Tiffany Cianci (3:50)

If I told you that ordering a burger or a pizza on a food delivery app could cost you to forfeit your constitutionally protected rights, would you believe me? Well, my friends, I'm here to show you how Uber is proving to the world today that Disney walked so that they could run you over with a truck. Literally. And there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Let's get into was just a couple of months ago that the entire world became enraged when we learned that Disney was trying to stop a man from suing them in court when his wife was wrongfully killed in a terrible incident involving an allergy at one of their restaurants. And they claimed the reason he had no right to go to court was because years before, he had signed up for for a trial for Disney Plus. Now, neither you nor I would ever have thought that signing up for a trial for a TV watching program would somehow not keep us safe in a park where we go on rides that have physical threats. But that is exactly what Disney alleged and what they were arguing in court throughout the Disney debacle. I went on a series of podcasts and interviews where people were saying, there's no way this can happen. The law would never allow it. And I said, I. I actually think it's going to happen. And even if it doesn't happen in this case, it's not going to be long before we see the next major case. Well, my friends, it is here. My friends, let me introduce you to Georgia and John McKenty. Now, Georgia and John were sitting in the back seat of an Uber when it ran a red light and T boned another vehicle back in March of 2022. Their injuries were horrific. With Georgia sustaining cervical and lumbar spine fractures, rib fractures, herniations, traumatic injuries in her abdomen, her pelvic floor, and John suffering a fractured sternum, fractures to his left arm, his wrist. They both had severe whiplash and a host of other serious injuries. It was more than a year before Georgia could work. They racked up massive medical bills and eventually got an attorney who sued the driver and Uber on their behalf. Now, what came next? Was Uber trying to force the couple into forced arbitration, citing terms of services, clicked wrapped box they had checked, apparently when they ordered a pizza years earlier. Except they said, we never ordered a pizza. Our 12 year old daughter did. We never signed or checked any box our 12 year old daughter did. And so originally the trial court said, you're right, this does not have to go to arbitration. We are letting this proceed to trial. However, Uber appealed that decision and the judges agreed with the company that its terms of service were enforceable and and force them back to arbitration.

Candace Owens (6:25)

