0:00 Imagine living in a country where you
0:02 can be stripped of your rights at any
0:03 time by corporations, your boss, the
0:06 government, or any old millionaire or
0:08 billionaire that wants to. They can
0:11 steal from you, maim your son, sexually
0:13 assault your daughter, murder your
0:14 parents and your pet, and you have no
0:17 right to take them to court. Instead,
0:19 you have to go to a secret court where
0:21 you are guaranteed to lose. And not only
0:23 that, you will also be bankrupted and
0:25 have everything you own taken from you
0:27 in the process. Name that country. Is it
0:31 China, Russia, Iran? No, my friends. I
0:36 am in fact talking about America today
0:39 in 2025. And I am not being hyperbolic.
0:43 Today, I am going to tell you many
0:45 stories of how regular people suffered
0:47 each of those crimes and learned the
0:49 hard way that everything I just said is
0:51 true for nearly every single regular
0:54 American today, including you. Because
0:56 today we're talking about America's
0:58 secret court system and it's called
1:00 forced arbitration. Welcome back to
1:08 [Applause]
1:12 [Music]
1:15 Candace.
1:16 [Music]
1:18 America has a secret court system, an
1:21 entirely parallel justice system
1:23 designed by and for mega corporations,
1:26 billionaires, and private equity firms.
1:29 Most Americans have probably only
1:31 vaguely heard of arbitration. Most of us
1:34 don't have any experience with it or
1:36 really know what it means or how it
1:37 works. Remember that list of salacious
1:40 scary crimes that I made just a minute
1:42 ago? I chose that list very specifically
1:45 because today I am going to share
1:46 specific examples of those exact crimes
1:49 committed against Americans who wound up
1:52 with the exact outcome that I described.
1:54 Normally you would expect the
1:56 perpetrator of crimes like rape, murder,
1:58 theft or battery to be caught and
2:01 arrested by police, lose a trial in a
2:03 court of law and go to jail or prison.
2:06 And if a regular person commits those
2:07 crimes, that's probably what would
2:09 happen. But if the people who rule the
2:12 world commit such a crime, that's not
2:14 how it works. They have a special court
2:16 system where the judges are not legally
2:18 required to follow the law, nor are the
2:20 attorneys. Judges are openly paid by
2:23 your offender for doing their job and
2:25 paid quite handsomely, I might add. And
2:28 you are bound to secrecy. You can't talk
2:30 about it. And the world will never learn
2:33 that this happens to more than a million
2:35 Americans every year. When I say people
2:37 who rule the world, you might think I
2:39 mean the Illuminati or the Rothschilds
2:41 or something. And so you just need to
2:43 steer clear of a small handful of evil
2:45 super villains. And you should steer
2:47 clear of them, too. But that's not who
2:49 I'm referring to. I'm talking about
2:51 corporations and private equity. And you
2:54 might not know it, but you've already
2:56 agreed to this. You've already signed
2:57 your rights away over and over every
3:00 time you click agree to terms of
3:02 service. And most of us have clicked
3:04 that a lot of times. The average
3:06 American household with two teenage
3:08 children has currently agreed to about
3:10 160 arbitration agreements. If you take
3:12 your kids to a birthday party, there's
3:14 an arbitration agreement. Sign them up
3:16 for swim lessons, arbitration agreement.
3:18 Went to a concert, arbitration
3:20 agreement. Martial arts classes,
3:21 arbitration agreement. Got a massage,
3:23 arbitration agreement. Bought a washing
3:25 machine, rented a house, got a job, took
3:27 an Uber, went to the hospital, all have
3:30 arbitration agreements. Heck, most
3:33 people's cell phones alone include more
3:35 than 20 arbitration agreements, one for
3:37 each app you download. And speaking of
3:39 apps, I want to start today with a story
3:42 about Uber. And I'll let Tiffany, who we
3:44 met in my first episode on Candace,
3:47 explain what happened with Uber last
3:49 year. If I told you that ordering a
3:52 burger or a pizza on a food delivery app
3:54 could cost you to forfeit your
3:56 constitutionally protected rights, would
3:58 you believe me? Well, my friends, I'm
4:00 here to show you how Uber is proving to
4:02 the world today that Disney walked so
4:05 that they could run you over with a
4:07 truck, literally. And there's not a damn
4:09 thing you can do about it. Let's get
4:11 into it. It was just a couple of months
4:14 ago that the entire world became enraged
4:16 when we learned that Disney was trying
4:18 to stop a man from suing them in court
4:20 when his wife was wrongfully killed in a
4:23 terrible incident involving an allergy
4:26 at one of their restaurants. And they
4:27 claimed the reason he had no right to go
4:29 to court was because years before he had
4:32 signed up for a trial for Disney Plus.
4:35 Now, neither you nor I would ever have
4:36 thought that signing up for a trial for
4:39 a TV watching program would somehow not
4:42 keep us safe in a park where we go on
4:44 rides that have physical threats. But
4:46 that is exactly what Disney alleged and
4:48 what they were arguing in court.
4:50 Throughout the Disney debacle, I went on
4:52 a series of podcasts and interviews
4:54 where people were saying there's no way
4:55 this can happen. and the law would never
4:57 allow it. And I said, I actually think
4:59 it's going to happen. And even if it
5:00 doesn't happen in this case, it's not
5:02 going to be long before we see the next
5:03 major case. Well, my friends, it is
5:06 here. My friends, let me introduce you
5:08 to Georgia and John McKiny. Now, Georgia
5:11 and John were sitting in the backseat of
5:13 an Uber when it ran a red light and
5:16 t-boned another vehicle back in March of
5:18 2022.
5:19 Their injuries were horrific with
5:21 Georgia sustaining cervical and lumbar
5:23 spine fractures, rib fractures,
5:25 herniations, traumatic injuries in her
5:27 abdomen, her pelvic floor, and John
5:30 suffering a fractured sternum, fractures
5:32 to his left arm, his wrist. They both
5:34 had severe whiplash, and a host of other
5:36 serious injuries. It was more than a
5:38 year before Georgia could work. They
5:40 racked up massive medical bills, and
5:42 eventually got an attorney who sued the
5:44 driver and Uber on their behalf. Now,
5:47 what came next was Uber trying to force
5:49 the couple into forced arbitration,
5:52 citing a terms of services click wrapped
5:55 box they had checked apparently when
5:57 they ordered a pizza years earlier.
5:59 Except they said, "We never ordered a
6:01 pizza. Our 12-year-old daughter did. We
6:03 never signed or checked any box. Our
6:05 12-year-old daughter did." And so,
6:07 originally the the trial court said,
6:09 "You're right. This does not have to go
6:11 to arbitration. We are letting this
6:13 proceed to trial." However, Uber
6:15 appealed that decision and the judges
6:17 agreed with the company that its terms
6:18 of service were enforcable and forced
6:21 them back to
6:24 arbitration. We'll get into other
6:26 examples of how corporations and private
6:28 equity will go to ridiculous lengths to
6:30 trap you into arbitration agreements
6:32 that you never agreed to later, but
6:34 every single one of these agreements is
6:36 you signing away your rights to due
6:38 process in a court of law. And it's
6:40 becoming so popular these days among
6:42 corporations and private equity who are
6:43 buying up so many different parts of our
6:45 world that now more and more as an
6:48 American you have rights only if you
6:50 stay in your house and don't go out to
6:52 do anything. Except all the things in
6:54 your house tend to come with arbitration
6:56 agreements too. And more and more
6:58 arbitration agreements are being
6:59 included in lease contracts themselves.
7:02 So be sure that nothing goes wrong
7:04 inside your house either or you'll wind
7:06 up in secret court anyways. And if you
7:08 do happen to wind up in arbitration,
7:10 just know that an American is more
7:12 likely to be struck by lightning than
7:14 win a monetary award in forced
7:16 arbitration against a corporation.
7:18 That's a real stat. More Americans are
7:20 struck by lightning each year than win
7:22 monetary awards and arbitration against
7:25 corporations. So, let me tell you a
7:27 story and we'll check off our first
7:29 crime from our list earlier, sexual
7:32 assault. In 2017, Buzzfeed News ran a
7:36 story about more than 180 women who had
7:38 been sexually assaulted while receiving
7:40 massages at the nation's largest massage
7:42 chain, Massage Envy. They have more than
7:44 12,200 locations across the US. When you
7:47 check in for your massage, you sign
7:49 their terms and conditions. You don't
7:51 actually read them, but if you did, you
7:54 would see that they include a forced
7:55 arbitration clause where you agree to
7:57 settle any claims or disputes against
7:59 Massage Envy in secret arbitration. Some
8:02 of the stories that have eventually come
8:03 out are horrible, and I'm not going to
8:06 read them to you. You can pause and do
8:08 so if you wish. And although Massage
8:10 Envy makes great corporate PR statements
8:13 like quote, "Massage Envy is committed
8:16 to promoting a safe environment for
8:18 members, guests, and service providers
8:19 at each of our,200 franchise locations
8:21 nationwide. We urge anyone that
8:23 experiences anything other than a safe,
8:25 quality massage to report it immediately
8:27 to the franchise location so that it can
8:29 be investigated. Notice that they don't
8:32 say police. In many of the cases, there
8:35 are allegations therapists were allowed
8:37 to remain employed or were shuffled to
8:38 another Massage Envy location.
