COFFEE BEANERY: Exec’s Trafficing Conviction Leads to Franchisee Legal Win Part 1
(FranchisePick.com) Coffee Beanery Executive Vice President Kevin Shaw had a secret so deep and dark that his company would stop at nothing to keep it hidden… even if it meant breaking the law.
The son of Coffee Beanery founder and former head of the International Franchise Association Joanne Shaw had been convicted of felony trafficing.
No, Kevin Shaw had not been convicted of drug trafficing.
He was not trafficing in arms, yellowcake uranium nor in non-fair trade Arabica beans.
No, Kevin Shaw had been caught stealing… traffic cones.
That’s right, traffic cones… those bright orange duncecaps of safety that keep schoolbuses of children from careening off mountain cliffs, and keep trucks loaded with boxes of fuzzy little puppies and baby chicks from plunging from condemned, broken bridges into the icy waters below.
It seems a few years back, Kevin was hanging out on the wrong side of the highway and fell in with a bad crowd. The kind of crowd that presses the pedestrian crossing button for sport. The kind that thinks nothing of flipping up the red flags of rural mailboxes… even when there are no stamped letters inside.
Evidently, a quick-thinking police officer pulled over Kevin and his sordid pals one evening and caught him orange-handed. Cone-sniffing dogs discovered his hidden cache. He was convicted of Grand Larceny.
The state of Maryland requires that all felony convictions by the principals of a franchise organization be disclosed in the franchise disclosure documents. For some reason, the company decided not to mention Kevin’s criminal past, as required by law. Perhaps the family’s shame was too deep to see it in writing.
Or perhaps the Coffee Beanery knew that if they disclosed this heinous act, they’d never sell another franchise again.
After all… who would purchase a franchise from a convicted cone-criminal?
Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Great Cone Caper of Kevin Shaw…
WHAT DO YOU THINK? LEAVE A COMMENT
__________________________
Visit FRANBEST’s: Unbiased franchise information, franchise interviews and detailed, searchable information on 400 franchise and business opportunities.
.
Franchisees, customers & experts vote for their favorite new franchises at Top New Franchise: Who’s hot. Who’s not.