Richards Brush company goes bust
Richards Brush company goes bust
Company funds disappear along with owner
MOSES LAKE — It's common for Dale Walker to rent his industrial building along North Frontage Road in Moses Lake to new businesses.
Companies are often reluctant to build a new facility, he said, until they're more established.
In January 2005, Richards Brush, LLC, expressed an interest in relocating to Grant County from Seattle, where it manufactured brushes for 101 years. Economic development boosters quickly showed the company's managing member, Jim Carroll, the county's available building inventory.
Carroll insisted on secrecy as he pursued the relocation. The Grant County Economic Development Council honored Carroll's request, considered it routine, code naming the relocation project "Sparkle." They were pleased to have a well-respected company joining Moses Lake's growing economic community.
Carroll picked Walker's versatile facility and signed a five-year lease agreement. He planned to stay longer, he said, claiming he'd eventually buy the building.
In September 2005, the relocation was front page news. Manufacturing lines were busy making brushes by November. The company's "Neat Feet" project — production of a boot-cleaning brush — was touted as a big seller.
By May, six employees stopped getting fully-paid, raw materials for additional brushes were never ordered and Carroll was no where to be found. Richards Brush collapsed.
"It was probably the most unbelievable story I've ever experienced," said Walker. He lost $40,000 in the deal, after loaning Carroll money for new equipment.
"It seems inconceivable to me that somebody would just walk off," Walker said. He battled in court to regain control of his facility.
An Italian company repossessed state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment it made for Richards Brush after never receiving payment for the machinery.
Today, the company's books, paperwork and files gather dust in offices and the boardroom. The remaining brush-manufacturing equipment sits idle.
Walker is trying to move Richards Brush out. An auction to sell the brush-making company's equipment is scheduled for Oct. 26.
Carroll did not return several phone calls seeking comment for this story.
In Seattle
Thomas W. Richards, of Bellevue, ran the brush company for 40 years. The family always operated in Seattle, their core market. They never had reason to relocate to Moses Lake.
Richards sold the company to Carroll in April 2004.
Richards was contracted to work more than 300 hours to aid the company's transition.
But Carroll refused to learn the brush-making business, Richards said. The new owner wrote a letter to his predecessor: Stop coming to the plant, it's distracting to the employees.
Meanwhile, the brush company's long-time suppliers and their Seattle landlord were complaining about Carroll's refusal to pay bills.
"They'd call me up and say, 'Who's this deadbeat?'" Richards said. "Then, I started questioning everything."
Wells Fargo Co. did background checks before the sale and loaned Carroll several hundred thousand dollars. The bank OK'd the deal, Richards said, so he figured it was OK with him, too.
"The brokers made a bad, bad mistake. Everybody made a big mistake," Richards said. He never received more than a down payment on the family's company.
"I'm still surprised Wells Fargo bank didn't do a much better job of screening (Carroll), because he borrowed $400,000 from them," Richards said.
Lara Underhill, a Wells Fargo spokesperson in Seattle, declined to comment, citing customer privacy.
The family's good name, established through generations of honorable work, crumbled within months.
"(Carroll) couldn't have done it any faster if he was working 24 hours a day at it," Richards said. "He's decimated the business. All those customers we've had for years and years have gone to other people now."
Richards initiated a lawsuit against Carroll.
On to Moses Lake
By the time Carroll was headed to Moses Lake, Richards said, the new owner already owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in Seattle.
Those who worked with Carroll, a University of Phoenix graduate, describe him as a slick talker, a con artist, a swindler. He often chatted with employees around the brush company's office, revealing an admiration for business moguls who utilize shrewd, cut-throat methods.
"Everyone here thought he was a straight-up business man," said Terry Brewer, executive director of the Moses Lake-based economic development council. Brewer guided Carroll through the relocation process.
"Once I heard there was trouble, though, I haven't been able to get a hold of him," Brewer said.
"I know from personal experience, in dealing with companies, that relocating can be very difficult," Brewer said, speculating why the company failed. "There's a whole lot more involved that people don't see. It's expensive."
In previous interviews with the Columbia Basin Herald, Carroll promised the company would be a good neighbor and vital part of Moses Lake's economy.
"We want to remain, but we also want to grow from a regional to a national firm," Carroll told the paper in December 2005. "Our goal is to grow within the community."
Richards read the news articles and was shocked.
"I said, 'My God, those people over there should talk to somebody over here,'" he recalled. "I don't know in my wildest imagination how (Carroll) thought he could successfully operate over there, if he wasn't paying anybody."
Richards describes Carroll's actions as 100 percent pure fraud.
"The lawyers, the brokers and the accountants have never, ever, heard of anybody quite like this, who is still walking the streets anyway," he said. "It's always the little guy, or the honest guy, who gets nailed in the end."
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