8:41 Fortunately, tragically, there were
8:43 eventually so many individual cases of
8:45 sexual assault that some of the women
8:47 started to break their silence and the
8:48 news started to pick up the story. But
8:51 despite all that breaking in 2017,
8:53 Massage Envy continues to face this same
8:56 problem. Or maybe we should call it a
8:58 feature. In 2022, one of these instances
9:01 actually led to an arrest and a trial in
9:04 court after a woman was raped and
9:05 contracted herpes. Once she came
9:08 forward, they found out other women had
9:10 been assaulted by the same therapist and
9:11 he had continued to work at Massage
9:13 Envy. So, it may seem like the justice
9:15 system prevailed and they got the guy.
9:17 No. In one instance, in one specific
9:20 county, a couple women were lucky enough
9:22 to find some amount of legal recourse.
9:24 The other 180 or quite likely more
9:27 cases, not so much. And we don't even
9:30 have any understanding of how many the
9:32 total number might be because of forced
9:34 arbitration agreements that everyone's
9:36 signing when they check in for their
9:38 massage. Not to mention that 90% of
9:40 women never even report sexual assault
9:43 because they think for whatever reason
9:45 that no one will believe them. This is
9:48 just one example. Now, take into account
9:50 that more than half of women in the
9:52 workplace are subject to forced
9:54 arbitration clauses in their employment
9:56 contract, and you start to get a sense
9:58 of how much sexual assault is hidden in
10:00 secret courts every year. That's not to
10:03 mention the staggering number of cases
10:05 that are silenced before they're even
10:07 brought because plaintiffs rightly
10:09 realize that they have virtually no
10:11 chance of winning and will be bankrupted
10:13 in the process of fighting. and you have
10:15 virtually no chance of winning because
10:17 arbitration is not like regular court.
10:20 It's a for-profit racket where the rules
10:22 are explicitly written so that there are
10:25 no rules. I think it's pertinent at the
10:27 outset here to show you where the secret
10:29 court system comes from in the first
10:31 place. This is directly from the US code
10:34 and this is just the first page of many
10:36 that define arbitration. But I'm just
10:38 going to read some of this text so you
10:40 can get a sense for what we're working
10:41 with here. Quote, "Maritime transactions
10:44 as herein defined means charter parties,
10:48 bills of lading of water carriers,
10:50 agreements relating to warfage,
10:52 supplies, furnished vessels or repairs
10:54 to vessels, collisions, or any other
10:56 matters in foreign commerce which if the
10:58 subject of controversy would be embraced
11:00 with an admiral jurisdiction, etc." Yes,
11:04 if that language sounds outdated, that's
11:06 because it is. The FAA, Federal
11:09 Arbitration Act, was first enacted in
11:12 1925. Don't even get me started on the
11:15 commerce clause in the Constitution,
11:16 which is the basis for the government
11:18 allowing themselves all up in your
11:20 business all over the place.
11:22 The ACLU said, quote, "Arbit also lacks
11:26 critical procedural safeguards, for
11:28 example, permitting access to evidence
11:30 from the other side that can be the key
11:32 to proving your claims, particularly in
11:34 discrimination cases, which often hinge
11:36 on how the employer has treated other
11:38 employees. The arbitrators may or may
11:40 not be lawyers and may or may not be
11:42 trained in resolving discrimination
11:44 cases. Results are secret, helping
11:46 companies evade public accountability.
11:48 The outcome is binding and there is
11:50 generally no right to an appeal. Note
11:53 how it says the arbitrators may or may
11:56 not be lawyers, as in the judges in
11:58 these secret courts may or may not even
12:01 be familiar with the law, let alone
12:03 required to enforce them. You will find
12:06 lots of propaganda and glowing
12:07 descriptions on arbitration that claim
12:10 arbitrators are totally upright and
12:12 follow the law, but that is patently
12:13 untrue. Hence why you have on average
12:16 about a 50-50 chance of winning in court
12:18 and more like a 6% chance of winning in
12:21 arbitration. This is how Duke Law put
12:23 it. Arbitration tribunals set their own
12:26 rules and they are typically not bound
12:28 by the procedural formalities employed
12:30 by courts, nor are they always bound to
12:32 follow the substantive laws that govern
12:34 traditional court systems. Nonetheless,
12:36 primary law and decisions handed down by
12:38 other arbitrators deciding similar
12:40 issues can be important sources of
12:42 persuasive authority in resolving issues
12:45 sent to
12:46 arbitration. Here's an example of a
12:48 source that looks authoritative,
12:50 representing arbitration as quick and
12:52 painless, but that's a lie. That's how
12:55 they want it to look from the outside,
12:57 so it seems like it's no big deal to
12:59 sign these contracts. Tiffany Ciance's
13:01 arbitrations lasted a total of 11 days
13:04 of hearings, but the proceedings took 2
13:06 years. The big guys know that they can
13:09 drag arbitrations out for months and
13:11 months to bleed you dry while you pay
13:14 your attorneys and arbitrators tens of
13:16 thousands of dollars per week. Tiffany's
13:18 arbitrator was $27,000 per week, give or
13:22 take. So, I wouldn't imagine that these
13:24 arbitrators are all that sad when a case
13:26 drags out because that's their paycheck.
13:29 Plus, you have to pay a lawyer to be
13:31 there. No record is made of the hearing,
13:33 and arbitrators make a legally binding
13:35 decision for which they are required to
13:36 give zero legal reasoning. And whether
13:39 they followed the law or not, whether
13:41 they saw substantive or even any
13:43 evidence or not, whether you were
13:45 treated fairly or not, no one will ever
13:48 know because there is usually little or
13:50 no documentation, and you are barred
13:52 from talking about it. But wait, it gets
13:55 better. When you go to arbitration, you
13:58 and your opponent go through a process
13:59 of selecting an arbitrator from those
14:01 available in your jurisdiction. The big
14:03 guys know how to game the selection
14:05 process to land you with the most
14:07 expensive arbitrator available. Usually,
14:10 this often tends to be the one they are
14:11 familiar with and have a good
14:13 relationship with because they've
14:14 usually worked with that arbitrator many
14:16 times before. Then you have to pay them
14:18 to rule in favor of the corporation or
14:20 private equity firm you're up against
14:22 94% of the time. Yes, you heard that
14:25 right. You are required to pay your
14:28 judge, who is not a judge, an hourly
14:30 rate for the privilege of a secret court
14:32 where there are no laws and you have no
14:34 rights. This is an example of the resume
14:37 sheet of one of the arbitrators Tiffany
14:39 got stuck with. Scroll down to the
14:41 bottom of the sheet and you see the part
14:43 that matters, compensation. This woman
14:46 cost Tiffany $500 per hour of
14:48 arbitration. Oh yeah, plus an hourly
14:51 rate for pre and post arbitration
14:53 services, plus any travel expenses,
14:56 calls, reviews, filings, everything
14:58 costs you more money. That totaled out
15:00 to about 27,000 per week. And this went
15:03 on for years. Doesn't matter if Tiffany
15:05 is innocent. Doesn't matter if the other
15:07 side obviously does not have merit.
15:09 Doesn't matter if the other side
15:10 blatantly lies in court. Doesn't matter
15:12 if the entire scheme is obviously
15:14 Orwellian. If those women who were
15:16 assaulted in massage envy want the
15:18 privilege of the right to some form of
15:20 pretend justice, they have to pay an
15:22 hourly fee to receive it. And the costs
15:24 add up. But remember, even after you pay
15:28 all that, your chances of winning,
15:29 regardless of the merit of your case,
15:31 are minuscule. In 5 years, from 2014 to
15:34 2018, only 6% of cases arbitrated with
15:38 the two biggest arbitration services in
15:39 America ruled in favor of the little
15:41 guy. Even though in general the little
15:43 guy is only there because they were
15:45 clearly wronged by the big guy. In those
15:48 5 years, nearly 1,000 AT&T customers
15:51 attempted to arbitrate against AT&T for
15:53 more than $440 million in damages. Just
15:58 17 were successful, and they were only
16:00 awarded a total of
16:02 $376,000. That's less than 2%. The other
16:06 983 or so people just had the privilege
16:09 of lining the pockets of their
16:11 arbitrators and the corporate lawyers
16:13 they work with to defend the rich and
16:15 powerful. But it gets worse still
16:17 because the arbitration industry, and it
16:20 is an industry, is a monopoly. A new
16:23 lawsuit was just filed last week
16:25 claiming that approximately 94% of the
16:27 market share is owned by just one
16:30 company, the American Arbitration
16:32 Association. The next biggest company
16:34 owns just 6%. And all other competitors
16:37 combined represent
16:42 0.00003% of the market. It's a giant
16:45 monopoly ruled by just one company. So
16:47 it's no wonder the industry is so
16:50 corrupt. There are entire industries
16:52 like telecoms and credit reporting
16:54 agencies that work exclusively with the
16:57 American Arbitration Association, this
16:58 juggernaut in charge of this monopoly.