We'll get into other examples of how corporations and private equity will go to ridiculous lengths to trap you into arbitration agreements that you never agreed to later. But every single one of these agreements is you signing away your rights to due process in a court of law. And it's becoming so popular these days among corporations in private equity who are buying up so many different parts of our world that now, more, more and more, as an American, you have rights only if you stay in your house and don't go out to do anything. Except all the things in your house tend to come with arbitration agreements too. And more and more arbitration agreements are being included in lease contracts themselves. So be sure that nothing goes wrong inside your house either, or you'll wind up in secret court anyways. And if you do happen to wind up in arbitration, just know that an American is more likely to be struck by lightning than win a monetary award in forced arbitration against a corporation. That's a real stat. More Americans are struck by lightning each year than win monetary awards and arbitration against corporations. So let me tell you a story and we'll check off our first crime from our list. Sexual assault. In 2017, BuzzFeed News ran a story about more than 180 women who had been sexually assaulted while receiving massages at the nation's largest massage chain, Massage Envy. They have more than 1200 locations across the US when you check in for your massage, you sign their terms and conditions. You don't actually read them, but if you did, you would see that they include a forced arbitration clause where you agree to settle any claims or disputes against Massage Envy in secret arbitration. Some of the stories that have eventually come out are horrible, and I'm not going to read them to you. You can pause and do so if you wish. And although Massage Envy makes great corporate PR statements like quote, massage Envy is committed to promoting a safe environment for members, guests and service providers at each of our 1200 franchise locations nationwide. We urge anyone that experiences anything other than a safe quality massage to report it immediately to the franchise location so that it can be investigated. Notice that they don't say police. In many of the cases, there are allegations therapists were allowed to remain employed or were shuffled to another Massage Envy location. Fortunately, tragically, there were eventually so many individual cases of sexual assault that some of the women started to break their silence and the news started to pick up the story. But despite all that breaking in 2017, Massage Envy continues to face this same problem. Or maybe we should call it a feature. In 2022, one of these instances actually led to an arrest and a trial in court after a woman was raped and contracted herpes. Once she came forward, they found out other women had been assaulted by the same therapist and he had continued to work at Massage Envy. So it may seem like the justice system prevailed and they got the guy. No. In one instance in one specific county, a couple women were lucky enough to find some amount of legal recourse. The other 180 or quite likely more cases, not so much. And we don't even have any understanding of how many the total number might be because of forced arbitration agreements that everyone's signing when they check in for their massage. Not to mention that 90% of women never even report sexual assault because they think for whatever reason, that no one will believe them. This is just one example. Now take into account that more than half of women in the workplace are subject to forced arbitration clauses in their employment contract, and you start to get a sense of how much sexual assault is hidden in secret courts. And every year. That's not to mention the staggering number of cases that are silenced before they're even brought, because plaintiffs rightly realize that they have virtually no chance of winning and will be bankrupted in the process of fighting. And you have virtually no chance of winning because arbitration is not like regular court. It's a for profit racket where the rules are explicitly written so that there are no rules. I think it's pertinent at the outset here to show you where this secret court system comes from in the first place. This is directly from the US Code and this is just the first page of many that define arbitration, but I'm just going to read some of this text so you can get a sense for what we're working with here. Quote Maritime transactions as herein defined means charter parties, bills of lading of water carriers, agreements relating to wharfage, supplies, furnished vessels or repairs to vessels, collisions or any other matters in foreign commerce which, if the subject of controversy, would be embraced with an Admiralty jurisdiction, etc. Yes, if that language sounds outdated, that's because it is. The FAA Federal Arbitration act was first enacted in 1925. Don't even get me started on the commerce clause in the Constitution, which is the basis for the government allowing themselves all up in your business all over the place. The ACLU said arbitration also lacks critical procedural safeguards, for example permitting access to evidence from the other side. That can be the key to proving your claims, particularly in discrimination cases, which often hinge on how the employer has treated other employees. The arbitrators may or may not be lawyers and may or may not be trained in resolving discrimination cases. Results are secret, helping companies evade public accountability. The outcome is binding and and there is generally no right to an appeal. Note how it says the arbitrators may or may not be lawyers, as in the judges in these secret courts may or may not even be familiar with the law, let alone required to enforce them. You will find lots of propaganda and glowing descriptions on arbitration that claim arbitrators are totally upright and follow the law. But that is patently untrue. Hence why you have on average about a 5050 chance of winning in court and more like a 6% chance of winning in arbit. This is how Duke law put arbitration tribunals set their own rules, and they are typically not bound by the procedural formalities employed by courts, nor are they always bound to follow the substantive laws that govern traditional court systems. Nonetheless, primary law and decisions handed down by other arbitrators deciding similar issues can be important sources of persuasive authority in resolving issues sent to arbitration. Here's an example of a source that looks authoritative, representing arbitration as quick and painless. But that's a lie. That's how they want it to look from the outside. So it seems like it's no big deal to sign these contracts. Tiffany Cianci's arbitrations lasted a total of 11 days of hearings, but the proceedings took two years. The big guys know that they can drag arbitrations out for months and months to bleed you dry while you pay your attorneys and arbitrators tens of thousands of dollars per week. Tiffany's arbitrator was $27,000 per week, give or take. So I wouldn't imagine that these arbitrators are all that sad when a case drags out because that's their paycheck. Plus you have to pay a lawyer to be there. No record is made of the hearing, and arbitrators make a legally binding decision for which they are required to give zero legal reasoning. And whether they followed the law or not, whether they saw substantive or even any evidence or not, whether you were treated fairly or not, no one will ever know because there is usually little or no documentation and you are barred from talking about it. But wait, it gets better. When you go to arbitration, you and your opponent go through a process of selecting an arbitrator from those available in your jurisdiction. The big guys know how to game this selection process to land you with the most expensive arbitrator available. Usually, this often tends to be the one they are familiar with and have a good relationship with because they've usually worked with that arbitrator many times before. Then you have to pay them to rule in favor of the corporation or private equity firm you're up against 94% of the time. Yes, you heard that right. You are required to pay your judge, who is not a judge, an hourly rate for the privilege of a secret court where there are no laws and you have no rights. This is an example of the resume sheet of one of the arbitrators Tiffany Cianci got stuck with. Scroll down to the bottom of the sheet and you see the part that matters. Compensation. This woman cost Tiffany $500 per hour of arbitration. Oh, yeah. Plus an hourly rate for pre and post arbitration services. Plus any travel expenses, calls, reviews, filings, everything costs you more money. That totaled out to about 27,000 per week. And this went on for years. Doesn't matter if Tiffany is innocent. Doesn't matter if the other side obviously does not have merit. Doesn't matter if the other side blatantly lies in court. Doesn't matter if the entire scheme is obviously Orwellian. If those women who were assaulted in massage envy want the privilege of the right to some form of pretend justice, they have to pay an hourly fee to receive it. And the costs add up. But remember, even after you pay all that, your chances of winning, regardless of the merit of your case, are minuscule. In five years from 2014 to 2018, only 6% of cases arbitrated with the two biggest arbitration services in America ruled in favor of the Little guy, even though in general the little guy is only there because they were clearly wronged by the big guy. In those five years, nearly 1,000 AT&T customers attempted to arbitrate against AT&T for more than $440 million in damages. Just 17 were successful, and they were only awarded a total of $376,000. That's less than 2%. The other 983 or so people just had the privilege of lining the pockets of their arbitrators and the corporate