website or other sources, and thereafter, we will let you know if we believe any additional action is necessary.

                                  Very truly yours,

                                  STOCKWELL & SMEDLEY, PSC