17:01 So, it's essentially this one company,
17:03 AAA, a cartel running the entire
17:05 arbitration industry. And so, to
17:08 Stephanie Stevens, who filed this
17:10 lawsuit, Godspeed. We'll be behind you
17:13 every step of the way as you do your
17:15 best to bust this cartel. And because
17:17 the industry is so monopolized, the
17:20 corruption is baked in from the bottom.
17:22 Typically, these arbitrators will only
17:24 see you, a regular person, once. They'll
17:27 see the big boys, these private equity
17:29 firms and mega corporations and big law
17:31 firms that represent all of them over
17:33 and over and over again. And they form
17:36 quite cozy relationships. That's because
17:38 these arbitrators tend to make
17:40 significantly more as arbitrators than
17:43 they ever did as judges. At least they
17:46 do if they get picked for all these
17:47 arbitrations, right? I mean, $500 an
17:50 hour is not bad. And if the private
17:53 equity firms and corporations don't like
17:55 them, they can strike them. So the
17:57 paychecks of these arbitrators over time
18:00 become directly reliant on being
18:02 favorable to their repeat clients. And
18:04 their repeat clients are private equity
18:07 and corporations. You're just there to
18:09 chip in to their next paycheck briefly
18:11 while you're bankrupted for the illusion
18:13 of having rights. That's also not to
18:16 mention that they all have conflicts of
18:18 interest in every direction. For
18:20 example, Tiffany Siance just got served
18:22 another lawsuit last week based on a
18:24 different woman's case against Unleash
18:26 Brands and Michael Browning Jr. in
18:28 another state, which she is not a party
18:30 to. That's blatantly illegal, but it's a
18:32 story for another time. This is the
18:34 disclosure of conflicts made in that
18:36 case for her arbitrator, Alan Harris.
18:39 Alan Harris, who used to work at the
18:41 same law firm and with the lawyers used
18:43 by Unleash Brands in the same law office
18:46 as Norman Leon, the lawyer that she is
18:49 fighting against. So imagine sitting
18:51 down in secret court against Michael
18:53 Browning Jr. and your judge is the
18:55 former coworker of his lawyers and is
18:58 paid to be there by him and by you. and
19:02 he regularly takes cases for Unleash
19:04 Brands against people just like you and
19:06 he will continue to take them in the
19:08 future. Don't worry, everything's fine,
19:12 guys. Patty, the woman being attacked by
19:15 Unleash Brands in this case, filed an
19:17 objection, but that's really just a
19:19 formality. She's forced to go before a
19:21 judge, an arbitrator, who is former
19:23 colleague of the people taking her down,
19:25 who also sees other cases and thereby
19:27 relies on a salary from the people
19:29 taking her down. But don't worry because
19:31 as Harris says that quote will not
19:35 affect my ability to serve as a neutral,
19:37 unbiased, impartial, and fair
19:39 arbitrator. So anyways, back to our
19:42 list. We already spoke last week about
19:44 children suffering broken bones, broken
19:46 spines, fractured skulls, traumatic
19:48 brain injuries. One toddler was scalped
19:50 at Urban Air theme parks. Most of these
19:52 cases were forced into arbitration. The
19:54 only ones that weren't were lucky enough
19:56 to be attending urban air with someone
19:58 other than a parent and thus their
20:00 arbitration agreement was a lot harder
20:01 to enforce. But now let's talk about
20:04 nursing homes and hospitals. In 2011,
20:08 the Carile Group, one of the nation's
20:10 largest private equity firms, bought HCR
20:12 Manorare, one of the biggest nursing
20:14 home chains. And in 2018, the Washington
20:16 Post published this bombshell about what
20:19 that meant for residents. quote, "A
20:22 disabled man who had long, dirty
20:24 fingernails told them he was tended to
20:26 once in a blue moon. The bedside call
20:28 buttons were so poorly staffed that some
20:30 residents regularly soiled themselves
20:32 while waiting for help to the bathroom.
20:34 A woman dying of uterine cancer was left
20:37 on a bedpan for so long that she
20:39 bruised. One man had been dosed with so
20:42 many opioids that he had to be rushed to
20:44 a hospital, according to the inspection
20:45 reports. During an undersupervised bus
20:48 trip to church, one staff member was
20:50 escorting six patients who could not
20:52 walk without help. A resident flipped
20:53 backwards on a wheelchair ramp and
20:55 suffered a brain hemorrhage. When a
20:58 nurse's aid, who should have had a
20:59 helper, was trying to lift a parapolgic
21:01 woman, the woman fell and fractured her
21:03 hip, her head landing on the floor
21:05 beneath her roommate's bed. Over that
21:07 period, the yearly numbers of health
21:09 code violations at company nursing homes
21:10 rose from 1584 to almost 2,000. The
21:15 number of citations increased for, among
21:17 other things, neither preventing nor
21:19 treating bed sores, medication errors,
21:22 not providing proper care for people who
21:23 need special services such as
21:25 injections, colostomies, and prosthesis,
21:27 and not assisting patients with eating
21:29 and personal hygiene. The rise in health
21:32 code violations at the chain began after
21:34 Carile and investors completed a 2011
21:37 financial deal that extracted $1.3
21:39 billion from the company for investors,
21:42 but also saddled the chain with what
21:44 proved to be untenable financial
21:46 obligations. According to interviews and
21:47 financial documents, under the terms of
21:49 the deal, HCR Manorare sold nearly all
21:52 of the real estate in its nursing home
21:54 empire and then agreed to pay rent to
21:56 the new owners. The National Bureau of
21:59 Economic Research calculated that over
22:01 the 12 years of their study, private
22:03 equity ownership of nursing homes were
22:05 responsible for
22:06 22,500 additional deaths due to cost
22:09 cutting and mismanagement. Health
22:11 Affairs released a study this year that
22:13 found that surgery patients in private
22:15 equity owned hospitals are 42% more
22:17 likely to die.
22:19 42%. Those admitted to hospitals owned
22:22 by private equity were an astonishing
22:23 25% more likely to get hospitalacquired
22:27 conditions. mainly due to falls or
22:29 central line associated bloodstream
22:31 infections. This is what happens when
22:33 businesses that are explicitly and only
22:35 profit driven move into sectors like
22:37 healthcare, elder care, and children's
22:40 services. It's one thing to focus on the
22:42 bottom line in banking. It's an entirely
22:44 different thing to focus on the bottom
22:46 line at the toddler gym or the hospital.
22:49 And in case you were wondering, yes,
22:52 hospitals and nursing homes do have
22:54 arbitration clauses that force you to
22:56 sign away, often without knowing it,
22:58 your right to sue for medical
22:59 malpractice when these things happen.
23:01 The trend that private equity is always
23:03 at the forefront of. But it's not just
23:05 medical malpractice in hospitals and
23:06 nursing homes, because private equity is
23:09 also buying up the veterinary clinics.
23:12 quote, "With too few employees to
23:15 transport animals that died in stores,
23:17 carcasses allegedly piled up in PetSmart
23:20 freezers across the country." One
23:22 employee shared a photo that she said
23:24 was filled with 2 months worth of dead
23:26 animals. Another employee said their
23:28 store had a freezer with 10 months. A
23:31 third said that for lack of time, she
23:34 would simply throw bodies away.
23:36 Sometimes I was doing it weekly because
23:37 we didn't have staff to take a vet trip
23:39 to properly dispose of them. So I was
23:41 instructed to dispose of them
23:44 myself. Since 2017, private equity firms
23:47 have spent $45 billion on the industry.
23:50 KKR bought Petv Vet and JAB acquired
23:53 National Veterinary Associates while
23:55 Shore Capital and Warberg Pinkis
23:57 invested in Mission Veterinary Partners
23:58 and Bond Vet respectively. Some of these
24:01 practices names may be familiar to you,
24:03 but most may not be. When individual
24:06 offices are sold to private equity
24:07 firms, they often retain their old
24:09 names. It can be nearly impossible to
24:11 know which vets are private equity
24:13 owned. But don't let the obscure names
24:15 confuse you. About a quarter of general
24:16 veterary practices are now owned by
24:18 large corporations, including private
24:20 equity firms, while about 3/4 of
24:22 specialty practices like emergency and
24:24 surgery care are. Finally, firms are
24:27 tremendously successful at avoiding
24:28 legal consequences for their actions. A
24:30 problem compounded in the veterinary
24:32 industry where clients can recover
24:34 little if anything, for the death of
24:35 their pets. This encourages a certain
24:37 callousness towards workers and
24:39 customers as firms know that little will
24:41 happen to them if something goes wrong.
