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00:04Now on Tribunal Justice.
00:06You're trying to have a street party
00:08to keep culture and tradition alive.
00:09And then this gentleman jumped in and said,
00:11I'm so good at getting sponsors.
00:13What happened to the money that he invested in this?
00:16We have no agreement.
00:18Everything that he says is a lie.
00:19I have to stand here like a fool.
00:23He's a liar.
00:24I need you to calm down.
00:26To coin an Italian phrase, unless I'm
00:29a little stunard, I couldn't see an agreement here.
00:32This case is now concluding up.
00:59Founded in Los Angeles, California.
01:01Your Honor, this is case number 3029 on the calendar
01:05in a matter of Sticko versus the Los Angeles
01:07Italian Festival, Incorporated.
01:10Thank you, Bill.
01:11Uh-huh.
01:11You're welcome, Judge.
01:12Parties have been sworn in.
01:13You may be seated.
01:15Mr. Sticko, you partnered with the Los Angeles
01:19Italian Festival as part of the 2024 Festival.
01:23It featured your wife as one of the entertainer singers.
01:27Correct.
01:27You say you spent more than $31,000.
01:30You say defendant kept money from ticket sales and vendors,
01:34which should have been used to offset your expenditures.
01:37You say that he made a $2,200 unauthorized charge
01:41on your credit card, and he needs to pay you back all this money
01:45since you're in way over what you originally promised.
01:48So you're suing him here for $10,000.
01:51Correct, Your Honor.
01:52Just to clarify, the credit card chargers were not
01:55on my credit card.
01:56Oh, they were on the credit card of your CE...
01:59CFO, a board advisory member who...
02:02But right now you're standing here on that right hand.
02:04I'm on the hook for it.
02:06Okay.
02:06Mr. Sturist.
02:07Yes.
02:07You say that you've been running this festival since 2017,
02:11and that the past year you were unable to get a sponsor.
02:14You said you wanted to cancel.
02:16He said he would sponsor the entire event.
02:18You never agreed to give him any money,
02:20and so you therefore owe him nothing.
02:22This is really just a ploy by him to take over your business.
02:25Would that be correct as well?
02:26Yeah.
02:27Aside from using the term sponsor,
02:29because there's no sponsorship,
02:31there was no partnership, none of it exists.
02:34Okay, I'm just giving an opening statement.
02:35Okay.
02:35You obviously don't agree with him.
02:38Clearly, he has something against you.
02:40So let's start with first, how did you and the defendant meet?
02:43So in 2022, we'd worked with the Fringe Festival in 2022,
02:49and through that he had become introduced with my wife
02:53and the opera company that we have,
02:56and he reached out and he invited her as a vocalist.
02:59Okay, so let's see the flyer that was put out for this event.
03:03Featuring your wife, you're having her named with some top singers.
03:06Correct, and she had appeared in 2023 as well.
03:08You thought she had a great voice, if I recall, reading in your papers, correct?
03:12I think she's brilliant.
03:12Brilliant.
03:13Go on. So you're now becoming a part of this festival.
03:16Well, it was sometime early, probably around the beginning of 2024,
03:20that he had connected, and what he had conveyed to me was he had a larger dream
03:24of the Italian festival becoming a bigger brand than just the one day.
03:30I actually must be a little confused here, because when I looked at these papers,
03:35it seemed that you were the one who was touting wanting to elevate the event itself.
03:41You were concerned that he was trying to minimize its impact on the community.
03:46Did I read that incorrectly, sir?
03:48Perhaps.
03:50Then I'll read it to you, because this is the document that you signed.
03:54It says, I engaged in a new vision for the festival from its layout and entertainment
03:59to elevating the event's overall status and attendee experience.
04:04I was using my connections to bring this festival to another level.
04:08So you were apparently the one who had that dream.
04:11I mean, did you have the same dream as he did?
04:13Because that's not what I read in the papers.
04:15Uh, we just produce a festival to celebrate the ancestry.
04:20How big or how small it is matters nothing to us.
04:24We are losing our traditions.
04:26We lost Columbus Day out in California recently.
04:29New York as well.
04:30Regardless of the politics.
04:31We're trying to keep a tradition alive.
04:33I get it.