lawyers they work with to defend the rich and powerful. But it gets worse still, because the arbitration industry, and it is an industry, is a monopoly. A new lawsuit was just filed last week claiming that approximately 94% of the market share is owned by just 1. The American Arbitration association, the next biggest company, owns just 6%. And all other competitors combined represent 0.0003% of the market. It's a giant monopoly ruled by just one company. So it's no wonder the industry is so corrupt. There are entire industries like telecoms and credit reporting agencies that work exclusively with, with the American Arbitration association, this juggernaut in charge of this monopoly. So it's essentially this one company, aaa, a cartel running the entire arbitration industry. And so to Stephanie Stevens, who filed this lawsuit, Godspeed. We'll be behind you every step of the way as you do your best to bust this cartel. And because the industry is so monopolized, the corruption is baked in from the bottom. Typically, these arbitrators will only see you a regular person once. They'll see the big boys, these private equity firms and mega corporations and big law firms that represent all of them over and over and over again. And they form quite cozy relationships. That's because these arbitrators tend to make significantly more as arbitrators than they ever did as judges. At least they do if they get picked for all these arbitrations, right? I mean, $500 an hour is not bad. And if the private equity firms and corporations don't like them, they can strike them. So the paychecks of these arbitrators over time become directly reliant on being favorable to their repeat clients. And their repeat clients are private equity and corporations. You're just there to chip into their next paycheck briefly while you're bankrupted for the illusion of having rights. That's also not to mention that they all have conflicts of interest in every direction. For example, Tiffany Cianci just got served another lawsuit last week based on a different woman's case. Against Unleashed Brands and Michael Browning Jr. In another state, which she is not a party to. That's blatantly illegal. But it's a story for another time. This is the disclosure of conflicts made in that case for her arbitrator, Allen Harris. Allen Harris, who used to work at the same law firm and with the lawyers used by Unleashed Brands in the same law office as Norman Leon, the lawyer that she is fighting against. So imagine sitting down in secret court against Michael Browning Jr. And your judge is the former co worker of his lawyers and is paid to be there by him and by you. And he regularly takes cases for Unleashed Brands against people just like you. And he will continue to take them in the future. Don't worry. Everything's fine, guys. Patty, the woman being attacked by Unleashed Brands in this case, filed an objection, but that's really just a formality. She's forced to go before a judge, an arbitrator who is former colleague of the people taking her down, who also sees other cases and thereby relies on his salary from the people taking her down. But don't worry because as Harris says, that quote will not affect my ability to serve as a neutral, unbiased, impartial and fair arbitrator. So anyways, back to our list. We already spoke last week about children suffering broken bones, broken spines, fractured skulls, traumatic brain injuries. One toddler was scalped at Urban Air theme parks. Most of these cases were forced into arbitration. The only ones that weren't were lucky enough to be attending Urban Air with someone other than a parent. And thus their arbitration agreement was a lot harder to enforce. But now let's talk about nursing homes and hospitals. In 2011, the Carlyle Group, one of the nation's largest private equity firms, bought HCR Manor Care, one of the biggest nursing home chains. And in 2018, the Washington Post published this bombshell about what that meant for residents. A disabled man who had long, dirty fingernails told them he was tended to once in a blue moon. The bedside call buttons were so poorly staffed that some residents regularly soiled themselves while waiting for help to the bathroom. A woman dying of uterine cancer was left on a bedpan for so long that she bruised. One man had been dosed with so many opioids that he had to be rushed to a hospital. According to the inspection reports, during an undersupervised bus trip to church, one staff member was escorting six patients who could not walk without help. A resident flipped backwards on a wheelchair ramp and suffered a brain hemorrhage when a nurse's aide who should have had a helper was trying to lift a paraplegic woman. The woman fell and fractured her hip hop, her head landing on the floor beneath her roommate's bed. Over that period, the yearly numbers of health code violations at company nursing homes rose from 1584 to almost 2000. The number of citations increased for, among other things, neither preventing nor treating bed sores, medication errors, not providing proper care for people who need special services such as injections, colostomies and prostheses and not assisting patients with eating and personal hygiene. The rise in health code violations at the chain began after Carlisle and investors completed a 2011 financial deal that extracted $1.3 billion from the company for investors, but also saddled the chain with what proved to be untenable financial obligations, according to interviews and financial documents. Under the terms of the deal, HCR Manor Care sold nearly all of the real estate in its nursing home empire and then agreed to pay rent to the new owners. The National Bureau of Economic Research calculated that over the 12 years of their study, private equity ownership of nursing homes were responsible for 22,500 additional deaths due to cost cutting and mismanagement. Health affairs released a study this year that found that surgery patients in private equity owned hospitals are 42% more likely to die. 42% those admitted to hospitals owned by private equity were an astonishing 25% more likely to get hospital acquired conditions mainly due to falls or central line associated bloodstream infections. This is what happens when businesses that are explicitly and only profit driven move into sectors like healthcare, elder care and children's services. It's one thing to focus on the bottom line in banking. It's an entirely different thing to focus on the bottom line at the toddler gym or the hospital. And in case you were wondering, yes, hospitals and nursing homes do have arbitration clauses that force you to sign away, often without knowing it, your right to sue for medical malpractice when these things happen, the trend that private equity is always at the forefront of. But it's not just medical malpractice in hospitals and nursing homes because private equity is also buying up the veterinary clinics. Quote, with too few employees to transport animals that died in stores, carcasses allegedly piled up in PetSmart freezers across the country. One employee shared a photo that she said was filled with two months worth of dead animals. Another employee said their store had a freezer with 10 months. A third said that for lack of time she would simply throw bodies away. Sometimes I was doing it weekly because we didn't have staff to take a vet trip to properly dispose of them. So I was instructed to dispose of them myself. Since 2017, private equity firms have spent $45 billion on the industry. KKR bought Pet Vet and JAB acquired National Veterinary Associates, while Shore Capital and Warburg Pincus invested in Mission Veterinary Partners and BO Non Vet, respectively. Some of these practices names may be familiar to you, but most may not be. When individual offices are sold to private equity firms, they often retain their old names. It can be nearly impossible to know which vets are private equity owned, but don't let the obscure names confuse you. About a quarter of general veterinary practices are now owned by large corporations, including private equity firms, while about 3/4 of specialty practices like emergency and surgery care are. Finally, firms are tremendously successful at avoiding legal consequences for their actions, a problem compounded in the veterinary industry, where clients can recover little, if anything, for the deaths of their pets. This encourages a certain callousness towards workers and customers, as firms know that little will happen to them if something goes wrong. Private equity firms can profit even when their companies decline, their customers suffer and your pet dies. And they didn't go into it in this article. But if you're not reading between the lines there yet, the ways those firms avoid legal consequences that the nation isn't elaborating on here, arbitration is a huge part of that because you'd better believe that you've got arbitration clauses at the vet now. These days some corporations are even trying to make an arbitration agreement transfer over to other parts of their business, as was attempted by Disney when a parent died in their park and they tried to enforce the arbitration agreement their child had agreed to on their home TVs Disney plus account. Our opening segment about Uber was another example. In this example here, Wells Fargo was caught opening sham accounts in their customers names, often forging signatures to do so, then claimed that they forced arbitration agreements from the real accounts covered these fake accounts. That's not justice, that's insane. The American association for justice really summed it up best when they said forced arbitration has never been about efficiency or or justice. Its one true goal is always has been and always will be corporate immunity. And now it's time to get a little deeper into all the crazy things that Michael Browning Jr. Has used arbitration to do. But first I want to take a break to tell you about one of our sponsors.

