ROMIO has ceased operations and dissolved.
The ROMIO name and URL have been acquired by Jonathan Santos, @GetYourYacht, a Miami-based premium yacht sales, rentals, and lifestyle company.
This acquisition follows the dissolution of ROMIO, which was defrauded, along with several other companies, of $10.3 million by a group of investors associated with Messner Reaves, INBE, and their affiliates (see coverage on Bloomberg).
Please see formal announcement below.
April 6, 2025
Hello Everyone,
It is with a heavy heart that I share we have ceased operations after suffering irreparable damages due to being defrauded of $1 million. Along with a group of six companies, we sent $10.3 million to MESSNER, the law firm, to hold as escrow as part of a debt deal with INBE, a debt investor, and their associates. We had signed a $4 million debt financing deal in early 2023.
Unfortunately, we, along with several companies, including Abbson the digital marketing agency, have been unable to meet creditor commitments and have had to cease operations as a result. We are dissolving ROMIO effective immediately (see story coverage on Bloomberg here).
Our social capitalism business model is more relevant than ever, but it is astounding to uncover a large industry of rogue operators and brokers who prey on startups and companies in need of funding. These individuals either collect retainers by making false representations and guarantees or, as in this case, collect eight figures in broad daylight while posing as investors, only for the funds to vanish from the escrow accounts of a U.S. law firm with over 100 partners. We were introduced to this deal by a team previously with Morgan Stanley and PWC, who themselves invested in this same deal on behalf of their portfolio companies. This was not a case of poor due diligence but one of outright fraud. You can follow the civil case in Utah (see link here). You will likely also see criminal charges brought by several federal and local agencies against the perpetrators.
I sincerely apologize to the few contractors who were hired following the investment deal signing and whom we have not been able to pay for their initial weeks of salaries. I want to thank our amazing investors, legendary employees, advisors, and partners for their passionate and patient support throughout this journey. After over a decade of working to disrupt the local services category, this incident dealt us a final blow that we simply didn’t anticipate.
I will be covering some lessons in my personal blog that I hope can be helpful to entrepreneurs and companies, especially regarding fundraising and rogue investment placement operators. Some disguise themselves as family offices, while others have Google Ventures and Airbnb founders on their LinkedIn profiles or claim personal networks.
I will also gradually release a white paper I have put together over the past few years to redefine social capitalism and propose an evolved architecture of new business models and thinking that I believe can be more profitable and human. The current title of the white paper is “Capitalism: The Age of Fake. How Social Capitalism (Redefined) Can Be More Profitable and Human Than Traditional Models.” Deceit has contaminated our perceptions, behaviors, and souls across industries we work in or buy from (Advertising, Marketing, Fashion, Food, Finance, Law, News). All are plugged into technology, driving the parabolic proliferation of deceit, from filters to the persistent broadcasting of fake lives on social media. AI will now make deceit undetectable, allowing us to deceive and be deceived unconsciously without feeling bad.
I look forward to staying in touch through my upcoming writings. It has been a great learning experience but a painful journey filled with endless obstacles. I’m not superstitious, but perhaps in choosing the ROMIO name, I also condemned the venture to the curse of Shakespeare’s tragedy. So, from ROMIO, it is goodbye.
Tarik Sansal
CEO and Founder of ROMIO
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