Complaint Review: William Benson of Billionaires Row - New York New York

Mr. Benson is a liar an a thief.  I met Mr. Benson in November of 2016 and Mr. Benson claimed to be a businessman, a millionaire, and owner of the brand billionaires row and the owner of the vineyards that produce BR Champaign.   He proceeded to attempt to establish a business relationship as well as a personal relationship with me.  He shared with me numerous adds in Fortune magazine, multiple contracts, and other documents to establish his credibility.  We met several times personally and professionally, and in January of 2017, Mr. Benson approached me with a business opportunity.  Mr. Benson alleged that he had a deal with IMG pertaining to fashion week.  He indicated he was in a bind, as he needed funds very quickly that he was not able to liquidate in order for him to close the deal.  He indicated that he needed to deposit 50k in cash in order to be the primary brand to NY fashion week, and that this would generate sales for billionaires row for all of the fashion week events, and that IMG had a written contract committing to purchase over 200 cases of champagne.  He promised to pay me back plus interest with the sales from IMG (branding agency; 11 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10010

212-586-5100) and with the the sales generated from the advertisements during fashion week in February of 2017.

During this time, he also indicated that he was working on a number of real-estate deals, and we met with multiple people on a number of deals (can provide names and documents).  Mr. Benson proceeded to move money from my paypal account to fund this deal.  The initial ask was 50k and when he could not come up with the funds, he proceeded to use my credit cards through PayPal to pay the remaining amount.  In addition to this, he asked me to open up multiple business accounts which he indicated he would use for business purposes only.  He proceeded to max out all of his cards as well as all of my cards.  When I wasn’t looking, he would take my cards from my wallet and save the numbers and use them for gambling on basketball and for many other personal uses, including sending his wife money.  I had to call the credit card company’s several times to cancel/change the card numbers because of all of the unauthorized charges that were made.  During that time I also had the misfortune of becoming pregnant with Mr. Bensons child, and he shamed, threatened, and forced me to have an abortion.  Mr Benson charged and spent collectively over $200,000.00 on frivolous expenses including Ubers in Miami and from Long Island to NYC.  He spent money on lavish meals and hotel rooms as well as food for his family and clothing.  I tried on multiple occasions to reach out to him to work out a deal for repayment, and he refused to cooperate.

I addition to all of this, Mr. Benson and his wife filed a complaint with my company that I worked for indicating that I worked for BR and was in partnership with him.  I was placed under investigation and my position was terminated.  Now, not only am in over $200k in debt, I also have no job to attempt to pay back this debt.

I was scammed, and I hope to retrieve my money, but mostly, I want to have this matter investigated and publicized so that Mr. Benson and his wife are never able to do this to anyone else.