04:34I'm coming back to you, because I think you both wanted to do something here.
04:38It's just with a different mindset.
04:39But your point then is kind of not correct.
04:43So moving along.
04:44So now, how do you and he get into an agreement?
04:47Because I read these papers and unless, you know, to coin an Italian phrase,
04:53unless I'm a little stunard, I couldn't see an agreement here.
04:56So I'd like to see from you where your agreement with him was and what it was for.
05:01So there was no, there was no written agreement.
05:04He had asked if I was interested in being involved on the production level.
05:10And I offered to help sponsor the entertainment portion of it,
05:15where we would bring Natalia, the other entertainers.
05:18Because in part, that's why you were there.
05:21You really wanted to promote your wife.
05:23That's what this was about.
05:24Because honestly, I can't see in these papers what you agreed to split the two of you.
05:31In fact, the only thing I have here, which we put up on the screen,
05:35defendant is the white, you are the blue.
05:37And he says, I want to put this in writing.
05:39There is nothing for anything.
05:41Nothing, nada, niente.
05:43So how do you then come in here and say he owes me money pursuant to a contract?
05:50Well, I'm not saying he owes money pursuant to a contract.
05:52I'm saying he owes money pursuant to be an incorporated entity.
05:55And as an incorporated entity, they have a duty of care and a fiscal responsibility.
06:00In the scope of the aspect of being a public corporation.
06:04But not just to anybody, to somebody with whom he has an agreement.
06:07Correct.
06:08And I'm looking for the agreement.
06:09So let me hear from you a little bit.
06:11How do you expect him to come in and just pay for this whole thing?
06:15I didn't expect him to come in.
06:17I didn't approach him.
06:18He approached me.
06:20But you said it's okay.
06:21I mean, he didn't just start setting up things without your approval.
06:23Well, of course, I said it's okay.
06:25I predicated on the fact that he understood in no uncertain terms that we had no money.
06:31That we were canceling.
06:32That last year, I maxed out all my credit cards.
06:35We've already been over this.
06:36I've already explained this to you.
06:38And the reason that that text has the tone that it has is because he went to Eva to say,
06:43hey, what's going on with the money?
06:45Because everything that he says is a lie.
06:48Everything.
06:49I did.
06:50Including maybe his CIA involvement and his taking down regimes and all the other
06:57yarns that he spun.
06:58Stop with these conspiracy theories.
07:00It's very difficult for me to even defend myself because it lends credence to the words
07:05that come out of his mouth.
07:06The problem here, Mr. Cerise, is that he is asking for you to reimburse him $10,000
07:11because he says that you took deposits from vendors to the tune of about $7,800.
07:18You made a credit card charge for $2,200.
07:21And there is a text message which actually addresses that where you say,
07:24hey, I don't know where you are, so I'm just going to charge this $2,200.
07:28How do you explain that?
07:31Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
07:34Mr. Cerise, you mentioned it, that the plaintiff's wife was brilliant.
07:38Yes.
07:39Ma'am, step up, please.
07:41Her voice, brilliant.
07:48Investor Eugene Sticko is suing Joey Cerise and Ava Miller of the L.A. Italian Festival
07:53for $10,000, saying they burned through his money, then made an unauthorized credit card
07:58charge.
07:59But Joey and Ava say they spent the funds properly and that there was never an agreement with Eugene.
08:04And there is a text message which actually addresses that where you say, hey, I don't
08:08know where you are, so I'm just going to charge this $2,200.
08:11Right.
08:12How do you explain that?
08:13Okay, so first of all, the money for the vendors came in well before he was even involved.
08:18He had nothing to do with the festival until June when we did the Fringe Festival and I broached
08:24the subject that we were going to probably cancel this year because we don't have money.
08:29Okay, so what, so this-
08:30And then this gentleman jumped in and said, just read through the things and said, oh,
08:34here's the sponsors.
08:35Oh, I'm so good at getting sponsors, I'll go get sponsored.
08:38So what did you do with that money?
08:39That's all I'm asking you is- Well, we pay for the 40 vendors
08:42that I had to go find.
08:43We pay for the rent.
08:44We pay for the phones.
08:46We pay for the- Did you take it as compensation?
08:48No.
