In 1994, I was looking through a video game magazine called Diehard Gamefan. I read in the magazine about starting your own Diehard Game Club Franchise. I approached my parents about the idea and they told me to go for it and they would support me as best they could. Now being 24 years old at the time, I have to say I was very naive at the dealings of business and the people out there that are willing to take advantage of that fact. I called the number listed and setup a meeting with a person who flew out to meet with my parents and I at their home. That is when I met Morrie Friedman for the first time. He was a very kind and pleasant man and my parents and I were completely taken in by him. At dinner my mother was very straight with him and said "I trust you and do not ever take advantage of my son. I am like a mother bear that protects her cubs." Morrie replied he would never do that especially since he had broken bread with us in our home. The next step was the bank and trying to raise the estimated $200,000. The VP of the bank met with us and had already done research on Mr. Friedman. He said there was no way he would give me the money with just my signature. I was very upset with the banker and thought that my dream was over before it even started. My parents came to the rescue and co-signed the loan agreement against the recommendation of the banker. Oh how I wish we would have listened. We got the money and the nightmare started. We got a location and began construction on the crown jewel store of the Diehard Gameclub franchise. The person sent by Morrie to foresee the build out of the leased location was related to him and we thought great, he will be cut of the same cloth as Morrie and do a great job. Well he was cut of the same cloth as Morrie and was great at spending our money and accomplishing nothing. The store build out crawled along and before you knew it the $200,000 was burned through and we were not even finished with the store yet. Now my parents started digging into savings since I certainly had none, and started shelling out $30,000 here and $50,000 there. One highlight of the fiasco was us paying Morrie for a $12,000 custom made front counter. We gave him the money of course and waited for its completion. After a month of waiting Morrie said the counter was actually $24,000 and needed $12,000 more. We gave it to him, and after a few weeks the counter was installed, yeah!! The store was finished now we just needed inventory. Of course Morrie took care of that for us as well. We gave him another $75,000 for inventory and thought man we are going to pack this 3500 Sq. Ft. store to the gills with product. We waited and waited and finally received our inventory. I carried in the 3 foot square box delivered by UPS and that is honestly when I knew I was finished. The box contained a mix of 2 to 7 year old used video games worth a total of about $500.00 at most. I called Morrie in a panic telling him it would fill maybe 2 of my 14 floor shelves. He said don't worry my boy more will be on the way. It never came. I tried my best with the little knowledge I had of this industry with of course no help from the franchise. I had no more money, my parents couldn't help me anymore, and after 5 months of a $4000.00 a month lease and $4000.00 bank payment for the loan. I was through. In the middle of the night my family and I emptied the store and put what we could in storage. The next day I went to the landlord and told him I had nothing left and that I would have to break the lease. I handed him the key and he said it was O.K. He had spoken to Morrie only once and knew right away what kind of a person he was. The landlord could have went after me but he did not. He was a true gentleman. Remember the $24,000 front desk. I called the man that made this for me. The whole thing stank and I just had to figure this piece of the nightmare out. He was a very nice man on the phone and had a small local custom cabinet shop. I asked him about the money situation and he apologized to me but said he could not say anything about it to me because Morrie had him making cabinets for 5 more stores and if Morrie pulled out he would be ruined. I said it was OK and told him that I had to close my store because of Morrie. He must of felt bad for me, he told me the cabinets were actually $7500.00 not $12,000 or $24,000. I saw this man 2 years later working as a foreman for a client. He saw me and could not even look me in the face. Another life that Morrie ruined without a second thought. We tried to fight Morrie and his franchise cronies, but with no money left it was a short fight especially since the franchise base was in California and needed to be done there. The weeks after things fell apart, I was very depressed. I thought at 24 years old my life was over, and I was a huge failure. But with a great supporting family, my life went on and I persevered. I am 42 now and look at that time and shake my head. I cannot believe I trusted that man as much as I did. I guess it was a huge learning experience, although very costly for me at the time. And I do thank Morrie for showing me what to look for in a person and their character. As for me, I rebounded and started a network security consulting company. I have a beautiful wife and two fantastic boys. I make a very good living and have homes in Illinois, Wisconsin and Russia, don't laugh at that last one. God Bless you. I hope this helps you and your blog a bit and keeps others from ever doing anything with Morrie Friedman. He truly is the most dishonest person I have met in my entire life, having absolutely no conscious or soul. Yours Truly, C

Update on Morrie Friedman's wireless number

I was told he just recently answered his old wireless number. 702-401-9212

He said it was a wrong number but we know his voice, burned into our memory.

It would be interesting to talk with him for a bit, about Beyond Juice, Old Inc. Michael C.Goode, Sally Kline, Morris S. Friedman, Alan Powers, Scott Cecil,
VIP Comlink, etc, especially the new case brought by the Gupta's in Illinois.

Feel free to let me know if anyone has any new information that is factual that I can publish on the blog.