24:43 Private equity firms can profit even
24:45 when their companies decline, their
24:47 customers suffer, and your pet dies. And
24:49 they didn't go into it in this article,
24:51 but if you're not reading between the
24:52 lines there yet, the ways those firms
24:54 avoid legal consequences that the nation
24:57 isn't elaborating on here, arbitration
24:59 is a huge part of that. Because you'd
25:01 better believe that you've got
25:03 arbitration clauses at the vet. Now,
25:05 these days, some corporations are even
25:07 trying to make an arbitration agreement
25:09 transfer over to other parts of their
25:11 business, as was attempted by Disney
25:12 when a parent died in their park and
25:14 they tried to enforce the arbitration
25:16 agreement their child had agreed to on
25:18 their home TV's Disney Plus account. Our
25:20 opening segment about Uber was another
25:22 example. In this example here, Wells
25:25 Fargo was caught opening sham accounts
25:27 in their customers names, often forging
25:30 signatures to do so, then claimed that
25:32 they forced arbitration agreements from
25:34 the real accounts covered these fake
25:36 accounts. That's not justice. That's
25:38 insane. The American Association for
25:41 Justice really summed it up best when
25:43 they said, "Forced arbitration has never
25:45 been about efficiency or justice. Its
25:48 one true goal is, always has been, and
25:50 always will be corporate immunity. And
25:53 now it's time to get a little deeper
25:56 into all the crazy things that Michael
25:59 Browning Jr. has used arbitration to do.
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27:50 code Candace. Now, let's continue with
27:53 our story about Michael Browning Jr.,
27:55 his dream to be a big shot, and his
27:57 willingness to do just about anything to
27:59 get there. Because in order for you to
28:02 really understand the insanity that is
28:04 forced arbitration and why we need to do
28:06 something about it, it's not enough to
28:08 know that you have signed up for this
28:09 madness, it's important to know what is
28:12 done to regular Americans in these
28:14 secret courts and what they could do to
28:16 you. We left off last time with the
28:19 story of Michael Browning Jr. founding
28:21 his business by cannibalizing leap of
28:23 faith adventures and forcing Grice into
28:25 years of litigation that eventually
28:27 bankrupted him. But at that point,
28:29 Michael Browning Jr. and his lead
28:31 council, Steven Polizola, were just
28:33 getting warmed up. So today, we're going
28:35 to do a speedrun of how Tiffany Ciance
28:37 wound up giving that testimony that we
28:40 watched on day one.
28:42 You tried to depose me in labor. You
28:45 tried to depose me while I was in bed
28:47 bleeding.
28:50 And I say we're going to speedrun it
28:51 partly because there are so many evil
28:53 things they are on record doing that we
28:56 don't have time for all of it. But
28:57 mostly because I want to get all the way
28:59 to the part where they hired a felon
29:01 with over 80 convictions to forge
29:04 documents, intimidate Tiffany, and win a
29:06 $2.3 million settlement from her without
29:08 her even knowing she had a court date.
29:10 And disclaimer, we are going to skip
29:12 over a lot of crimes. A lot of lying on
29:15 record under oath on the part of Polzola
29:17 and Brownie Junior's lawyers. A lot of
29:19 heinous stuff right now because a lot of
29:22 it is almost unbelievable until you get
29:24 a better sense of just how far these
29:26 people are willing to go. And by the end
29:28 of the story, you'll understand with
29:30 documentation that arbitrators are in no
29:33 way required to follow the law. That
29:35 becomes even more problematic when you
29:37 remember that 94% of the industry is
29:39 ruled by just this single for-profit
29:41 company, AAA. So, now we're going to
29:44 rewind to the beginning of Tiffany's
29:46 story. Michael Browning Jr. did what he
29:48 did to Leap of Faith to transform Urban
29:51 Air from a trampoline park into a
29:53 worldclass adventure park. And if you
29:55 haven't seen our episode about that yet,
29:57 there's a link in the description. You
29:58 can go check it out after this video.
30:00 Now armed with his new private equity
30:03 backers, Sidler Equity Partners, Michael
30:05 Browning Jr. decided to build a
30:07 platform. Since the private equity model
30:09 works so well for hospitals, nursing
30:11 homes, veterinary clinics, why not go
30:14 after the next most vulnerable
30:15 population,
30:17 children? Why not buy up a family of
30:20 franchises that offer education and
30:22 enrichment to children and squeeze them
30:24 all for all they're worth? What could go
30:26 wrong? And seeing as co had just
30:29 devastated small businesses all across
30:31 the country, it was the perfect time to
30:33 buy. And Michael Browning Jr. went on a
30:36 spending spree. He acquired Premier
30:38 Martial Arts, a martial arts studio that
30:39 catered specifically to veterans buying
30:41 into the franchise. Class 101 College
30:44 Planning, XP League, Snapology, Water
30:46 Wing Swim School, Silven Learning that
30:48 had never fully recovered from a child
30:50 porn scandal that was successfully kept
30:52 out of the public eye. Yes, you heard
30:54 that right. and of course the little
30:57 gym. Now, we could write a whole episode
31:01 about what happened at each of those
31:02 other businesses, but today we're going
31:04 to focus on the little gym because it is
31:06 the little gym that will be his
31:07 downfall. And that downfall is happening
31:09 right now. And it's because of Tiffany
31:12 Ciance. Tiffany had bought into the
31:14 franchise in 2017 because she wanted to
31:16 work where she could give back to her
31:18 community and also spend more time with
31:19 her kids. The Little Gym, though open to
31:22 everyone, is specifically tailored to
31:24 help special needs kids thrive through
31:26 movement and music. And Tiffany loved
31:29 it. Fast forward to CO and Tiffany
31:31 suffered one of the longest
31:32 governmentmandated shutdowns of anywhere
31:34 in the United
31:36 States. Fortunately, she had a
31:38 supportive landlord who told her
31:40 explicitly not to pay rent while she was
31:42 closed down. And the little gym, who is
31:44 not yet owned by Michael Browning, also
31:46 told franchises not to pay their dues
31:49 during the shutdown either. I mentioned
31:51 that because it will come back later. In
31:54 October of 2021, they are told they have
31:56 some new people coming on to help advise
31:58 them and they have their first group
32:00 call with Michael Browning Jr. They're
32:02 not told that he's buying the company.
32:03 He's just presented as an adviser. And
32:06 things get pretty weird pretty fast.
32:10 and I'm committed to casting more vision
32:12 and and working with your fearless
32:14 leader on this, but this is the
32:17 direction of the company and we're not
32:20 changing our direction. And so I'm
32:23 asking you to join us in this journey
32:25 and also if this journey is not for you
32:28 then I'm happy to have my team help you
32:30 exit the system. But from this day
32:33 forward, we need unity. And if we find
32:36 that we have people either trying to
32:38 create disunityity or are not supporting
32:40 the vision and the mission, we will help
32:43 you exit. Uh because we have so many
32:46 amazing things to accomplish and such an
32:48 amazing journey ahead that we're just
32:51 not going to uh put up with some of the
32:54 things that we have been putting up with
32:56 lately. Those days are over.
33:00 Oh man, Michael Browning Jr. was born
33:03 for this. But anyways, when it is
33:06 finally announced that Unleash Brands,
33:08 Michael Browning Jr.'s Umbrella
33:10 Corporation, has bought the little gym,
33:12 the changes start rolling in fast. And
33:15 at first, presented as harmless little
33:17 changes, just standard operating
33:19 procedure. There are several, but the
33:22 two we're going to focus on are a new
33:24 call center they will be all forced to
33:26 use and pay for and a new agreement. An
33:31 agreement is basically the contract that
33:33 governs payments to Michael Browning Jr.
33:35 It dictates when, how, and why he can
33:38 take money from these small business
33:39 owners. It's really important. And
33:41 traditionally, they pay only 8% of the
33:44 revenue in royalties. That's it. Having
33:47 learned his lesson from what he did to
33:48 Leap of Faith Adventures, though,
33:50 Michael Browning Jr. knows to play it
33:52 cool this time. What he doesn't know is
33:54 that he's messing with the wrong mom.
33:57 Tiffany's husband is a federal attorney,
33:59 and Tiffany's pretty dang sharp, too.
34:01 And they notice immediately that the new
34:03 contract is a death sentence to their
34:04 small business. It changes a lot of
34:07 things, like this little change that
34:09 they hope no one would really notice.
