Complaint Review: APRU Brands

Tony Torgerud of Apple Rush is a Con Man.

Tony T is the owner of a public company Apple Rush (APRU) in Titusville Florida with additional facilities in Illinois and Oklahoma. 

https://aprubrands.com/    

This is Not the first complaint on this forum against Apple Rush. In fact there are many including investigations by the SEC.

https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/specific_search/apple%20rush

Had we known this prior to this experience, its unlikely we would have ever introduced him to our clients and network.   

Tony was introduced to us in the summer of 2023 by a well respected colleague and owner of shares in APRU for the purposes of creating a canned Ready to Drink (RTD) product.

Our consulting firm placed our client (award winning spirits distiller) with Tony to co-develop the RTD. Our client provided the spirits, recipes and artwork for the 4 flavors.

The concept being APRU was a public company with the impressive board of advisors including members of the Anheuser Busch company/family and Southern Eagle Distribution. A JV could be developed and large sums of capital could be raised based on the co-creation of said RTD to support this new product line and have distribution at scale in place. It sounded like a perfect match and tremendous opportunity for all involved. We went to work. On our side, 4 Recipes/Flavors were established in need of tweaks to taste, labels created, marketing strategies were developed in preparation to go forward. 

In early December 2023 our client was told he needed to hurry up and get the money and product in place to begin. Our client spent over $12,000 in development costs. $5,000 was sent to Tony with an additional $5000 in spirits was sent to the Illinois canning facility. Product was to be developed and delivered in a matter of weeks. That didnt happen.

After many conversations, texts, and emails, 24 cans of product (1 flavor) was finally sent to the client in the summer of 2024...6 months after deposits were made and product was delivered.  The product was sub par at best. They basically took the raw recipe, added a bit of fizz and put it in a can. Far from the promise of a scientific process where the distiller would be invited to the "lab" to test and tweak products prior to volume caning.

Basically it went like this: We are Way behind, throw this raw recipe in some cans so we can say we did our part, send it to the distiller, "we did our job" and then lots of excuses and broken promises in relation to getting it perfected much less all 4 products.

As we kept asking for months "Whats going on? Why did this happen? What happened to the origina plan? What about the other 3?" And receiving no good answer...Tony and his partner were asked to send the spirits and money back. Tonys excuses and lies started again and it wasnt until being threatened with legal action, the caning partner in IL said "I never saw a dime of the money to produce a product" apologized and sent the product back. Delivered 9/12/24.

Tony also promised to send the money back numerous times but has not. Tony does not respond to texts, calls or emails regardless of being told there will be consequences to his theft.  

Tony was also introduced (When we thought he was trustworthy) to a vitamin/supplement manufacturing partner of ours to help produce kratom tablets. Tony sourced and sent the raw powder and our partner produced and packaged the tablets and sent them to Tony. After over a year of the same behaviors from Tony...lying, not communicating, not paying his bills, not responding, the manufacturer decided he can no longer work with Tony and asked he simply pay the remaining invoice and go separate ways.

Tony owes an invoice for $9800 + interest, and rent for a large amount of packaging materials taking up space in his facility. Tony wont respond to calls, texts or emails unless threatened with action to pay the invoice and remove the packaging materials.  When he finally does respond, he lies, says hes paying it and disappears again.  

Again...before seeing the REAL Tony as the Con man he is...we saw his as an ambitious entrepreneur with many irons in the fire who could use some help finding the capital to grow his companies. We tried to help Tony and introduced him to some investors as he has so much going on. They had interest, did enough diligence to verbally approve some loans, but Tony did what Tony does and stopped communicating even when they offered fair terms to a 7 figure capital raise to grow his businesses. 

In and out and back and forth but no one can pin him down or get him to be accountable to his debts and promises. 

Tony then told us that he had a major judgement against him and the counterpart in the suit was able to freeze and seize control of his bank accounts in the summer of 2024.

One would assume something like this only happens because there is additional examples of poor business dealings, lies, fraud and/or theft. 

In addition to this complaint I am in communication with a SEC attorney strategizing the approach to the SEC in an effort to have them investigate this man running a public company, APRU for fraud and theft of combined close to $15,000 not including storage and late fees owed to said client. The only conclusion left is that this man and company is deliberately acting as an entrepreneur to deceive and steal from companies. His board of Advisors is an impressive list of top professionals and Im not sure they know what kind of person he is, or its doubtful they would continue to support this behavior and his actions.

They will soon find out. 

I was asked by an "investor" he introduced me to to "Prove" he has someone on board to help him out of this jam with funding. "You mean to tell me this is over $15K?"  The answer is Yes and No. Yes he owes our clients in excess of $15,000. But this is also about the value of our relationships who helped him, their time, our time, the loss of a golden opportunity to get into a billion dollar RTD market and thrive. There were a number of liquor stores who said they would purchse these RTD's for their store based on the quality of spirit and dynamic labels alone.

Can you estimate the value of lost time, energy, opportunity and damage to our top tier relationships? 

This isnt just about $15K This is about much more.  

I know how hard it is to make it these days and dont take this action lightly. I dont like feeling like I am playing judge and jury. I understand what libel and slander is. I am reporting nothing that isnt backed by dozens of conversations with all in our group, texts, and emails. He was told weeks ago there would be dire consequences and again promised to resolve this. He has not, and has once again stopped communicating with all parties involved. 

Tony Torgerud is a Con Man. The moral to the story is if you want to work with Tony Torgerud I would seriously reconsider it based on his actions, non-actions and behaviors. In my professional opinion this man is not integral by any measure and I question his ability to be owner/CEO of a public company. 

This message is being posted on similar websites to this one, the BBB, and will be shared with his Board of Advisors and The SEC this week 10/1/24  

My advice to anyone thinking of working with Apple Rush or Tony Torgerud and Apple Rush? Buyer Beware.

Tony Torgerud is not to be trusted with your brand or relationships.