Business Evaluation Systems, BES has partnered with Corporate Acquisitions Group in scamming small businesses Dickinson Texas
Corporate Acquisitions Group (Ty Tymkovich) used Business Evaluation Systems (BES) to complete his scam against our company. There are numerous other reports about Corporate Acquisitions Group, including a website tytymkovich(dot)com so I won't go into detail about how his scam is conducted, only BES's contribution. Suffice to say, however, that Corporate Acquisitions charged excessive fees for a "business evaluation" and contracted BES to do them.
I had several e-mail correspondences with Kristen G. Abraham, Vice President of the company where she was fully aware of the exhorbitant fees charged by Corporate Acquisitions for a "Business Evaluation". In those e-mails, Kristen and Ty Tymkovich made it quite clear it was an "asset" appraisal, fully suitable for a buyer to approach a lending institution for an SBA loan, which clearly means that the current value of our business assets (capital equipment, inventory, land and building) would get a fair and impartial evaluation.... as was the case when I purchased our business through an SBA loan.
Instead, all I received was a rather lame manipulation of a few years of UNVERIFIED financial information buried in many, many pages of boilerplate cut-and-paste irrelevant references and meaningless numbers to make it look like it's worth something. Most likely took less than an hour to do, particularly since we received no visits, and no phone calls. Even the "goodwill" value (the only number they attempted to compute) was horribly computed and horribly undervalued as compared to other systems that have also computed the goodwill value of our business with far more consistency.
The leading page of the "appraisal" clearly says it was an asset appraisal, but buried a few pages later it also says that our assets were NOT appraised, but my own rough estimates were included in the total value. (Wow... maybe I should have charged BES a consulting fee?) I showed this to my bank (an SBA lender), they immediately rejected any notion that an SBA lender would find this product acceptable.
According to all the other reports on Corporate Acquisitions Group and Ty Tymkovich, his house of cards is falling in around him, and the authorities are on his trail. I hope the trail also leads to BES for their participation in his scams.
John
Somewherein, North Carolina
U.S.A.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
George Abraham
Dickinson,Texas,
United States of America
Business Evaluation Systems Report Forged
#4REBUTTAL Owner of company
Mon, December 14, 2015
About 3 months after I wrote the the first rebuttle, the Colorado District Attorney contacted us and said he was going after Corporate Acquisistions and would we help. He said he had 6 of our appraisals from different companies that looked like someone had forged as none of the numbers matched the financials or the calculations (but all had the same numbers) and the formatting was horrible. After looking at the appraisals, which we never performed, it was obvious that Corporate acquisitions had taken one of our appraisals and saved it as a word file from adobe. When you do that the formatting goes crazy and unbelievable hard to correct. They made one with horrible formatting and typed in the values they wanted, but had no idea how to change the numbers in the calculations so they just left them.
We sent the origional appraisal they copied from back to the DA and we to help. He was kind enough to show the owners of each of the 6 appraisals the original one, and they could see that it had been forged, but the one guy that wrote that complaint was so mad he would not remove it.
George Abraham
Dickinson,Texas,
United States of America
Response to complaint filed by John in North Carolina
#4REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, February 23, 2010
Business Evaluation Systems has over thirty-five years of experience in the business appraisal industry. During that time, we have been involved in the appraisal of over 16,000 companies worldwide. We were the first company to develop Business Appraisal Software, and our exclusive database includes input from over 450 trained Valuation Partners around the country. Over 60% of the business transfer industry has used or still uses our software. Our experience has qualified us to meet the requirements of the Appraisal Foundation, the Internal Revenue Service, lending institutions, and courts of law around the country. Regardless of the personal opinions held by the author of the original complaint, our appraisals have consistently withstood scrutiny from lenders and business owners alike.
We perform business appraisals for individuals and business brokers across the country. In those instances where we are contracted by a brokerage firm, we have no agreement with the business owner. In addition, as we are an entirely separate entity from the brokerage firm, we do not have any influence over their business practices or fee schedules.
Many of the issues raised in the original complaint seem to originate from a misunderstanding of the appraisal process. Our appraisals are typically based on a companys most recent three to four years of financial information. Although we try to obtain the most accurate data available, we must ultimately rely upon the financial documentation provided by the business owner. It is unclear with whom the author would have us verify the financials, as every piece of information used in our appraisal would have come directly from him. In addition, Business Evaluation Systems is not an accounting firm, and we therefore cannot offer auditing services (nor do we claim to).