34:11 The simple way to put it is whereas they
34:13 used to pay only corporate royalties of
34:15 up to 8% of the revenue, this new
34:18 contract would allow Michael Browning
34:20 Jr. to add any fees he dreamed up and
34:22 the contract would become subject to
34:24 change. Plus, as you can see near the
34:27 bottom, if you try to get out of the
34:29 contract in the future, they'll kick you
34:30 out and take your gym. All sounds a lot
34:33 like what happened with Gar Price and
34:34 Leap of Faith's agreement with Urban
34:36 Air. This was made doubly sketchy by,
34:39 among other bad ideas, the call center
34:41 that Michael Browning Jr. wanted them
34:43 all to sign up for and pay to build and
34:45 to staff. Because, you see, if you're a
34:47 parent and you signed your special needs
34:50 toddler up for toddler gymnastics, you
34:52 would probably have to call that gym
34:53 from time to time with questions about,
34:56 I don't know, the schedule, the
34:57 curriculum, the incident involving your
35:00 child yesterday, all kinds of stuff. It
35:02 should seem obvious that if an underpaid
35:04 teenager in a call center four states
35:07 away picked up the phone when you
35:09 called, that would be problematic to say
35:11 the least. But despite all the
35:13 franchises loud protests, Michael
35:15 Browning Jr. insisted on this call
35:17 center. And quickly, the warm suggestion
35:20 of the call center turned into what
35:22 sounded an awful lot more like threats
35:24 and coercions.
35:26 Strangely, the contract for the call
35:28 center contained a hidden clause that
35:30 said it superseded their franchise
35:32 agreement. So now both the new agreement
35:36 and this GLT agreement are both subject
35:39 to change and yet somehow they will also
35:43 supersede your franchise agreement which
35:45 is the basis of your entire contract
35:48 with the parent company. That's an
35:49 agreement that you negotiate for months
35:51 with your lawyers present. These are
35:54 documents that these franchises were
35:56 being pressured to sign on the spot on
35:58 Zoom calls under threat and coercion. So
36:00 Tiffany immediately knew that this was
36:02 wrong and after the first four
36:04 franchises had been coerced into signing
36:06 it under duress, she organized all of
36:08 the franchises to stand up to Michael
36:10 Browning and refused to sign it. And she
36:12 got the first four signatures vacated,
36:14 i.e. cancelled, because they had been
36:16 signed under duress. This document
36:18 became the battle line. And then,
36:20 strangely, all the little gym owners
36:23 started receiving a ton of calls at odd
36:25 hours over spring break from Unleashed
36:27 Brance. The calls seemed random and
36:30 tended to be during times when they were
36:32 closed. And when asked, the caller said
36:34 they were just testing the phone lines.
36:37 Tiffany smelled what was really going
36:39 on, though, and she called it out in
36:40 this phone call. Happy hands. Thank you
36:42 for calling a little gem. How may I
36:44 assist you? Hello, this is Hannah with
36:46 Unleash Brands. I'm just calling to test
36:48 the phone lines. Hope you have a
36:49 wonderful day. Hannah. Hannah, please go
36:51 hang out. Sure. You're calling over and
36:54 over again to test my phone lines, but
36:56 I've never had a problem with my phone
36:57 ever. Why are you really calling? Are
36:59 you testing us or are you testing phone
37:00 lines?
37:02 Um, with that, I am literally just given
37:07 this as a project. I don't
37:10 know. I'm just But why would you call
37:12 over? I mean, first of all, we're
37:14 supposed to be closed right now. We're
37:15 not even supposed to be open. Why would
37:16 you call after working hours?
37:19 I wish like are you at least checking
37:21 people's hours when you're calling to
37:22 test if we're answering the phones
37:25 because we're on spring break. We're not
37:26 even open this week. I just happen to be
37:28 here working. My kids are here playing.
37:31 But most gyms are closed this week for
37:33 spring break. We all follow school
37:35 district schedules.
37:37 Okay. So, like I just I'm hoping you
37:39 guys are at least looking to see your
37:40 calling when we're actually supposed to
37:41 be here.
37:43 Okay. Because I'm sure this is all doing
37:45 a great thing for them. I'm sure they're
37:47 trying to stack the deck so they can
37:48 force us to take the call center, but
37:50 none of us want it. We like talking to
37:52 our
37:53 customers. Like I this sucks. It sucks.
37:56 What you guys are doing still shady. It
37:58 sucks. And I know that's not your fault.
37:59 It's got nothing to do with you, I'm
38:01 sure. But it's creating so much
38:03 hostility in the ownership community.
38:06 You'll notice in this case that there is
38:09 so much evidence that we have attained
38:11 because Tiffany Siance collected so much
38:14 evidence. And that's because she
38:15 expected that she might have to go to
38:17 court over this. But I just want you to
38:19 remember throughout all of this
38:20 presentation that almost all of this
38:22 evidence was never admitted because she
38:24 wasn't in court. She was in secret
38:26 arbitration where the arbitrator can
38:28 decide if he wants to hear your evidence
38:30 or not. So just keep that in mind. But
38:33 anyways, seeing what Michael Browning
38:35 Jr. was up to, Tiffany organized a
38:37 franchisee association, like a union, so
38:40 they could all bargain together with
38:42 Unleash Brands. And at this point, they
38:44 were naively thinking that they could
38:45 negotiate a compromise and everything
38:47 could turn out all right. But in the
38:49 meantime, those who had signed the new
38:51 AC contract got a surprise. Suddenly, in
38:55 November of 2021, they added tech fees
38:58 to be paid to Unleash Brands. Then in
39:00 March of 2022, it was royalty fees and
39:03 ad fees as well. May it became royalty
39:06 fees, marketing fees, tech fees, and oh
39:09 yeah, maybe also a conference fees and
39:11 some unspecified one-time charges. No
39:14 big deal. This is the new private equity
39:17 model. You make money off of exploiting
39:19 your franchisee small business owners,
39:21 not off of helping them run successful
39:23 businesses. Meanwhile, the franchises
39:26 who had been tricked into signing the
39:27 call center agreement were hit with a
39:29 bill to build the thing and pay to staff
39:31 it themselves. The franchises started to
39:34 get the picture. And as Tiffany started
39:36 organizing them and hiring a lawyer to
39:38 bargain against Unleash Brands, she was
39:40 fired. In order to fire her, they had to
39:42 fabricate complex reasons that had to do
39:45 with payment defaults during co because
39:47 she had near 100% customer ratings by
39:50 basically all metrics. But seeing as her
39:53 husband is a patent and trademark
39:54 attorney, as soon as they fired her, she
39:57 knew to take down all of her Little Gym
39:59 branding immediately. So, they couldn't
40:01 get her for trademark violations or
40:03 anything else. And she attempted to file
40:05 an injunction against Unleash Brands,
40:07 but she was double crossed by her lawyer
40:09 in a way that would need its own whole
40:10 episode. And we'll probably do that
40:12 episode at some point later. But Norman
40:15 Leon, one of Unleash's attorneys, jumped
40:18 in and said, "Wait, wait, wait, wait.
40:19 Don't take your trademark branding down
40:21 yet. Let's mediate and resolve this. No
40:24 need to startle your customers. Surely,
40:26 we can come to a resolution here. Worth
40:29 noting that at this time, Tiffany had a
40:32 broken ankle and foot and was in a boot
40:34 with crutches. She had broken her foot,
40:36 saving an autistic kid from falling off
40:38 a balance beam. That is a true story. So
40:41 anyways, Tiffany put back up her
40:43 branding and then Norman Leon as soon as
40:46 she did sent private investigators
40:48 undercover to her gym to take photos of
40:51 it with little gym branding up later to
40:53 be used in court to claim that she'd
40:54 violated their trademarks. You can see
40:56 here, quote, "But despite this
40:58 affirmation, secret shopper visits on
41:01 June 23rd, June 24th, and June 27th
41:03 confirmed that defendants continued to
41:05 operate da da da da da." And there are
41:08 some photos that those private
41:09 investigators took. In July of 2022,
41:12 Unleash filed for a permanent injunction
41:14 against Tiffany in open court. They lost
41:18 every single motion in this case over
41:20 the course of months. Then right before
41:23 the final ruling, which Unleash Brands
41:25 was going to lose, they moved to dismiss
41:28 the case that they had brought. Tiffany
41:31 knew what that meant. It meant they were
41:33 going to then take it into arbitration
41:35 where they could shop for a friendly
41:36 arbitrator that would rule in their
41:38 favor. And she objected to dismissing
41:40 it. Michael Browning Jr. and his lawyers
41:42 had had the benefit of a long court
41:44 cases worth of discovery, which is way
41:47 more robust in open court than it is in
41:49 arbitration. They had bled of
41:51 approximately $80,000 and they
41:53 successfully got the case that they had
41:55 brought and were losing dismissed. All
41:58 that money that Tiffany had spent went
42:00 down the drain for nothing. And then
42:02 what did they do? They took it to
42:04 arbitration where the arbitrator
42:06 admitted all their evidence and largely
42:08 didn't even allow Tiffany to bring her
42:09 evidence that they were lying. Yes, you
42:11 are hearing that right. Many, many times
42:14 throughout her arbitrations, unleashed
42:16 lawyers would lie on the stand and
42:18 Tiffany would have clear documentation
42:20 in her hands that would clearly show
42:22 that they are lying and the arbitrator
42:24 would not permit her to show that
42:25 evidence that was already there in the
42:28 courtroom in her hands. Some of that
42:30 evidence is what we are referring to has
42:32 been shown in this video, but so much
42:34 more of the details we've had to skip
42:36 over. We already showed you how much
42:38 Tiffany was paying for her arbitrator
42:40 per hour for the privilege of not having
42:42 her constitutional right to a fair
42:44 trial. When they brought it to
42:45 arbitration, they added a litany of new
42:47 charges against Tiffany and they started
42:49 the monetary draining process all over
42:52 again. This has become something of a
42:53 strategy for Unleash Brands. They did
42:56 the same thing to the family of a
42:57 toddler who was scalped in an accident
42:59 at one of their parks. They litigated in
43:02 open court for 465 days before trying to
43:05 dismiss the case and flush all that
43:08 money down the drain in order to open a
43:10 case in arbitration against them.