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Candace Owens (27:51)

Now let's continue with our story about Michael Browning Jr. His dream to be a big shot and his willingness to do just about anything to get there. Because in order for you to really understand the insanity that is forced arbitration and why we need to do something about it, it's not enough to know that you have signed up for this madness. It's important to know what is done to regular Americans in these secret courts and what they could do to you. We left off last time with the Story of Michael Browning Jr. Founding his business by cannibalizing Leap of Faith Adventures and forcing Garth Price into years of litigation that eventually bankrupted him. But at that point, Michael Browning Jr. And his lead counsel, Steven Polozola were just getting warmed up. So today we're going to do a speedrun of how Tiffany Cianci wound up giving that testimony that we watched on day one.

Tiffany Cianci (28:42)

You tried to depose me in labor. You tried to depose me while I was in bed bleeding.

Candace Owens (28:50)

And I say we're gonna speedrun it partly because there are so many evil things they are on record doing that we don't have time for all of it. But mostly because I want to get all the way to the part where they hired a felon with over 80 convictions to forge documents, intimidate Tiffany and win a tick a $2.3 million settlement from her without her even knowing she had a court date. And disclaimer, we are going to skip over a lot of crimes, a lot of lying on record under oath on the part of Polozola and Browning Jr's lawyers. A lot of heinous stuff right now because a lot of it is almost unbelievable until you get a better sense of just how far these people are willing to go. And by the end of this story, you'll understand with documentation that arbitrators are in no way required to follow the law. That becomes even more problematic when you remember that 94% of the industry is ruled by just this single for profit company, aaa. So now we're going to rewind to the beginning of Tiffany's story. Michael Browning Jr. Did what he did to leap of faith, to transform urban air from a trampoline park into a world class adventure park. And if you haven't seen our episode about that yet, there's a link in the description. You can go check it out after this video. Now, armed with his new private equity backers, Seidler Equity partners, Michael Browning Jr. Decided to build a platform. Since the private equity model works so well for hospitals, nursing homes, veterinary clinics, why not go after the next most vulnerable population, children. Why not buy up a family of franchises that offer education and enrichment to children and squeeze them all for all they're worth? What could go wrong? And seeing as Covid had just devastated small businesses all across the country, it was the perfect time to buy. And Michael Browning Jr. Went on a spending spree. He acquired Premier Martial Arts, a martial arts studio that catered specifically to veterans buying into the franchise. Class 101 College Planning XP League Snapology Water Wing, Swim School, Sylvan Learning that had never fully recovered from a child porn scandal that was successfully kept out of the public eye. Yes, you heard that right. And of course, the Little Gym. Now we could write a whole episode about what happened at each of those other businesses, but today we're going to focus on the Little Gym because it is the Little Gym that will be his downfall. And that downfall is happening right now. And it's because of Tiffany Cianci. Tiffany had bought into the franchise in 2017 because she wanted to work where she could give back to her community and also spend more time with her kids. The Little Gym, though open to everyone, is specifically tailored to help special needs kids thrive through movement and music. And Tiffany loved it. Fast forward to Covid and Tiffany suffered one of the longest government mandated shutdowns of anywhere in the United States. Fortunately, she had a supportive landlord who told her explicitly not to pay rent while she was closed down. And the Little Jim, who is not yet owned by Michael Browning, also told franchisees not to pay their dues during the shutdown either. I mention that because it will come back later. In October of 2021, they are told they have some new people coming on to help advise them. And they have their first group call with Michael Browning Jr. They're not told that he's buying the company. He's just presented as an advisor and things get pretty weird pretty fast.

Michael Browning Jr. (32:10)

And I'm committed to casting more vision and working with your fearless leader on this. But this is the direction of the company and we're not changing our direction. And so I'm asking you to join us in this journey. And also if this journey is not for you, then I'm happy to have my team help you exit the system. But from this day forward, we need unity. And if we find that we have people either trying to create disunity or are not supporting the vision and the mission we will help you exit. Because we have so many amazing things to accomplish and such an amazing journey ahead that we're just not going to put up with some of the things that we have been putting up with lately. Those days are over.

Candace Owens (33:00)

Oh man, Michael Browning Jr. Was born for this. But anyways, when it is finally announced that Unleashed Brands, Michael Browning Jr's Umbrella Corporation, has bought the Little Gym, the changes start rolling in fast and at first presented as harmless little changes, just standard operating procedure. There are several. But the two we're going to focus on are a new call center they will be all forced to use and pay for and a new ACH agreement. An ACH agreement is basically the contract that governs payments to Michael Browning Jr. It dictates when, how and why he can take money from these small business owners. It's really important. And traditionally, they pay only 8% of the revenue in royalties. That's it. Having learned his lesson from what he did to Leap of Faith Adventures, though, Michael Browning Jr. Knows to play it cool this time. What he doesn't know is that he's messing with the wrong mom. Tiffany's husband is a federal attorney, and Tiffany's pretty dang sharp, too. And they notice immediately that the new contract is a death sentence to their small business. It changes a lot of things, like this little change that they hope no one would really notice. The simple way to put it is, whereas they used to pay only corporate royalties of up to 8% of the revenue, this new contract would allow Michael Browning Jr to add any fees he dreamed up, and the contract would become subject to change. Plus, as you can see near the bottom, if you try to get out of the contract in the future, they'll kick you out and take your gym. All sounds a lot like what happened with Garth Price and Leap of Faith's agreement with Urban Air. This was made doubly sketchy by, among other bad ideas, the call center that Michael Browning Jr. Wanted them all to sign up for and pay to build and to staff. Because you see, if you're a parent and you signed your special needs toddler up for toddler gymnastics, you would probably have to call that gym from time to time with questions about, I don't know, the schedule, the curriculum, the incident involving your child yesterday, all kinds of stuff. It should seem obvious that if an underpaid teenager in a call center four states away picked up the phone when you called, that would be problematic to say the least. But despite all the franchisees loud protests, Michael Browning Jr. Insisted on this call center. And quickly the warm suggestion of the call center turned into what sounded an awful lot more like threats and coercions. Strangely, the contract for the call center contained a hidden clause that said it superseded their franchise agreement. So now both the new ACH agreement and this GLT agreement are both subject to change. And yet somehow they will also supersede your franchise agreement, which is the basis of your entire contract with the parent company. That's an agreement that you negotiate for months with your lawyers present. These are documents that these franchisees were being pressured to sign on the spot on zoom calls under threat and coercion. So Tiffany immediately knew that this was wrong. And after the first four franchisees had been coerced into signing it under duress, she organized all of the franchisees to stand up to Michael Browning and refused to sign it. And she got the first four signatures vacated, I. E. Canceled because they had been signed under duress. This document became the battle line. And then, strangely, all the little gym owners started receiving a ton of calls at odd hours over spring break from Unleashed Brands. The calls seemed random and tended to be during times when they were closed. And when asked, the caller said they were just testing the phone lines. Tiffany smelled what was really going on, though, and she called it out in this phone call.

