Bill for face masks that company paid for, but never got, from its lawsuit.
A former Duxbury man seems to have come up with a novel strategy for dealing with lawsuits by partners in his failed Seaport restaurant, Covid-19 PPE wholesalers and even the nation's largest radio-station owner: Ignore them.
Aaron Sells has yet to file answers in any of the seven lawsuits filed against him over the past two years in two different states. In three of the cases, judges have issued default judgments against him, meaning they got tired of waiting for him to respond to the complaints and granted the plaintiffs what they asked for - now totalling several hundred thousand dollars. But there's no indication he's paid any of the claims.
Most of the summonses for the suits were served at a Duxbury address where he may have stopped living in December, 2021, when the 3.3-acre property was sold, for $930,000, by the Wellesley LLC listed as its owner.
Laura Baldini, his main partner in what was supposed to open as Broken Coconut on Seaport Boulevard, says she knows where he's now living - in a pricey Marlborough Street apartment, possibly along with his gun safe where he allegedly keeps an Uzi, a handgun and six rifles, along with two Rolex watches - and she has asked a judge to order him not to sell any of the safe's contents, as well as his Mercedes and F-150, to save them as possible assets to pay off her claims. She is seeking a similar no-sell order against the engagement ring she says he bought for his girlfriend.
Three of the suits involve Broken Coconut in the Seaport, which was supposed to give the burgeoning neighborhood access to fresh poke and other food bowls in an Instagrammable restaurant franchised from the owner of the New York Broken Coconut.
The most recent lawsuit was filed this week in Suffolk Superior Court by two investors in the restaurant, which Sells was going to run on a day to day basis with Baldini. In their suit, Paul Bernon and Brendon Giblin allege they gave Sells a total of $150,000 as an investment, only to watch the money disappear.
Bernon and Giblin say Sells used their money to prop up his other ventures, including the 1928 Beacon Hill restaurant, on Mount Vernon Street on Beacon Hill, that he built out and opened with girlfriend Kristen Jenkins. Jenkins was a South Shore antiques dealer whose attorney told the licensing board in 2021 that she would be relying on Sells's counsel to get up to speed with operating a fancy restaurant on Beacon Hill - in the space vacated by Lala Rokh.
Sells has experience in the restaurant business - he has co-owned restaurants in the Boston area, including the troubled Sons of Boston on Union Street in Boston, although he and his partner got lucky and sold the place before the murder that convinced the city licensing board to shut the place down earlier this year. He was also a partner in Sea Dog Brewpub in Woburn, which went bankrupt in 2014, and for which the state Department of Revenue went after him just last year for $43,108.16 in unpaid taxes. His LinkedIn page lists other efforts he's been involved in, including corporate, marketing and political consulting.
Bernon and Giblin charge Sells did more than just take their money - he went out of his way to sabotage Broken Coconut to help open 1928 Beacon Hill, for example, by delaying any efforts to obtain a liquor license in a city known for its scarcity of them, instead choosing to work with Jenkins on her bid for one of the precious, expensive licenses. And then, they say, even as it was becoming clear Broken Coconut would never open, Sells repeatedly lied to them, saying he would reimburse their money, only he didn't.
Parts of their lawsuit are based on allegations from two separate lawsuits, also filed in Suffolk Superior Court, by Baldini, who says she was looking forward to opening the new venture in addition to continuing her Mother Juice chain of cold-pressed juice bars. Baldini says she and Sells were already acquainted when he approached her about meeting with the owner of Broken Coconut in New York about franchising the concept here.
At first, things went well - they signed a deal, found a place in one of WS Development's new building on Seaport Boulevard and began hiring contractors to outfit the space. But now, Baldini charges, she's wound up with both her reputation and credit ruined - both personally and at her Mother Juice chain.
Baldini and the two investors say things began falling apart even before the pandemic hit, as Sells, Jenkins and his nephew, Avery Sells, began working on the Beacon Hill restaurant - and diverting attention and Broken Coconut money to it. Baldini also charges he used the money he was getting from investors - including some he brought in without telling her - on, among other things, "personal American Express bills, lavish trips, expenses for his children, including, but not limited to, private school tuition, and lavish gifts."
Baldini said she was particularly hit hard after Sells stopped paying the rent for an office at 297 Newbury St., which the two had signed for, ostensibly to handle the restaurant affairs before they could move into that space.
Landlord Charles Talanian sued Sells and Baldini after they stopped paying rent. And then, because of the way she signed the lease - in her personal capacity, rather than as an official of an LLC - he got a lien on Baldini's condo in the Ritz Carlton on Avery Street. She says she believed Sells that she had to personally vouch for the lease, which let Talanian go after her condo.
Then Sells lied repeatedly to her about paying off the back rent - and her mounting legal bills for fighting Talanian's lien - she says, adding he refused to let her see the books and used a complicated series of his own LLCs - and Jenkins's antiques business - to siphon money out of Broken Coconut, leaving in his wake a series of contractors angry at not getting paid.
And she charges that even before Talanian kicked them out, Sells was using the space at 297 Newbury St., which was supposed to be just for the Broken Cconut operation, for his other businesses.
Now, she says, in addition to the Talanian lien, she has distributors who won't do business with her because they weren't paid for work they did do on outfitting the Broken Coconut space.
Like Bernon and Giblin, she charges Sells just kept lying to her about everything, often by saying he would take care of whatever was going wrong, then not doing so, repeatedly using phrases such as "I've got things under control ... I'll pay the taxes and outstanding bills. ... The money is coming." In one case, she allows, he did keep his word to hire a lawyer to deal with the Talanian mess, but then, without telling her, dismissed the lawyer. Similarly, he agreed to reimburse her for her lien legal fight, and did pay her $10,000 - but the costs could eventually reach $40,000.