08:48I think there's a text in here that clearly says you kept the $7,800 for compensation.
08:54Right.
08:54Well, that's the extraplication of the lie because that was a short text that said that for the
09:02time that I spend, all I said was that this is the money that I spend that keeps me from
09:10my business.
09:11Can we stop because this goes back to you.
09:13In here, replete in these text messages, I don't know what I'm supposed to pay.
09:17I don't know what he's paying.
09:18When you have a contract that says, I don't know, I don't know, you know what that means?
09:22There was no meeting of the minds.
09:25Judge Levy?
09:26Let's put up O2, please, because this is the text that we're talking about.
09:30And this is, I believe, Mr. Cerise, the rub of Mr. Stiko.
09:33It says, the vendor money covers the time I work on this event that takes me away from my business.
09:39I can't make it any plainer, right?
09:42Right.
09:42So what he's saying, correct me if I'm wrong, sir, you were, in essence, paying yourself
09:47from the vendor monies that were coming in and that you shouldn't have been doing that.
09:52Is that correct?
09:52Correct.
09:53And so what he's saying is, so what?
09:56So what?
09:57I can take that money.
09:58We have no agreement.
09:59We're not in partnership.
10:00What we're saying is, show me a document, an email, a text message where he says,
10:07I will not be taking any money.
10:08I don't have that.
10:09And it's not inherent as part of being a corporation.
10:12As corporate officers, they have a fiduciary responsibility
10:16to pay the bills of their corporation before they pay themselves.
10:19Any standard business practice-
10:21Wait a minute.
10:22Wait, wait, wait, wait.
10:23We're the last one to get paid.
10:24Time out, time out, time out, time out.
10:25I know I'm not the smartest guy around, but I've been reading in the news recently how CEOs
10:31of companies are taking hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries, even though their companies
10:38and corporations are hemorrhaging money.
10:41So don't try to explain to me or tell me that it's inherently illegal, unethical,
10:46for a CEO to take money in a salary, even if the company is losing money.
10:51Because that's what you're saying, right?
10:53I'm saying it's certainly unethical if it's not illegal.
10:56And it's certainly against the codes and statutes.
10:58I got it.
10:59Who was responsible?
11:00Okay, let's cut to brass tacks.
11:01You put together a projection based upon your review of all the numbers, the documents,
11:08conversations, what you thought the festival could bring in with your involvement.
11:12You had estimated revenue target between $21,000 and $30,000.
11:17Correct.
11:17You anticipated up to 3,000 people.
11:19We have vendors between 60 and 80. Minimum revenue target, $16,500.
11:24This is what you gave us.
11:26Correct.
11:26So the target summary profit projection was $116,000, depending upon how many sponsors
11:33you got and how many were in attendance.
11:36Correct.
11:36And who was in charge of hiring a public relations company who would get the word out and bring
11:42people in so that they would buy things and pay for their time?
11:45Who was in charge?
11:46Was that you?
11:47So over the course, if I can explain, over the course of reaching out and trying to get
11:52people involved, I was looking for podcasters, Italian-American podcasters.
11:57And this particular one from New York responded back.
12:00He also, turns out, ran a PR firm.
12:04And he thought of it as an opportunity to sort of expand his reach and portfolio and all of that.
12:10I get all that.
12:10And so long as-
12:11Yeah, and it was a dud.
12:12Correct.
12:13And this was despite your text to him on September 4th, that you, sir,
12:17you deal with other organizations that use PR people and sponsorships and that you're able
12:22to get them.
12:23And for whatever reason, it was a dud.
12:25Correct.
12:25Correct.
12:25Now, with respect to your claim, sir, for $2,200 in reimbursement for an unauthorized
12:33charge, let's put up number nine, please.
12:37The Los Angeles Italian Festival, $2,200, correct?
12:41Correct.
12:41What standing do you have to make a demand for the reimbursement of someone else's credit
12:46card?
12:46Because I'm held responsible for it by him.
12:50But he would have to bring a lawsuit against the defendant here to get reimbursed.
12:53He can't send you in in his stead.
12:56Make sense?
12:56I don't think the intent was to send me in as his stead.
12:58It was overall part of all of the charges that were made that he allowed me to make in order
13:05to make sure that the festival took place.