E (36:41)

Happy Hanson, thank you for calling a little Jim. How may I assist you? Hello, this is Hannah with Unleashed Brands.

Candace Owens (36:47)

I'm just calling to test the phone lines.

Tiffany Cianci (36:48)

Hope you have a wonderful day.

E (36:49)

Hannah. Hannah, please go hang out.

Candace Owens (36:53)

Sure.

E (36:53)

You're calling over and over again to test my phone lines, but I never had a problem with my phone, ever. Why are you really calling? Are you testing us or are you testing phone lines with that?

Candace Owens (37:04)

I am literally just given this as a project.

Tiffany Cianci (37:08)

I don't know.

E (37:11)

But why would you call over? I mean, first of all, we're supposed to be closed right now. We're not even supposed to be open. Why would you call it after working hours? Like, are you at least checking people's hours when you're calling to test if we're answering the phone? Because we're on spring break. We're not even open this week. I just happen to be here working. My kids are here playing. But most gyms are closed this week for spring break. We all follow school district schedules.

Tiffany Cianci (37:37)

Okay.

E (37:37)

So, like, I just. I'm hoping you guys are at least looking to see your calling when we're actually supposed to be here. Because I'm sure this is all doing a great thing for them. I'm sure they're trying to. Trying to stack the deck so they can force us to take the call center, but none of us want it. We like talking to our customers. Like, I. This sucks. It sucks what you guys are doing. Feel shady. It sucks. And I know that's not your fault. It's got nothing to do with you, I'm sure. But it's creating so much hostility in the ownership community.

Candace Owens (38:06)