43:11 However, fortunately, that boy's family
43:14 appealed it up to the superior court,
43:16 which eventually held that the case had
43:18 to stay in open court. Anyways,
43:21 Tiffany's arbitration lasted over a
43:23 year. It cost her anywhere from $500 to
43:26 $600,000. They brought 11 claims against
43:28 her. Most were ultimately dismissed.
43:30 Tiffany won on defamation that unleashed
43:33 had defamed her because they claimed she
43:34 was calling her customers cwords and
43:37 b-words to their faces. This one's a
43:39 crazy rabbit hole. Real quick, the
43:41 evidence they produced was a photo taken
43:43 by one of Tiffany's former employees of
43:46 an online comment which they alleged
43:48 showed Tiffany saying these things to
43:51 her customers. Apparently, Tiffany had
43:54 left her Facebook open at the gym on a
43:56 day when no one else was in the building
43:58 and this employee just happened to see
43:59 it. Forget the fact that Tiffany had
44:02 been paying that girl's phone bills
44:04 since co out of the goodness of her
44:05 heart and had her whole iCloud backed up
44:08 to Tiffany's phones, showing that she
44:10 was off at college that week taking
44:12 photos with her friends. or the fact
44:15 that she had the work schedule of the
44:17 girl showing that she was not scheduled
44:18 that week, or the photo she had of
44:21 herself in the gym that day playing with
44:23 kids, or the text messages from that
44:26 employee saying she had finals that week
44:27 and needed the whole week off. Long
44:30 story short, it was a doctorred photo of
44:32 a madeup message thread or comment, and
44:36 the former employee seemed to get a new
44:38 car and cash infusion into her life
44:40 right after she testified. Who knows
44:42 where it came from, but that's the sort
44:45 of conduct that permeated the case.
44:47 Fortunately, the arbitrator had no
44:49 choice but to rule in Tiffany's favor on
44:51 that defamation. Unleash Brands won on
44:54 the breach of contract. They claimed
44:56 that Tiffany had breached her contract
44:58 years ago when she hadn't paid royalties
44:59 way back during co despite the fact that
45:02 she had been told at the time not to.
45:04 When Michael Browning had bought the
45:05 company, they had tried to coers her
45:07 into signing this new AC contract by
45:09 holding these back fees over her head
45:11 and saying they would offer her a
45:13 payment plan only if she signed it.
45:15 Instead, she took out a huge loan on her
45:18 house and paid them all down at once.
45:20 You can see in the bottom right corner
45:21 the total amount paid is
45:24 $30,1605. But somehow the arbitrators
45:27 still ruled nearly a year after she had
45:29 paid them and Unleash Brands had
45:31 accepted that payment that this was a
45:32 breach of contract and grounds to fire
45:34 her over. Even though at the time many
45:37 other franchises were still paying those
45:39 same fees off. Tiffany was the only
45:41 franchisee ever punished for not paying
45:43 royalties during co when they had all
45:45 been told not to. And in order to win
45:48 legal fees from Tiffany, the rules
45:50 stated that Unleashed had to win one
45:52 more count than her. So, they needed
45:55 another win and the arbitrator
45:58 miraculously ruled in favor of Unleash
46:00 Brands over trade dress, meaning that
46:02 Tiffany's new gym looked too much like a
46:05 little gym. But there's some important
46:06 context here briefly. Tiffany's husband
46:10 specializes in patent and trademark. The
46:12 law is very specific. You have to file
46:15 specifically for trade dress protection
46:18 if you want to be able to bring this
46:19 claim against someone. And the little
46:21 gym has never filed for trade dress
46:23 protection. Furthermore, it's extremely
46:26 difficult to get trade dress protection
46:28 because it's designed to protect very
46:31 specific like packaging trademarks or
46:34 the entire branding of a business that
46:36 sells a service. It it's very technical
46:38 and very specific and you have to have
46:40 filed for it, which they never had. And
46:42 again, I remind you that arbitrators are
46:45 not required to follow the law. Ruling
46:48 for unleash brands in trade dress
46:49 violation that they didn't have
46:50 protection for would be like Microsoft
46:53 suing you for using an Android phone.
46:55 It's nonsensical. There's not even a
46:57 frame of reference. And it sounds
46:58 impossible, but Unleash Brands was just
47:02 getting warmed up because during the
47:04 arbitration that lasted over a year,
47:06 Tiffany started talking to the press. An
47:09 article came out in the Washingtonian,
47:10 the Franchise Times, and the New York
47:12 Times ran a Sunday cover story on her.
47:15 And oh boy, did that make Michael
47:17 Browning Jr. big mad. That's where we
47:20 wound up with this whole email chain
47:23 where unleash lawyers coerced Tiffany
47:25 into having an abortion under threat of
47:26 lawfare. And we won't go into all of it,
47:29 but today, let's just zoom in on one or
47:31 two emails from Laura Sixkiller, Michael
47:34 Browning Jr.'s lawyer, and see what she
47:36 had to say.
47:37 quote, "We respectfully ask that we see
47:40 all available dates for the procedures,
47:43 abortions, so that we can be assured
47:46 that they have selected the earliest
47:48 date feasible. This procedure has been
47:50 being discussed with Mrs. Yiance since
47:52 January 5th, 25 days ago. If it can be
47:55 scheduled this week, it should be. Given
47:57 she had her deposition scheduled, she
47:59 should have a clear
48:02 calendar." I'm not going to read the
48:04 whole text up top of this email. You can
48:06 if you want, but I want to draw your
48:08 attention to the note in red at the
48:10 bottom. That's not in the original
48:11 email. It's a note added from Tiffany
48:13 onto this email to give some context
48:15 here. So, in Tiffany's words, quote,
48:18 Laura Sixkiller stated that if I failed
48:21 to continue producing by end of day or
48:23 if I failed to schedule the abortion
48:24 procedure by end of day, she would file
48:26 a sanctions motion. These motions cost
48:29 more than $10,000 to defend, and a loss
48:32 on one can result in tens of thousands
48:34 in legal penalties. We were out of money
48:36 and we had stated so because we I had
48:38 been out of work all month. Laura
48:40 Sixkiller, Michael Browning's attorney,
48:42 repeatedly asked Tiffany to produce
48:44 financial documents that she knew only
48:46 Tiffany could acquire while she was
48:48 losing her baby. This forced Tiffany to
48:50 get up out of bed while bleeding and
48:52 drive to the bank, which she did. This
48:54 is how we wind up with footage from
48:56 Tiffany's deposition weeks after an
48:58 abortion she didn't want in which her
49:00 body reacted badly and she suffered a
49:02 rare complication which caused her body
49:04 to stay in labor for weeks after the
49:06 procedure. She was still in labor and
49:09 having contractions while on the stand
49:11 and testifying in this clip. You thought
49:14 that me bleeding baseball sized
49:17 baseball-sized blood clots and having
49:19 contractions 2 minutes apart wouldn't be
49:22 too stressful for me in that state. And
49:24 you thought I should be deposed for 18
49:26 hours.
49:28 And that pretty much brings us up to
49:31 where they hired a felon who is
49:32 currently out on parole and awall to
49:35 forge documents or at least to allegedly
49:39 forge documents. Although we are
49:42 skipping the part where Michael Browning
49:43 Jr. tried to send Tiffany and her
49:45 husband both to prison because she was
49:47 volunteering to teach kids music classes
49:49 during all this and he had a non-compete
49:52 agreement saying she wasn't allowed to
49:53 work in toddler gyms for 2 years. Yes,
49:56 Michael Browning Jr. wanted to send a
49:58 mom and dad with young children both to
50:01 prison for the crime of volunteering to
50:03 teach kids music classes. And yes, I
50:05 said her husband too because as they
50:08 argued, he failed to control his wife
50:12 and so he was also guilty. This charge
50:14 was obviously an empty threat. A judge
50:16 would have to be as brain dead and evil
50:18 as Michael Browning Jr. to grant such a
50:20 charge. But they tried. But anyways, at
50:23 the end when the arbitration was
50:25 finished, there is a short waiting
50:27 period before it's affirmed in court.