13:07Before I pass the case to Judge Acker, there's one thing that I want to bring up.
13:11And that is, Mr. Cerise, you mentioned it, that the plaintiff's wife
13:15was brilliant.
13:17Yes.
13:17Ma'am, step up, please?
13:18Sure.
13:19Her voice, brilliant?
13:21Well, she's a brilliant person, but her voice is in particular.
13:24Now, we do have a video, and I would like to play that.
13:28Roll it.
13:49Now, Mystico, someone once said, and I don't remember who it was, that if you spend 10,000
13:54hours doing anything, you could become an expert in whatever it is that you spent that
13:59time on.
13:59I could spend 10,000 hours practicing opera, and I would never sound as good as you.
14:04That was beautiful.
14:05Thank you very much.
14:06I appreciate your honor.
14:08Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
14:11This is my life's work.
14:12Where was he five years ago?
14:14Sir, here's what we're going to do.
14:15She will ask you a question, and you will address her.
14:18Yeah, I'm standing here on this guy's little puppet string.
14:21We have no agreement.
14:27Investor Eugene Sticko says Joey Cerise and Ava Miller scammed him out of money and made
14:32unauthorized charges on a credit card.
14:35He's suing for $10,000.
14:37Joey and Ava said they never agreed on anything with Eugene, and that he's guilty of wasting
14:42his own money.
14:43Now, you wanted a platform for your wife and her exquisite voice.
14:48You know, you want to stage Rigoletto.
14:49You're trying to have a street party to keep culture and tradition alive.
14:53That's what it is.
14:54You just didn't have the same event in mind.
14:58So then I go back to you, Mr. Sticko.
15:00I note that you say that as you started to work with him, that you quickly recognized that
15:06his business style was erratic and scatterbrained.
15:09And then you said he pocketed all of the money from ticket presales and vendor deposits.
15:15So what evidence do you have that he wasn't entitled to that money?
15:20There was revenue that came in that the intent of that revenue coming in was to produce the
15:27festival.
15:27And even that last week when he sent the text message saying, you know, oh, there's zero
15:32and I kept it as compensation.
15:34Then I was put in the position of everything that I've put into this is either 100 percent
15:40loss.
15:40And he goes around bad mouthing me, saying, oh, he pulled out on me last minute or I go
15:46through with it and try to recover what I can on the day of the festival and recover what
15:51we were.
15:51What I never anticipated was that that money that came in from the sponsor fees from the
15:57vendors, that that wouldn't go towards things like permits and infrastructure and all the rest.
16:03Well, he did mention that there were going to be costs for permits and the like.
16:07But what you haven't proven to me, sir, is that he wasn't entitled to some compensation.
16:12How long have you been doing this festival or two?
16:15Seven years.
16:16Seven years.
16:16And what's your day job?
16:17I paint the street numbers on the curbs in Los Angeles.
16:20I'm the only licensed curb painter in the city.
16:22Maybe you painted my curbs.
16:24Oh, I'm sure I have painted them all.
16:26If you lose, don't remember where I live.
16:29But on a serious note, do you compensate yourself?
16:33I, uh, none.
16:34All of that went for website, rent.
16:38So you understand the plain reading of that text is that you compensated yourself.
16:43Yeah.
16:43For some amount of labor.
16:46Yeah.
16:47Okay.
16:48Let's back up.
16:49We have no agreement.
16:51There's nothing between us.
16:53Nothing exists between us.
16:54So you're asking me quite, that's why I have to stand here like a fool and try to defend myself
17:00against lies.
17:01Well, I'm going to stop you right now because you don't seem like a fool.
17:04You made some representation to him that money was going to be used in one way and instead
17:10you used it another way.
17:11Which is not true, never happened.
17:12Oh, okay, okay.
17:13We had no agreement, no business agreement.
17:16Sir, this is my life.
17:18This is my life's work.
17:20I've done this for 20 straight years.
17:22Mr. Sears.
17:23Where was he 10 years ago?
17:25Here's what we're going to do.
17:25Where was he five years ago?
17:27Here's what we're going to do.
17:28Sir, here's what we're going to do.
17:28She will ask you a question and you'll address her.
17:31Great, thank you.
