Complaint Review: Bradley Laughlin

If Brad Laughlin approaches you to borrow money, invest in his business or partner with you in any way, RUN!! 

Over the last two years Brad has taken several loans/investments from me with promises of repayment. He now owes me over $500,000 and is still making excuses as to why he can’t pay me.

I’ve known Brad for about 7 years now and we became friends. I really liked Brad and enjoyed his friendship. Until he began leveraging our friendship to borrow money from me with false promises of when and how it would be paid back. 

Brad is a 30+ year concert promoter with plenty of stories to back up his “success” over the years. He claims to have worked with several big-name artists over the years and frames himself as a well-respected, successful concert producer and promoter. 

When I first met Brad, he was producing concerts in Cancun, Mexico. Him and I hit it off and shortly after he asked me if I would want to invest money with him and partner with him in his concert business. I told him no several times and told him that I would rather remain friends with him than get into business together. He persisted for several years and finally I agreed that we could do something together. He was in a bind at the time and had several bills stacking up and people that he needed to pay so he needed a loan to get him through. 

Our agreement was simple… I would loan Brad some money, he would pay me back with interest, and he would give me some equity in his businesses. The problem is that every time Brad would get money, he would pay himself or use the money to put on another concert, but he never would fulfill his agreement or promise to pay me what he owed. 

Brad has done lots of other shady stuff ever since I lent him money. He promised me on no less than 20 occasions that he would provide me a full accounting report for the concerts we were promoting together. He never once provided me a settlement statement and never allowed me access to the bank accounts. He claimed we lost money on the first show and conveniently made me take the entire loss and NEVER provided me any accounting or settlement statement showing where the money went. 

Then he promised me that if I let him use my money to promote one more show, he would pay me a large sum of what he owed me and would draft an agreement of how he planned to repay the balance within a short period of time. I did not want to do this, but Brad gave me no choice. He used my money to put the show on and pay all the expenses. Then he strung me along for months and never drafted the agreement even though he told me several times he would have it to me THAT day. 

The show (AZ Jazz Fest 2022) was completely sold out and was a huge success. Brad again stalled me for multiple weeks until I was finally able to get a meeting with him. He then proceeded to tell me that he could not pay me a large sum of what he owed me because he had already made commitments to talent agencies and musicians for deposits on the next show in March of 2023. So essentially Brad is holding my money hostage and using it to fund his future concerts. 

He told me that if I allowed him to use my money to make the deposits and get the show on sale, he would immediately pay me a large sum of what he owes me and draft the agreement to pay the remaining debt as quickly as possible. (Same story, different show) I told him I was NOT willing to do that again because he had not upheld a single promise he had made me over the past two years. Brad gave me NO CHOICE and told me he would not pay me back the money he owed as he promised because he had already made these commitments and he did not want to ruin his reputation with the talent agency and the artists. Brad used my money again, without my permission, paid the artist deposits, put the show on sale, and he is now dodging me and avoiding paying me yet again. 

These are only a couple examples of the promises Brad has made to me and not fulfilled. In all the promises Brad has made to me, I cannot think of a single one he has kept and came through on. He ALWAYS has an excuse why he can’t or won’t pay. I have documentation, countless emails, and text messages from Brad to support these claims. 

This has gone on well over two years at this point. I have hired an attorney and will be suing Brad both civilly and criminally for defrauding me of my money. 

It seems to me that Brad is ALWAYS asking people to invest in his businesses. He’s been doing this constantly since I met him over 7 years ago. I would strongly urge anyone to do your due diligence on Brad Laughlin and DO NOT TAKE HIS WORD. He has not delivered on one single promise he’s made me ever since I wired him the money.