50:29 and it becomes a mandate by law and the
50:31 parties of the arbitration have to abide
50:33 by that ruling after that. Michael
50:35 Browning Jr. didn't want any chance of
50:38 Tiffany appealing or challenging the
50:40 ruling. So, just by coincidence, they
50:44 happened to hire the only process server
50:46 in the state with over 80 prior
50:49 convictions, the vast majority of which
50:51 were for fraud and forging documents.
50:54 I'm not kidding. This is his wrap sheet.
50:57 Oh, yeah. He also had one prior for
51:00 animal abuse, a few for evading police
51:02 custody, lying to police, using forgery
51:04 and furtherance of other crimes. While
51:06 we were digging around to film this
51:08 episode, we even found a video on
51:10 YouTube about Joe Horton that was just
51:13 too funny. Check this out. Frank McGrath
51:16 has spent more than a decade building
51:18 his business. His Papa Lock franchise
51:20 has won awards for customer service. So
51:23 to see someone messing with his
51:24 reputation is very tough to take. See,
51:27 after everything we've built here over
51:28 the years, and uh to have someone just
51:30 discredit the name is just atrocious.
51:33 But that someone is no stranger. Mr.
51:35 Horton, haven't you learned your lesson?
51:36 You've already been to court for this.
51:38 It's Joe Horton, a Pasadena locksmith
51:40 we've been monitoring for months. The
51:42 attorney general knows him well,
51:44 charging him with overcharging
51:46 customers. But Frank knows Joe, too. He
51:48 says he trained Horton on how to be a
51:50 locksmith. It'd be nice to say that we
51:52 never hired him and never met him, but
51:54 uh unfortunately that's not the
51:55 circumstance. McGrath says Horton worked
51:57 for him for two years between 2004 and
52:00 2006. He eventually quit after Frank
52:03 says he called Joe out for jacking up
52:05 prices against policy. Horton moved out
52:07 of state and went off their radar for a
52:09 couple of years. But when he returned
52:11 and opened his own locksmith business,
52:13 the McGraths were shocked when
52:15 complaints started rolling into their
52:17 office. I started getting calls on this.
52:19 They got calls because Horton is now
52:21 tied to McGrath's business through the
52:23 internet. If you Google Pasadena and
52:25 Locksmith, Papa Lock comes up, but it's
52:28 Horton's phone number.
52:31 Bro literally stole the identity of a
52:33 locksmithing company and then used it to
52:35 defraud a bunch of people. Wow.
52:40 Anyways, here are three examples of
52:42 forged documents certifying that he had
52:44 served documents to Tiffany Ciance and
52:47 her husband when he hadn't. In some
52:49 cases where he would later describe
52:51 talking to her on her front porch when
52:53 she was clocked in at work at the time.
52:55 And here are letters mailed to the
52:57 incorrect address so that just by
53:00 chance, Tiffany would not know she
53:02 needed to appear in court to defend
53:03 herself at the most critical part in the
53:05 trial when it is ruled on in court. It's
53:08 just a coincidence that this is the guy
53:10 that they hired for this part of the
53:12 story when their law firm DLA Piper has
53:15 their own process server in house. Let
53:18 me say that again. They have their own
53:20 guy that they normally pay to go serve
53:22 people documents, but then for these
53:25 ones, just those ones, they decide to go
53:29 hire this
53:30 dude.
53:32 Right? So, to summarize how insane this
53:34 is, suddenly, despite having been
53:37 serving Tiffany at her real address all
53:40 the way up till now, they just
53:42 accidentally mailed all the notices of
53:44 this part of this hearing to the wrong
53:46 address.
53:48 Whoopsies. Meaning that Tiffany never
53:51 received notice that they were about to
53:53 rule on her case in court. She never
53:55 received a summon to court, but a whole
53:57 bunch of forged documents made it to
53:59 court, making it appear as though she
54:01 had been served and received notice and
54:03 just chosen not to show. It's a miracle
54:06 that Tiffany ever even figured out what
54:08 they had done and found out who this guy
54:10 is and found his wrap sheet and was
54:12 eventually able to appeal the ruling and
54:13 keep fighting. They did this to one of
54:15 the other moms who was a little gym
54:17 owner who they are litigating against
54:18 right now also because she stood up for
54:21 Tiffany and the franchises. This is the
54:23 shipping label for the same types of
54:25 documents at the end of that woman's
54:27 arbitration, just like in Tiffany's. And
54:29 that address is not her address. It's a
54:33 feature, not a bug. They do it at this
54:36 specific point in the proceedings
54:38 because this isn't just any old hearing.
54:40 This is where the arbitration becomes
54:42 law. And Tiffany or this other woman,
54:44 Patricia, are supposed to argue what the
54:47 damages will be. In Tiffany's case,
54:49 because she didn't show up to defend
54:50 herself because she didn't know she
54:52 needed to, she wound up having to pay
54:54 all of Unleash Brand's legal fees to
54:57 date. That totaled out to about $2.3
55:00 million. And it's not like Unleashed
55:03 couldn't afford their legal fees. They
55:05 were the ones that drew it out so long
55:06 and made it all so expensive. They were
55:08 the ones who brought the case in the
55:09 first place. No, the point was to take
55:13 everything that Tiffany owned, and they
55:15 did. Because Tiffany didn't find out
55:16 what had happened until way later, and
55:18 she didn't uncover who this serial felon
55:20 was until later. And in the meantime,
55:23 Michael Browning Jr. got his ruling,
55:25 seized Tiffany's bank accounts, and put
55:27 a lean on her house, thinking that he'd
55:29 finally won. But Michael Browning Jr.
55:32 messed with the wrong mom because
55:34 Tiffany's still fighting to this day.
55:36 Michael Browning Jr. and his lawyers
55:38 just filed a new case against her days
55:40 after our first episode came out, which
55:43 is awfully coincidental timing. if you
55:45 ask me. So, Michael, since I know you're
55:49 watching, and seeing as you don't seem
55:51 to understand how this works, let me
55:53 explain it to you. You're digging your
55:55 hole deeper. You don't seem to grasp who
55:59 Tiffany is. I've had the privilege of
56:01 getting to know her over the last year
56:03 as I've been working on this story. And
56:05 if Tiffany is one thing, she's a
56:07 fighter. She's the fiercest mom you're
56:10 ever going to meet. And that is a force
56:11 that no amount of money, no amount of
56:13 lawfare, no amount of persecution is
56:16 ever going to defeat. And you had your
56:18 day in your secret court system where
56:20 the deck was stacked in your favor and
56:22 you could get away with just about
56:24 anything you could dream up. But now
56:26 we're in a different court, the court of
56:28 public opinion. And while your secret
56:31 arbitration courts may have been okay
56:32 with what you've done, I thought we'd
56:34 share your paper trail with your
56:36 customers, with your franchises, and
56:38 perhaps most importantly with your
56:40 private equity buddies and the
56:42 International Franchise Association.
56:44 Something tells me they won't be so
56:46 thrilled about the unwanted spotlight
56:48 that you're shining on the whole scheme.
56:51 I'm sure that plenty of you folks at the
56:53 IFA are watching, too. And don't worry,
56:56 we'll probably wind up doing an episode
56:57 all about you two soon enough because oh
57:00 boy, do we have receipts. But
57:03 ultimately, the most horrible part of
57:06 this whole story is that this is just
57:08 Tiffany's story. And she's far from the
57:10 only one. Over a million disputes are
57:13 settled in arbitration per year in
57:15 America. And you'd better believe that
57:17 other people are getting similar
57:18 treatment. You might get the same
57:20 treatment yourself someday, too. if you
57:22 have an accident at a birthday party or
57:24 get in the wrong Uber or put your
57:26 parents in the wrong nursing home or
57:28 rent from the wrong property manager
57:30 because America is already slipping
57:32 away. Our rights are already slipping
57:35 away. Our justice system is already
57:37 being replaced by secret courts and most
57:40 of us are too distracted by our Twitter
57:42 and Instagram feeds to even notice. You
57:45 guys have been sharing some wild stories
57:48 in the comments, and we're about to get
57:49 to that right after I tell you about
57:51 American Financing. We're all feeling
57:54 it. Inflation is eating away at
57:55 everything. Gas, groceries, home
57:58 repairs. And if you're a homeowner,
57:59 you've probably thought, should I call
58:01 American Financing to refinance and pay
58:03 off this credit card debt? Then you
58:05 second guess yourself because of that
58:06 low mortgage rate you currently have.
58:08 Listen, that low rate, it's not saving
58:11 you if you're drowning in credit card
58:12 interest at 25% or more. That's the
58:14 math. no one wants to face, but it's
58:16 costing you thousands. Here's the truth.
58:18 If you're only making minimum payments,
58:20 that debt will follow you for years.