17:32Okay, and remember where you are.
17:34I know exactly where I am.
17:35You sure?
17:35Yeah, I'm standing here like a fool on this guy's little puppet string.
17:40He's a liar.
17:41No, can I finish my examination, sir?
17:44I need you to calm down.
17:45Please.
17:45You're here as a defendant in a lawsuit.
17:47So I'm going to move back to the plaintiff.
17:50Yes.
17:50Because it's his case to prove.
17:52Yes.
17:52And so what evidence do you have that he ever made any material misrepresentation to you
17:57about the use of funds that you directed to him for his use?
18:01The evidence of the misrepresentation is the fact that all of the money that he collected
18:06did not go towards the festival.
18:07No, that is not evident.
18:09I can't prove a negative.
18:10Well, exactly.
18:11You can't prove the original intention for where those monies were supposed to be directed.
18:15And if you can't prove that, then you can't prove that he did anything wrong.
18:20I'd like to hear from Ms. Stiko.
18:22You have been very patient.
18:23What did you want to say?
18:25So I had just one thing to say, if it helps.
18:27So before Los Angeles, we were on business in Phoenix.
18:31It was literally the week before the Los Angeles festival.
18:34There is suddenly a text from Joey saying that there hasn't been any money put towards infrastructure.
18:41I assume it's tents and places for vendors.
18:44And my husband asked, can you help out with that, right?
18:47And the only literally money I have is my son's tuition fund for high school.
18:53And I said, okay, I'll have, but I need just some guarantee that I'm going to get it back.
18:57I'm just going to cut to the chase.
18:59What happened to the money?
19:00What happened to the money that he invested in this?
19:03I don't know what he spent it on.
19:05I do know he flew people in from Italy, he flew people in from Boston, he flew people in from
19:10New York, and he's presenting me with a bill.
19:13Now, what hasn't been said is I gave him the entire door.
19:16We did $1,400, and he had the entire door.
19:21Fine, you know, let's say he did.
19:23I gave him the door.
19:24I said, I'm agreeing with you.
19:26Eva, I want you, I just, I need you.
19:29Okay.
19:30I need you.
19:31Are you aware of any monies that went directly from the plaintiff's hands to your or your husband's hands, or
19:37did he pay these vendors on his own?
19:39No, he was paying, we were sending him the invoices to be paid, like, you know, from the different.
19:48Did you ever write him a check?
19:49No.
19:50You never wrote him a check?
19:51No, ma'am.
19:51Did you ever write her a check?
19:52No, ma'am.
19:53Okay, I have nothing further.
19:54I have a few things.
19:55First of all, just to be clear here, there's ticket sales at the door.
19:59There was a good chance, based on your history with this, that there would have been well over 1,000
20:03people.
20:03But apparently, you know, LA being a big Dodger town, there was a Dodger game going on the same day.
20:09And that caused people to choose between the Italians and the Dodgers.
20:16They went with the Dodgers.
20:17So that kind of was an impediment to the ticket sales at the door.
20:21Excuse me?
20:21Killed us.
20:22Killed us.
20:23Ah, I could see that.
20:25The other thing is, what is that?
20:28We were supposed to do a fundraiser.
20:30We were supposed to start it the day of the event and run it through the holiday.
20:34So these coins, they're stunning.
20:36And they sat in those boxes, because that guy stopped communicating with me the day after the festival.
20:43The big shot from Boston.
20:44There's big problems.
20:45Can I see one of those birds?
20:46Look at this.
20:47Can you please bring one of them?
20:47You create these beautiful things, and then you leave them in the trash.
20:51It's disgusting.
20:51There's a lot that went wrong here.
20:53Oh, these are beautiful.
20:53I have one of these from my Italian-American organization.
20:56These are nice.
20:57Really?
20:57Unless there's anything else, really, we're going to retire you to deliberate.
21:00I will return this to you, despite my better judgment.
21:06Thank you all.
21:07We're going to retire you to deliberate.
21:09Thank you all.
21:09Thank you, Judge.
21:10Court now stands in recess.
21:11This case will be recalled.
21:13Parties are excused.
21:21For personal reasons, I really would love to see something like this succeed out in California.
21:27We have a lot of Italian-American events in New York, and I think they're terrific.
