Financial peril in a reality show
A man waited months to get money promised to him on the air
When Frank Urbaniak and his wife Dea Lakatos signed up to appear in a new TV reality show, Risky Business, they didn’t expect to lose the $15,000 they had invested.
They’re now suing Joe Scully, a rodeo announcer who used their money to rent a huge video screen and sell ads at an event in Leamington, Ont., which took place last July.
Scully said on air that he’d give them $10,053, the proceeds of his ad sales on the telecast. But he still hasn’t paid up.
Urbaniak can live with losing $5,000 on the deal. He knew there was a risk investing in an entrepreneurial venture. But he wants someone to advance him the $10,000 he was promised last fall. All he’s been getting is one promise after another.
“As soon as I collect the receivables, I’ll pay him back,” Scully told me when I tracked him down working in sales at a Toronto video company.
Urbaniak chased the producer (11 Television), broadcaster (Shaw Media, owner of Slice) and host Brett Wilson (formerly of Dragons Den on CBC).
Wilson told him to be patient and wait for Scully to collect the money from advertisers, Urbaniak said.
“I’ve gone from idolization to basic disappointment,” he said about Wilson. “For someone with his kind of cash, this is peanuts.
“Couldn’t he forward me the money on Joe’s behalf and then deal with Joe directly?”
When I reached him on Twitter to ask about helping collect the money, Wilson tweeted: “My understanding was that they were going to court to do that. Not sure you or I can do more than watch due process.”
Kevin Healey, executive producer of Risky Business, said 11 Television has been working for months to resolve payment disputes. Two other couples on the show were also waiting for the entrepreneurs to pay them back.
Joe Doxtater, who appeared on the first episode, advanced $10,000 to Elizabeth Mason, a vintage clothing specialist. She made a profit of $932 after selling two of the 12 dresses she had purchased for resale.
“She did return the investment and the $932, two months and legal pressure later,” Doxtater said.
“On the show, she said she’d give us 50 per cent of the profits from the other dresses. Off camera, Brett suggested we could very well see another couple of thousand dollars.
“But Elizabeth gives me no information when I email her or try through social media to contact her.”
Doxtater first contacted me last December to say that Mason was refusing to give him any updates. I agreed to help after writing a column (Sept. 5) about Wilson’s new show.
“I want to celebrate what entrepreneurs do,” he’d told me in an interview at the Mississauga mansion where some scenes were filmed.
Is this what entrepreneurs do? Renege on their promises of payment until pursued through the legal system? Say it isn’t so, Brett.
When Urbaniak wrote to me this week, I stepped up the pressure, sending a number of emails and tweets to people involved in the show.
Jaclyn Atwood-powell, a Shaw Media publicist, introduced me to Healey on Friday. Within an hour, I heard from the two unhappy investors.
“Ellen, I have some great news,” Doxtater said. “Your email has spurred a conversation with the management of 11 Television and they have taken care of the situation wonderfully.”
Urbaniak sent an email, advising me to hold the presses. He just got a call from the producers.
“They are willing to offer me $1,000 immediately to cover my expenses to date for fighting this,” he said. “They will then offer to pay out the $10K to me if the judgment reached in the court on March 1 doesn’t allow repayment in a reasonable time frame.”
Risky Business, based on a British series called Beat The Bank, hasn’t been renewed by Shaw. I think the format needs work.
Here’s my advice: Make sure entrepreneurs have experience before taking investors’ money. Scully told me he’d never staged a live event before.
And make sure your host, known as a millionaire with a heart, lends his heft to collections when the investors he attracts to the show aren’t paid in full. That’s the decent thing to do. Ellen Roseman writes about personal finance and consumer issues. You can reach her at eroseman@thestar.ca.