58:22 That's why people are calling American
58:24 Financing, because they're saving
58:25 customers an average of $800 a month by
58:27 using their equity to finally break free
58:29 from credit card debt. You owe it to
58:31 your family to see what's possible. No
58:33 upfront fees, no pressure. It costs you
58:35 nothing to find out what you could save
58:37 every month. And if you start today, you
58:39 may be able to delay two mortgage
58:40 payments. Call American Financing today.
58:44 8007951210. That's
58:46 8007951210 or visit
58:49 americanfinancing.net/owens. And now
58:51 let's read some of your comments from
58:52 our previous episodes because they are
58:55 awesome. Zeppelin Pots says, "Man, it's
58:58 been years since I seen real
58:59 investigative journalism." Great job,
59:01 Porn Stash. Thanks,
59:03 bro. The True Spiracy says, "Did I care
59:06 about the Baldonian Blake saga prior to
59:08 Candice?" No. Do I care now? Absolutely.
59:12 We stand with cousin Baldoni. Did I care
59:15 about what Leap of Faith versus Urban
59:16 Air was doing in their little spoiled
59:18 brat prior to Ian? No. Do I care now?
59:22 Absolutely. We are coming for you, Jr.
59:25 Love the vibe. That's exactly how I
59:27 feel. Jackie Wheeler says, "I noticed
59:29 Urban Air has their comments on social
59:31 media turned off. That means they fear
59:33 the public backlash. You're making a
59:35 difference." Yeah, if you go and scroll
59:36 their public social media feeds, you'll
59:39 notice some pretty funny things about
59:41 how many comments apparently exist, how
59:43 many comments actually exist, and which
59:45 ones have made it through the blocks.
59:48 That's all I'll say. Juliana Dryden
59:51 says, "My husband and I work for Urban
59:53 Air on and off for five plus years.
59:55 Wouldn't recommend any parent risk their
59:57 child's safety there. Can't wait to see
59:58 this episode." Yeah, we've gotten a lot
60:01 of testimonials about Urban Air in the
60:03 comments. You can scroll them for
60:05 yourself. I think we have one or two
60:06 more coming up
60:07 here. Income Serge says, "I worked in
60:11 the industry FEC for 5 years and
60:13 periphery and peripherally sold to
60:15 Michael Browning Jr. He was known among
60:18 vendors as an absolute a-hole, a
60:20 nightmare client and was to be avoided
60:22 at all costs. One of Urban Airirs,
60:24 Unleash Brands' franchises, contacted my
60:27 company to buy an attraction, and
60:28 Michael sent our company a stern a stern
60:31 cease and desist letter, even though we
60:33 simply replied to the franchisees
60:35 inquiry. This guy was a piece of work
60:37 and walked around trade shows like he
60:39 was God's gift to the industry. I hope
60:41 he gets what he deserves. That's crazy,
60:43 dude. Thanks for sharing your
60:45 experience. One shower thought said, "I
60:48 work in patent law. This is all so
60:50 illegal. He could win big time if he
60:52 finds a patent attorney willing to do
60:53 pro bono. Most large firms have a quota.
60:55 They try to reach for pro bono. Hey,
60:57 that's about uh episodes from last time
60:59 when we were talking about what he did
61:00 to Leap of Faith Adventures. I'd be very
61:03 curious for any attorneys out there to
61:04 comment on this episode about what you
61:06 just saw. Just saying. Jennifer Slatten
61:10 says they are doing this with hospitals.
61:12 Private equity buys a hospital, makes
61:13 them sell their land and the hospital,
61:15 and then they lease it back at
61:17 exorbitant rental rates and bankrupt the
61:18 hospital. Yeah, funny that. We just
61:21 talked about hospitals. Jennifer is on
61:23 top of
61:24 it. Delina Young says, "My son used to
61:27 work for Urban Air in Florida. He was a
61:29 manager and said, "This business is so
61:30 dang unsafe and finally had to quit
61:33 because of the amount of children who
61:34 got hurt daily and the place never fixed
61:36 or replaced damaged, unsafe equipment."
61:38 He said it was horrible and will not
61:39 allow his child to go to one. Yeah,
61:42 dang. Straight. That's the thing about
61:43 these crazy adventure parks is that they
61:45 have all these crazy rides and they're
61:48 designed to be like dangerous crazy
61:50 experiences and if they're not staffed
61:52 correctly or built correctly or
61:54 maintained correctly, you're like
61:56 literally sending your child into a
61:58 giant meat grinder.
62:01 Allegedly, the true spiracy says, "Sigh
62:04 remove shrimp from cart. Did I ever care
62:07 where my food came from?" No. Will I now
62:09 make conscious decisions when shopping
62:11 for anything? Absolutely. Thank you,
62:13 Ian, for shedding light on these
62:14 horrendous topics, giving the invisible
62:16 ones a voice. The shrimp spiracy was
62:19 crazy. I had no idea what I was walking
62:21 into when we started that episode. And
62:23 by the end, the shrimp slavery
62:26 conspiracy is like one of my all-time
62:28 favorite most evil conspiracies on the
62:31 planet. Definitely check that episode
62:32 out if you haven't already seen
62:34 it. Influence fashion says, "I am
62:37 Burmese. Slavery in Thailand is real.
62:40 Burmese people are suffering most
62:41 because of their immigration status in
62:43 Thailand and difficult to get help.
62:44 Thank you for shedding light for the
62:46 cruelty of fishing industry in Thailand.
62:48 Thank you for your comment. It's it's
62:50 really humbling. It's important to note
62:52 that like I laugh a lot during these
62:54 episodes because sometimes you have to
62:55 laugh through how tragic these are, but
62:58 the ultimate reality is that these are
62:59 humans suffering on the other end of
63:00 these stories. These are kids getting
63:02 hurt. These are actual people being sold
63:04 into slavery. And so it's really
63:05 meaningful to hear from people like this
63:07 that can actually speak to the
63:08 difference that speaking about this can
63:10 make. And I wish the best for that guy
63:12 or girl. Simone Barton says, "My husband
63:16 is a chemist whose job was once to test
63:17 baby food and formula for heavy metals.
63:20 Mamas, do yourself a favor and breast
63:22 milk if you can and buy the baby food
63:24 blender kits and make your own. Yes, if
63:27 you haven't seen what we did about baby
63:28 food last time, oh boy, they are
63:31 poisoning your babies.
63:34 Nuna
63:35 Bint Nuna Bitnes says, "Candice
63:38 consistently ahead of the curve. Gets
63:40 the one person who could keep my
63:42 attention when she takes time off for
63:43 her baby." Brilliant. Thank you, Nuna.
63:46 To be clear, there's lots of great
63:48 people out here in this industry. I'm
63:49 just another dude. But it is humbling to
63:51 have this opportunity and it means a lot
63:52 to be able to live up to some of your
63:53 expectations. Try my best, working hard
63:55 to do crazy digs, and to keep y'all
63:57 having fun while Candace takes good care
63:59 of Baby Roman, who by the way, we did
64:01 see today. Baby Roman is awesome. He's
64:04 very little. He's very cute and he's
64:06 doing great. So is Candace. She'll
64:08 obviously be giving you lots more
64:10 updates as these weeks go on. And
64:12 finally, Gdub says, "Ian, I have to say
64:15 I was hesitant from what I've heard on
64:17 media about you, but they're all wrong.
64:19 You're chill, down to earth, and
64:21 hardworking. Love to see people like you
64:22 start to get the credit they deserve for
64:24 all the hard work you've been doing. I'm
64:25 now going to start following you, too.
64:27 Keep it up, champ." Thanks, man. Uh
64:29 people like me get a lot of things said
64:31 about us on the internet in every
64:33 direction. I am both owned by Qar and by
64:36 Israel. I'm now a cabalist. All the
64:39 things in between. The truth of the
64:41 matter is that I am literally just a
64:42 dude who has done this all on my own
64:44 with no team until now. I mean, I've
64:46 worked with lots of great people. I've
64:48 met so many wonderful people in the
64:49 industry and I would not be where I am
64:51 without people like Candace Owens being
64:53 supportive and being awesome. But
64:55 ultimately, it's you guys, the fans back
64:57 at home that are just so cool to work
64:59 for, to work with. Um, so it's really
65:01 humbling to get comments like that. I
65:03 appreciate it. But anyways, that's our
65:05 show for today. We'll pick back up later
65:07 this week. Um, don't forget to like this
65:09 video. Don't forget to subscribe to
65:11 Candace's channel. Mine is linked in the
65:13 description below if you want to connect
65:15 with Tiffany. We'll also link something
65:16 of hers down below. Um, share this with
65:19 all of your friends so they can all know
65:21 what's going on, so they don't get
65:22 sucked into these traps as well. and
65:24 stay safe. It's a dangerous world out
65:26 there. Have a great night, friends, and
65:28 we'll see you tomorrow.
65:30 [Music]
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