You'll notice in this case that there is so much evidence that we have attained because Tiffany Cianci collected so much evidence, and that's because she expected that she might have to go to court over this. But I Just want you to remember throughout all of this presentation that almost all of this evidence was never admitted because she wasn't in court. She was in secret arbitration where the arbitrator can decide if he wants to hear your evidence or not. So just keep that in mind. But anyways, seeing what Michael Browning Jr. Was up to, Tiffany organized a franchisee association, like a union, so they could all bargain together with Unleashed Brands. And at this point they were naively thinking that they could negotiate a compromise and everything could turn out all right. But in the meantime, those who had signed the new ACH contract got a surprise. Suddenly in November of 2021, they added tech fees to be paid to unleash brands. Then In March of 2022, it was royalty fees and ad fees as well. May it became royalty fees, marketing fees, tech fees and oh yeah, maybe also a conference fees and some unspecified one time charges. No big deal. This is the new private equity model. You make money off of exploiting your franchisee small business owners, not off of helping them run successful businesses. Meanwhile, the franchisees who had been tricked into signing the call center agreement were hit with a bill to build the thing and pay to staff it themselves. The franchisees started to get the picture. And as Tiffany started organizing them and hiring a lawyer to bargain against Unleashed Brands, she was fired. In order to fire her, they had to fabricate complex reasons that had to do with payment defaults during COVID because she had near 100% customer ratings by basically all metrics. But seeing as her husband is a patent and trademark attorney, as soon as they fired her, she knew to take down all of her little gym branding immediately. So they couldn't get her for trademark violations or anything else. And she attempted to file an injunction against Unleashed Brands. But she was double crossed by her lawyer in a way that would need its own whole episode. And we'll probably do that episode at some point later. But Norman Leon, one of Unleashed's attorneys, jumped in and said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Don't take your trademark branding down yet. Let's mediate and resolve this. No need to startle your customers. Surely we can come to a resolution here. Worth noting that at this time, Tiffany had a broken ankle and foot and was in a boot with crutches. She had broken her foot saving an autistic kid from falling off a balance beam. That is a true story. So anyways, Tiffany put back up her branding and then Norman Leon, as soon as she did, sent private investigators undercover to her gym to take photos of it with little Jim Branding up later to be used in court to claim that she'd violated their trademarks. You can see here, quote. But despite this affirmation, secret shopper visits on June 23, June 24, and June 27 confirmed that defendants continued to operate. Da da da da da da da da. And there's some photos that those private investigators took. In July of 2022, Unleash filed for a permanent injunction against Tiffany in open court. They lost every single motion in this case over the course of months. Then, right before the final ruling, which Unleashed Brands was going to lose, they moved to dismiss the case that they had brought. Tiffany knew what that meant. It meant they were going to then take it into arbitration where they could shop for a friendly arbitrator that would rule in their favor. And she objected to dismissing it. Michael Browning Jr. And his lawyers had had the benefit of a long court case's worth of discovery, which is way more robust in open court than it is in arbitration. They had bled her of approximately $80,000, and they successfully got the case that they had brought and were losing, dismissed. All that money that Tiffany had spent went down the drain for nothing. And then what did they do? They took it to arbitration, where the arbitrator admitted all their evidence and largely didn't even allow Tiffany to bring her evidence that they were lying. Yes, you are hearing that right many, many times throughout her arbitrations, Unleashed lawyers would lie on the stand and Tiffany would have clear documentation in her hands that would clearly show that they are lying. And the arbitrator would not permit her to show that evidence that was already there in the courtroom in her hands. Some of that evidence is what we are referring to has been shown in this video. But so much more of the details we've had to skip over. We already showed you how much Tiffany was paying for our arbitrator per hour for the privilege of. Of not having her constitutional right to a fair trial. When they brought it to arbitration, they added a litany of new charges against Tiffany, and they started the monetary draining process all over again. This has become something of a strategy for Unleashed Brands. They did the same thing to the family of a toddler who was scalped in an accident at one of their parks. They litigated in open court for 465 days before trying to dismiss the case and flush all that money down the drain in order to open a case in arbitration against them. However, fortunately, that boy's family appealed it up to the superior court, which eventually held that the case had to stay in open court. Anyways, Tiffany's arbitration lasted over a year. It cost her anywhere from 500 to $600,000. They brought 11 claims against her. Most were ultimately dismissed. Tiffany won on defamation that Unleashed had defamed her because they claimed she was calling her customers C words and B words to their faces. This one's a crazy rabbit hole. Real quick. The evidence they produced was a photo taken by one of Tiffany's former employees of an online comment which they alleged showed Tiffany saying these things to her customers. Apparently Tiffany had left her Facebook open at the gym on a day when no one else was in the building and this employee just happened to see it. Forget the fact that Tiffany had been paying that girl's phone bills since COVID out of the goodness of her heart and had her whole icloud backed up to Tiffany's phones showing that she was off at college that week, taking photos with her friends. Or the fact that she had the work schedule of the girl showing that she was not scheduled that week. Or the photos she had of herself in the gym that day playing with kids. Or the text messages from that employee saying she had finals that week and needed the whole week off. Long story short, it was a doctored photo of a made up message thread or comment. And the former employee seemed to get a new car and cash infusion into her life right after she testified. Who knows where it came from, but that's the sort of conduct that permeated the case. Fortunately, the arbitrator had no choice but to rule in Tiffany's favor on that defamation. Unleash Brands won on the breach of contract. They claimed that Tiffany had breached her contract years ago when she hadn't paid royalties way back during COVID despite the fact that she had been told at the time not to. When Michael Browning had bought the company, they had tried to coerce her into signing this new ACH contract by holding these back fees over her head and saying they would offer a payment plan only if she signed it. Instead, she took out a huge loan on her house and paid them all down at once. You can see in the bottom right corner, the total amount paid is $30,160.05. But somehow the arbitrator still ruled nearly a year after she had paid them and Unleashed Brands had accepted that payment, that this was a breach of contract and grounds to fire her over. Even though at the time many other franchisees were still paying those same fees off. Tiffany was the only franchisee ever punished for not paying royalties during COVID when they had all been told not to. And in order to win legal fees from Tiffany, the rules stated that Unleashed had to win one more count than her. So they needed another win. And the arbitrator miraculously ruled in favor of Unleashed Brands over trade dress, meaning that Tiffany's new gym looked too much like a little gym. But there's some important context here. Briefly, Tiffany's husband specializes in patent and trademark. The law is very specific. You have to file specifically for trade dress protection if you want to be able to bring this claim against someone. And the little Jim has never filed for trade dress protection. Furthermore, it's extremely difficult to get trade dress protection because it's designed to protect very specific like packaging, trademarks, or the entire branding of a business that sells a service. It's very technical and very specific, and you have to have filed for it, which they never had. And again, I remind you that arbitrators are not required to follow the law. Ruling for Unleashed Brands in trade dress violation that they didn't have protection for would be like Microsoft suing you for using an Android phone. It's nonsensical. There's not even a frame of reference and it sounds impossible. But Unleashed Brands was just getting warmed up because during the arbitration that lasted over a year, Tiffany started talking to the press. An article came out in the Washingtonian, the Franchise Times, and the New York Times ran a Sunday cover story on her. And oh boy, did that make Michael Browning Jr. Big mad. That's where we wound up with this whole email chain where Unleashed lawyers coerced Tiffany into having an abortion under threat of lawfare. And we won't go into all of it, but today let's just Zoom in on one or two emails from Laura6 killer, Michael Browning Jr's lawyer, and see what she had to say. Quote, we respectfully ask that we see all available dates for the procedures abortions, so that we can be assured that they have selected the earliest date feasible. This procedure has been being discussed with Mrs. Fiance since January 5th, 25 days ago. If it can be scheduled this week, it should be. Given she had her deposition scheduled, she should have a clear calendar. I'm not going to read the whole text up top of this email. You can if you want, but I want to draw your attention to the note in red at the bottom. That's not in the original email. It's a note added from Tiffany onto this email to give some context here. So in Tiffany's words, quote, Laura Six Killer stated that if I failed to continue producing by end of day one or If I failed to schedule the abortion procedure by end of day, she would file a sanctions motion. These motions cost more than $10,000 to defend and a loss on one can result in tens of thousands in legal penalties. We were out of money and we had stated so because we I had been out of work all month. Laura six Killer, Michael Browning's attorney repeatedly asked Tiffany to produce financial documents that she knew only Tiffany could acquire while she was losing her baby. This forced Tiffany to get up out of bed while bleeding and drive to the bank, which she did. This is how we wind up with footage from Tiffany's deposition weeks after an abortion she didn't want in which her body reacted badly and she suffered a rare complication which caused her body to stay in labor for weeks after the procedure. She was still in labor and having contractions while on the stand and testifying. In this clip you thought that me.

Tiffany Cianci (49:14)

Bleeding baseball sized, baseball sized blood clots and having contractions two minutes apart wouldn't be too stressful for me in that state. And you thought I should be deposed for 18 hours.

Candace Owens (49:28)

And that pretty much brings us up to where they hired a felon who is currently out on parole and AWOL to forge documents, or at least to allegedly forged documents. Although we are skipping the part where Michael Browning Jr. Tried to send Tiffany and her husband both to prison because she was volunteering to teach kids music classes during all this and he had a non compete agreement saying she wasn't allowed to work in toddler gyms for two years. Yes, Michael Browning Jr. Wanted to send a mom and dad with young children both to prison for the crime of volunteering to teach kids music classes. And yes, I said her husband too because as they argued, he failed to control his wife and so he was also guilty. This charge was obviously an empty threat. A judge would have to be as brain dead and evil as Michael Browning Jr. To grant such a charge. But they tried. But anyways, at the end when the arbitration was finished, there is a short waiting period before it's affirmed in court and it becomes a mandate by law and the parties of the arbitration have to abide by that ruling. After that, Michael Browning Jr. Didn't want any chance of Tiffany appealing or challenging the ruling. So just by coincidence, they happened to hire the only process server in the state with over 80 prior convictions, the vast majority of which were for fraud and forging documents. I'm not kidding. This is his rap sheet. Oh yeah, he also had one prior for animal abuse, a few for evading police custody, lying to Police using forgery and furtherance of other crimes. While we were digging around to film this episode, we even found a video on YouTube about Joe Horton that was just too funny. Check this out.