21:30But I think what happened here, these two gentlemen had different goals in mind, really.
21:35The plaintiff was really hoping to put his wife out there.
21:38She sang Italian beautifully.
21:40And yeah, I could see him wanting to promote her.
21:42But he really needed to have either oral or written,
21:45preferably, agreement with the defendant about who was going to pay for what,
21:50what monies were going to be attributable to different things.
21:53I mean, I went through every one of these receipts that he submitted,
21:56that they paid out over $31,000.
21:59But in any event, he certainly didn't prevail for, not for lack of effort, not for lack of work,
22:04not for putting it into it, but for lack of an agreement that would be enforceable in a court of
22:09law.
22:09And to your point, you got to have an agreement, period.
22:14And what we saw out there from Mr. Cerise, quite frankly, does not surprise me.
22:18When you spend your whole life nurturing your good reputation, especially in a small knit community,
22:24in the Italian-American club or putting on these type of festivals,
22:28and to have someone come in and to accuse you of thievery, which is what the plaintiff was doing,
22:34yeah, you're going to be a little upset.
22:35He's angry.
22:36I completely understand that.
22:38Better not to do it in a courtroom, most certainly better not to do it in front of Bird.
22:42And did you see his wife?
22:44I mean, poor woman.
22:46I looked at Cassandra and I go, you know, it's like my wife and I, when we go out and
22:51I get a little going,
22:53and she's always like, it's okay, Adam.
22:55It's okay, Adam.
22:57Yeah, no agreement, no standing.
22:59The plaintiff's case needs to be dismissed.
23:01I had a lot of empathy for the defendant because I'm with you.
23:04I mean, of course, his tirade wasn't appropriate in this forum.
23:08But if somebody accuses you of mishandling funds and this has been his life's work,
23:14you are going to react like that.
23:16So I didn't take too much exception to that.
23:18I think you could teach this case in contracts in law school.
23:21They were not on the same page.
23:22They may never have been on the same page.
23:24It wasn't clear who was entitled to what or what these funds were supposed to be used for.
23:29You know, sometimes things just don't work out.
23:31It doesn't mean that legal liability necessarily attaches.
23:34Okay, so we're unanimous and dismissing.
23:35I think so.
23:40Court is back in session.
23:41Parties are reminded you're still under oath.
23:43Thank you, Bird.
23:44Mm-hmm.
23:44Not on the same page.
23:46You two aren't even in the same book.
23:48I mean, you really did not hash this out for two guys that love to talk.
23:53And so, sir, you laid out a lot of money.
23:56You put out $31,000.
23:58I saw it.
23:58I saw every receipt.
23:59But you had no agreement with this defendant one way or another to either repay you
24:05or not take money from the till or what was coming in.
24:09But we do have a unanimous verdict.
24:11And we've all felt the same way about the lack of contractual agreement here.
24:16We're going to dismiss your complaint.
24:18It's unanimous.
24:19You're not going to get any money here in this forum from us.
24:22But we do want to end with one thing.
24:24I would love, Natasha, if you can, to sing the first couple of lines of the Italian National Anthem.
24:29Sure.
24:30I would love, Natasha, if you can, to sing the first couple of lines of the Italian National Anthem.
25:01Thank you very, very much.
25:05And to be totally honest, I didn't understand the work you said.
25:09Thank you very much.
25:10That's the verdict of our court.
25:12This case is now concluded.
25:16This case is concluded.
25:17If I excuse you, you may step out.
25:19That was very good.
25:24Talk's a big game.
25:25He over promises.
25:26He under delivers.
25:26Yeah, he had some delusional game in mind.
25:30It didn't take long to figure out he was sort of an unreliable business partner.
25:33Everything that he said was a lie.
25:35I just never expected he was a thief.
25:37All of our traditions are going away because of guys like that who are looking for the big payoff.
25:43Did someone break an agreement?
25:45Let Tribunal Justice decide your case.
25:48Find us on social media.
26:00We'll find you more.
26:01We'll talk to you later.
26:01Yeah, that Neil?
26:15Look out.
26:16Signing Barsha
26:16Woo!
26:16Bye.
26:16Bye.
26:18Bye.
26:21Merci.
26:22Bye.
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