The author of this complaint also misunderstands the purpose of the appraisal that was performed. Our company was contracted to complete a business appraisal only. A site visit is not necessary for this type of appraisal, as we can legitimately accept the business owners assessment of his or her own property. We can also incorporate a separate real estate or machinery and equipment appraisal into our report. Business Evaluation Systems does not provide real estate appraisal services, and although we do employ certified machinery and equipment appraisers, we were not contracted to complete a machinery and equipment appraisal in this case. A site visit would have been unnecessary, and the extra travel costs would have made the appraisal more expensive.
Although boilerplate text can often appear impersonal, it is important to understand its utility. Certain information and disclosures are required by the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), and our standard business appraisal template incorporates all of those requirements in order to ensure full compliance. Again, it is impossible to discern what, if anything, the author believes to be an acceptable alternative to using boilerplate language. Writing a fresh USPAP compliant report for each appraisal would be impossible to accomplish (and illogical to even attempt), and would likely result in the omission of some important pieces of information.
The authors assertion that his bank would not use the appraisal for lending purposes is entirely possible. The stated purpose of the appraisal was certainly contemplation of sale. Business Evaluation Systems does complete business appraisals for SBA lending purposes, but those appraisals are completed according to each individual lenders specifications. Although some lenders will use an appraisal completed for contemplation of sale, many will require a separate valuation. Business Evaluation Systems has completed over 4,000 appraisals for bank and SBA loans, over 3,500 that have passed the scrutiny of the IRS, and two that passed the scrutiny of the World Bank. None of our appraisals have ever been rejected.
We could not verify the details provided by the author, as we cannot retrieve the appropriate file notes without knowing the specific appraisal at issue. Our records show that we have not performed an appraisal for anyone named John in North Carolina. We attempt to contact every business owner by telephone shortly following receipt of their file. Occasionally, if we have incorrect contact information or if a business owner never answers and/or returns our calls (and if we cannot find an acceptable alternate method of contact), we must complete the appraisal with only limited input from the business owner. In any case, if the author of this complaint ever wished to contact our office, he could have done so by using the information provided on our website or on the final report he received, or by sending an email to the address he claims to have used.
Many of the authors misconceptions could have been cleared up in a telephone conversation or email. We regret that this individual is unsatisfied, and we offer our best wishes for his future endeavors. As always, we encourage the recipients of our appraisals to contact us with any questions or concerns they may have.Sascha
Saschaville,Colorado,
U.S.A.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has filed a lawsuit against Ty Tymkovich + Sam Levine of defrauding more than 700 businesses
#4Consumer Comment
Fri, January 15, 2010
Attorney General files lawsuit against two Englewood businesses, their owners suspected of defrauding more than 700 businesses
12/18/2009
DENVER Colorado Attorney General John Suthers announced today that attorneys from his offices Consumer Protection Section have filed a lawsuit against two Englewood-based businesses and their owners, Tyrone E. Tymkovich (DOB: 12/30/1977) of Aurora and Sam Levine (DOB: 2/1/1967) of Castle Rock, who are suspected of defrauding more than 700 businesses in Colorado and other states between July 2006 and September 2009.
According to the complaint, Tymkovich, Levine or their employees at Englewood-based Corporate Acquisitions Group and Englewood-based Global Acquisitions Group would approach small businesses and inform them that either buyers were interested in acquiring their firms or their businesses could be sold. Tymkovich, Levine and their employees are accused of convincing more than 700 businesses in Colorado and other states to allow them to conduct an appraisal of their business for $5,000. Of the $5,000 Tymkovich and Levines businesses collected from their clients, only about $1,000 of the fee was actually devoted to completing the appraisals.
Throughout the process of courting new clients, Tymkovich, Levine and their employees are accused of lying to client businesses about the success of Corporate Acquisitions Group and Global Acquisitions Group. For example, Tymkovich and Levine are alleged to have created promotional materials that said they have taken in $7 million in revenues in 2007 and implied that the profits were due to sale commissions. In fact, of the $2.8 million Tymkovich and Levines businesses reported over the past two years, less than $100,000 came from sale commissions. The other $2.7 million came from the appraisal fees they charged.
Tymkovich and Levine also are alleged to given the clients a money-back guarantee in the event of no sale occurring. However, Tymkovich and Levine only followed through when a business complained to either the Better Business Bureau or the authorities, according to the complaint.
The Office of the Attorney General has requested that an Arapahoe County District Court judge order Tymkovich and Levine to stop their fraudulent business operations, bar the duo from committing fraud in the future, and order Tymkovich and Levine to pay restitution.