F (51:15)

Frank McGrath has spent more than a decade building his business. His Papa Lock franchise has won awards for customer service. So to see someone messing with his reputation is very tough to take.

Candace Owens (51:27)

After everything we've built here over the years, and to have someone just discredit the name is just atrocious.

F (51:33)

But that someone is no stranger. Mr. Horton, haven't you learned your lesson? You've already been to court for this. It's Joe Horton, a Pasadena locksmith we've been monitoring for months. The Attorney General knows him well, charging him with overcharging customers. But Frank knows Joe too. He says he trained Horton on how to be a locksmith.

Candace Owens (51:51)

It would be nice to say that we never hired him and never met him, but unfortunately, that's not the circumstance.

F (51:56)

McGrath says Horton worked for him for two years between 2004 and 2006. He eventually quit after Frank says he called Joe out for jacking up prices against policy. Horton moved out of state and went off their radar for a couple of years. But when he returned and opened his own LOCKSMITH business, the McGrath's were shocked when complaints started rolling into their office.

Candace Owens (52:17)

I started getting calls on this.

F (52:19)

They got calls because Horton is Now tied to McGrath's business through the Internet. If you Google Pasadena and locksmith Papa Lock comes up. But it's Horton's phone number.

Candace Owens (52:31)

RO Literally stole the identity of a locksmithing company and then used it to defraud a bunch of people. Wow. Anyways, here are three examples of forged documents certifying that he had served documents to Tiffany Cianci and her husband when he hadn't. In some cases where he would later describe talking to her on her front porch when she was clocked in at work at the time. And here are letters mailed to the incorrect address so that just by chance, Tiffany would not know she needed to appear in court to defend herself. At the most critical part in the trial, when it is ruled on in court, it's just a coincidence that this is the guy that they hired for this part of the story. When their law firm, DLA Piper, has their own process server in house. Let me say that again. They have their own guy that they normally pay to go serve people documents. But then for these ones, just those ones, they decide to go hire this dude, right? So to summarize how insane this is, suddenly, despite having been Serving Tiffany at her real address all the way up till now. They just accidentally mailed all the notices of this part of this hearing to the wrong address. Whoopsies. Meaning that Tiffany never received notice that they were about to rule on her case in court. She never received a summons to court, but a whole bunch of forged documents made it to court, making it appear as though she had been served and received notice and just chosen not to show. It's a miracle that Tiffany ever even figured out what they had done and found out who this guy is and found his rap sheet and. And was eventually able to appeal the ruling and keep fighting. They did this to one of the other moms who was a little gym owner, who they are litigating against right now. Also because she stood up for Tiffany and the franchisees. This is the shipping label for the same types of documents at the end of that woman's arbitration, just like in Tiffany's. And that address is not her address. It's a feature, not a bug. They do it at this specific point in the proceedings because this isn't just any old hearing. This is where the arbitration becomes law. And Tiffany or this other woman, Patricia, are supposed to argue what the damages will be in Tiffany's case, because she didn't show up to defend herself, because she didn't know she needed to. She wound up having to pay all of Unleashed Brand's legal fees to date. That totaled out to about $2.3 million. And it's not like Unleashed couldn't afford their legal fees. They were the ones that drew it out so long and made it all so expensive. They were the ones who brought the case in the first place. No, the point was to take everything that Tiffany owned. And they did, because Tiffany didn't find out what had happened until way later. And she didn't uncover who this serial felon was until later. And in the meantime, Michael Browning Jr. Got his ruling, seized Tiffany's bank accounts, and put a lien on her house, thinking that he'd finally won. But Michael Browning Jr. Messed with the wrong mom because Tiffany's still fighting to this day. Michael Browning Jr. And his lawyers just filed a new case against her days after our first episode came out. Which is awfully coincidental timing if you ask me. So, Michael, since I know you're watching, and seeing as you don't seem to understand how this works, let me explain it to you. You're digging your hole deeper. You don't seem to grasp who Tiffany Cianci is. I've had the privilege of getting to know her over the last year as I've been working on this story. And if Tiffany is one thing, she's a fighter. She's the fiercest mom you're ever gonna meet. And that is a force that no amount of money, no amount of lawfare, no amount of persecution is ever gonna defeat. And you had your day in your secret court system, where the deck was stacked in your favor and you could get away with just about anything you could dream up. But now we're in a different court, the court of public opinion. And while your secret arbitration courts may have been okay with what you've done, I thought we'd share your paper trail with your customers, with your franchisees, and perhaps most importantly, with your private equity buddies and the International Franchise Association. Something tells me they won't be so thrilled about the unwanted spotlight that you're shining on the whole scheme. I'm sure that plenty of you folks at the IFA are watching, too. And don't worry, we'll probably wind up doing an episode all about you two soon enough, because, oh, boy, do we have receipts. But ultimately, the most horrible part of this whole story is that this is just Tiffany's story. And she's far from the only one. Over a million disputes are settled in arbitration per year in America, and you'd better believe that other people are getting similar treatment. You might get the same treatment yourself someday, too, if you have an accident at a birthday party or get in the wrong Uber, or put your parents in the wrong nursing home or rent from the wrong property manager. Because America is already slipping away. Our rights are already slipping away. Our justice system is already being replaced by secret courts, and most of us are too distracted by our Twitter and Instagram feeds to even notice. You guys have been sharing some wild stories in the comments, and we're about to get to that right after I tell you about American Financing. We're all feeling it. Inflation is eating away at everything. Gas, groceries, home repairs. And if you're a homeowner, you've probably thought, should I call American Financing to refinance and pay off this credit card debt? Then you second guess yourself because of that low mortgage rate you currently have. Listen, that low rate, it's not saving you if you're drowning in credit card interest at 25 or more. That's the math no one wants to face. But it's costing you thousands. Here's the truth. If you're only making minimum payments, that debt will follow you for years. That's why people are calling American Financing because they're saving customers an average of $800 a month by