Baldini is seeking at least $155,092.74 in damages - including the legal costs of fighting the lien on her condo - plus damages. She is also seeking an order giving her and other investors full access to what's left of the Broken Coconut books and an order barring Sells from disposing of any of his assets - and Jenkins's engagement ring - until her and their claims are settled.
Facemasks
One of the non-restaurant ventures Sells worked on in the Newbury Street office, at least until the day Talanian had a padlock put on its door, was a company that claimed it was sitting on millions of face masks at a time when demand for them was at an all time high.
On June 14, 2020, Sells filed papers with the Massachusetts Secretary of State's office to set up a new company called Safe and Clean Protection, LLC, with an address of 297 Newbury St. - the office he and Baldini were renting from Talanian for the Seaport restaurant. Its stated mission: "TOO[sic] MANUFACTURE AND SELL PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE)," specifically the millions of face masks he claims he had - but which companies in New York and Washington State say they discovered he didn't, after pre-paying for them.
On August 12, 2021, FLTR, Inc. of Bellevue, WA agreed to purchase 250,000 "FFG 3ply face masks - 50 count box" - or some 12.5 million face masks - for $462,500. The company, which says it had a buyer of its own already lined up for the masks, wired the money, then got nothing, according to the lawsuit it filed on September 20, 2021 in US District Court in Boston.
Repeatedly since the date of the Agreement, Defendants continued to misrepresent to FLTR that they had 250,000 "FFG 3ply face masks - 50 count box" available for purchase. However, to date, Defendants have not provided access to the 250,000 boxes of "FFG 3ply face masks - 50 count box" Defendants agreed to sell to FLTR.
At the end of August, FLTR alleges, it demanded its money back, but Sells and his salesman kept insisting the masks were about to be shipped - even providing what FLTR says was a bogus video of millions of masks ready to be shipped.
Finally, on September 16, 2021, Defendant Sells confirmed via email to FLTR that Defendants did not possess—and had never possessed—the "FFG 3ply face masks - 50 count box" they agreed to sell to FLTR.
But when Sells refused to send the company back its money, it sued. As with all his other cases, Sells has never responded to the FLTR complaint. Two weeks ago, it filed a motion asking the judge in the case to issue a default judgment for its original payment times two - the penalty called for under Massachusetts law.
YY Global Supply, a Brooklyn-based PPE provider, tells a similar story in its suit, filed in Brooklyn federal court. YY says it paid Sells $193,998.06 for 199,998 "three-ply ASTM level 2 face masks" on Aug. 2, 2021. Sells and his Hollywood, CA-based salesman then failed to deliver any masks, the company says.
After several WhatsApp and e-mail exchanges:
On or about August 16, 2021, Aaron Sells informed Mr. Yusufov, via a WhatsApp message, that Defendant AMS's vendor [another of Sells's companies] had failed to deliver the Face Masks to Safe and Clean and AMS's vendor had absconded with the $193,998.06 payment YYGS had made. ...
On or about August 20, 2021, Aaron Sells informed Mr. Ylyaguev and Mr. Yusufov, via email, that he was tracking down the money that was allegedly taken by AMS's vendor and he would re-pay YYGS, with interest. ...
Specifically, Aaron Sells "guaranteed" to pay YYGS "$210k if paid by Monday (8/23), $230k if by Friday (8/27), $250k by Wednesday (9/1), $270k if by Friday (9/3). My partner Joe and I have a few very large closings next week and week after so ill [sic] regardless of us retracing the money – you will have my first money off the top in full from that . . . Trust me . . . I am not going anywhere and you're funds are being returned with interest."
On or about August 31, 2021, Mr. Ylyaguev again demanded a refund of its $193,998.06 payment as a result of Defendants' misrepresentations and breach of the Agreement.
To date, Defendants have failed to return YYGS's $193,998.06 payment.
On May 20, of this year, after Sells failed to respond to the YYGS lawsuit, the judge in the case issued a default judgment for the company.
Upon due consideration of all of the pleadings, the motion papers for default judgment, the order to show cause, and the lack of response to date by the defaulting parties, the proposed order on default judgment is hereby entered as an order of the Court.
Loans
On Sept. 10, 2021, Brett Hershey of Concord sued Sells in Plymouth Superior Court for failing to repay a $140,000 loan Hershey says he gave Sells in September, 2017. By the time he sued, the loan was three years overdue and with 12% annual interest, the amount Sells owed was $277,627.29. On April 6, 2022, the judge in the case entered judgment for Hershey - for 296,625.88 - because Sells never answered the complaint.
About a year earlier, iHeartMedia sued Sells, also in Plymouth Superior Court, over the $69,177.02 it says it loaned Sells's State6 consulting firm - with an address on Congress Street in downtwon Boston. The company, which owns radio stations and billboards across the country, did not say why it had advanced Sells the sum. On Aug 23, 2021, the judge in the case ruled for iHeartMedia, again because Sells never answered the complaint, and issued a judgment for $71,122.31.
One of Baldini's complaints (1.2M PDF).
The other complaint (885k PDF).
Baldini's request to freeze Sells's assets (1M PDF).
Bernon and Giblin's complaint (375k PDF).
FLTR request for default judgment (344k PDF).
YY Global Supply's complaint (709k PDF).
Hershey's complaint (222k PDF).
iHeartMedia's complaint (409k PDF).