Complaint Review: Richard Miranda-Luciano - Shakopee Minnesota

Got scammed, should've seen it coming. There were several red flags throughout the interactions with this guy as well as his partner Chad Figg. Chad's involvement was never specifically explained and kept very hush hush. But Richard Miranda-Luciano was the front man for all the face to face scams. He'd ask for a "security deposit" from each artist before the album started production. The deposit is promised back to the artist upon completion of the album and the studio makes money off album sales only. Well, after the contract is signed and the deposit is collected by Richie, the excuses start forming. Artists can't come in to record because of whatever reason Richie thinks up that day. Time goes by and the deadline hits. The artist then never sees their deposit and Richie moves on to the next victim. When I met him, he went through the whole shpeel of "making me so much money," "I can make you $100,000 by the end of the summer," and all that nonsense. Seemed a little too good to be true, and it definitely was. So I ended up partnering with him 50/50 ownership of the company and sales. Or so I thought. That's what he told me time and time again, but it was never true. 

Anytime I would ask when I'd see some money, he would make excuses. "what do you mean get paid? You're a partner, you get paid when I get paid." Or, "what do you wanna be hourly or a partner?" To which I would say, "I just want to get paid. That's all." Never saw any money besides an occasional $20 bill here and there. Being a 50/50 partner you would think I'd see half of the deposits the artists were bringing in. Never saw that money. There would also be "meetings" with other studios, producers, which never happened. There was also a "deal" going on that pushed back any sort of personal profit or gain. He would always talk a "deal with Universal" and yet I was never involved in these meetings or dealings, even though I was a "50/50" partner. All very sketchy. I actually worked face to face recording these artists coming in every week. I was probably putting in full-time at one point. I made friends with a few of the artists and explained what was going on within the studio behind the scenes. They seemed scared and sketched out, understandably. I always made sure to tell them not to pay Richie anything. Sometimes I would let them come in to record for free considering they were just trying to make a future for themselves. 

Eventually, after much back and forth, some verbal abuse from Richie, and never seeing any money, I backed out, made copies of our contract for 50/50 partnership (which was notarized by a Wells Fargo notary), and took him to court. We won the case, Richie owing several thousand dollars in damages and fraud. Still haven't seen much of the money back. Maybe $20 here, every other month or so. He's a degenerate, and a scam artist. Look him up on Google and find his mugshots and criminal records. It's public access. Don't fall into this trap. Also stray from business with Chad Figg. He had his little puppet fingers working in the background. Richie is just the frontman, the fall guy. Chad takes care of all the legal dealings. Chad never showed up to court. Hopefully this reaches enough people that we can eliminate these guys' ability to scam more artists.