using their equity to finally break free from credit card debt. You owe it to your family to see what's possible. No upfront fees, no pressure. It costs you nothing to find out what you could save every month. And if you start today, you may be able to delay two mortgage payments. Call American Financing today, 800-795-1210. That's 800-795-1210 or visit american financing.net ow and now let's read some of your comments from our previous episodes because they are awesome. Zeppelin Potts says Man, it's been years since I've seen real investigative journalism. Great job pornstache. Thanks bro. The truthspiracy says Did I care about the Baldoni and Blake saga prior to Candace? No. Do I care now? Absolutely. We stand with cousin Baldoni. Did I care about what Leap of Faith versus Urban Air was doing and their little spoiled brat prior to Ian? No. Do I care now? Absolutely. We are coming for you, junior. Love the vibe. That's exactly how I feel. Jackie Wheeler says, I noticed Urban Air has their comments on social media turned off. That means they fear the public backlash. You're making a difference. Yeah, if you go and scroll their public social media feeds, you'll notice some pretty funny things about how many comments apparently exist, how many comments actually exist, and which ones have made it through the blocks. That's all I'll say. Juliana Dryden says, my husband and I work for Urban Air on and off for 5 plus years. Wouldn't recommend any parent risk their child's safety there. Can't wait to see this episode. Yeah, we've gotten a lot of testimonials about Urban Air in the comments. You can scroll them for yourself. I think we have one or two more coming up here. Income Serg says, I worked in the industry FEC for five years and periphery and peripherally sold to Michael Browning Jr. He was known among vendors as an absolute a hole, a nightmare client and was to be avoided at all costs. One of Urban Airs Unleashed brands as franchisees contacted my company to buy an attraction and Michael sent our company a cern a stern cease and desist letter even though we simply replied to the franchisees inquiry. This guy was a piece of work and walked around trade shows like he was God's gift to the industry. I hope he gets what he deserves. That's crazy dude. Thanks for sharing your experience. One shower thought said I work in patent law. This is all so illegal. He could win big time if he finds a patent attorney willing to do pro bono. Most large firms have a quota. They try to reach for pro bono. Hey, that's about episodes from last time when we were talking about what he did to Leap of Faith Adventures. I'd be very curious for any attorneys out there to comment on this episode about what you just saw. Just saying. Jennifer Slatten says they are doing this with hospitals. Private equity buys a hospital, makes them sell their land and the hospital, and then they lease it back at exorbitant rental rates and bankrupt the hospital. Yeah, funny that we just talked about hospitals. Jennifer is on top of it. Delina Young says, my son used to work for Urban Air in Florida. He was a manager and said this business is so dang unsafe and finally had to quit because of the amount of children who got hurt daily and the place never fixed or replaced damaged, unsafe equipment. He said it was horrible and will not allow his child to go to one. Yeah, dang straight. That's the thing about these crazy adventure parks is that they have all these crazy rides and they're designed to be like dangerous, crazy experiences. And if they're not staffed correctly or built correctly or maintained correctly, you're like literally sending your child into a giant meat grinder. Allegedly. The True Spiracy says Sigh. Removes shrimp from cart Did I ever care where my food came from? No. Will I now make conscious decisions when shopping for anything? Absolutely. Thank you Ian for shedding light on these horrendous topics, giving the invisible ones a voice. This shrimpspiracy was crazy. I had no idea what I was walking into when we started that episode. And by the end, the shrimp slavery conspiracy is like one of my all time favorite, most evil conspiracies on the planet. Definitely check that episode out if you haven't already seen it. Influence fashion says I am Burmese slavery in Thailand is real. Burmese people are suffering most because of their immigration status in Thailand and difficult to get help. Thank you for shedding light for the cruelty of fishing industry in Thailand. Thank you for your comment. It's really humbling. It's important to note that like, I laugh a lot during these episodes because sometimes you have to laugh through how tragic these are. But the ultimate reality is that these are humans suffering on the other end of these stories. These are kids getting hurt. These are actual people being sold into slavery. And so it's really meaningful to hear from people like this that can actually speak to the difference that speaking about this can make. And I wish the best for that guy or girl. Simone Barton says, my husband is a chemist whose job was once to test baby food and formula for heavy metals. Mamas, do yourself a favor and breast milk if you can and buy the baby food blender kits and make your own. Yes. If you haven't seen what we did about baby food last time, oh boy, they are poisoning your babies. Nunya Binte Nunya Bitness says Candace, consistently ahead of the curve, gets the one person who could keep my attention when she takes time off for her baby. Brilliant. Thank you, Nunya. To be clear, there's lots of great people out here in this industry. I'm just another dude. But it is humbling to have this opportunity and it means a lot to be able to live up to some of your expectations. Try my best work working hard to do crazy digs and to keep you all having fun while Candace takes good care of baby Roman, who, by the way, we did see today. Baby Roman is awesome. He's very little, he's very cute and he's doing great. So is Candace. She'll obviously be giving you lots more updates as these weeks go on. And finally, G Dub says, Ian, I have to say I was hesitant from what I've heard on media about you, but they're all wrong. You're chill, down to earth and hardworking. Love to see people like you start to get the credit they deserve for all the hard work you've been doing. I'm now going to start following you to keep it up. Champ. Thanks, man. People like me get a lot of things said about us on the Internet in every direction. I am both owned by Qatar and by Israel. I'm now a kabbalist. All the things in between. The truth of the matter is that I am literally just a dude who has done this all on my own with no team until now. I mean, I've worked with lots of great people. I've met so many wonderful people in the industry and I would not be where I am without people like Candace Owens being supportive and being awesome. But ultimately it's you guys, the fans back at home that are just so cool to work for, to work with. So it's really humbling to get comments like that. I appreciate it. But anyways, that's our show for today. We'll pick back up later this week. Don't forget to like this video. Don't forget to subscribe to Candace's channel. Mine is linked in the description below. If you want to connect with Tiffany Cianci, we'll also link something of hers down below. Share this with all of your friends so they can all know what's going on. So they don't get sucked into these traps as well. And stay safe. It's a dangerous world out there. Have a great night, friends, and we'll see you tomorrow.