Allegations of investment fraud against Joseph Carlini

Joseph Carlini is now at the center of considerable controversy over felony theft charges, claims of unpaid debts, and allegations of investment fraud.

47 ABC looked into these accusations and spoke with a number of people who worked closely with Joseph Carlini in relation to two local restaurants, Fat Fish in West Ocean City and Fat Fish Grill in Salisbury.

"He preys on people's greed," Joe Boncore is the former Head Chef of the Fat Fish restaurant in West Ocean City, Maryland. He says Carlini hired him in the summer of 2015, "He didn't have a chef, he was supposed to open in 4 days. And he said, I don't have a menu.  I don't have anything.  I don't have any equipment.  I went there, gave him a menu, in about an hour and a half, two hours. trained all his wait staff."

Now, more than a year and a half later, he's opening up to 47 ABC about the experience. He admits he was reluctant at first, but believes folks living and working on the Eastern Shore of Maryland need to be warned about Carlini and the potential for investment fraud.

"He does it to anyone that's there, 'Hey, if you give me this amount of money…' he did it to friends of mine," 47 ABC's Emily Lampa met Boncore in College Park where he's working as a restaurant consultant. He admits he left West Ocean City not long after the restaurant officially opened, partly because of a dispute over pay but also because of concern over an investment agreement Carlini gave him, which was dated July 4th, 2015.

It breaks down the ownership percentages in Fat Fish, Inc., 100 percent of the company divided between four individuals. Five percent designated for Devin Brown, 10 percent for Joe Boncore, 25 percent for Justmo Ventures, LLC, and Carlini is listed as the majority shareholder with 60 percent.

Boncore says, "contract was a fraud because he never owned the restaurant."

At the time Carlini allegedly drafted and signed this document, 100 percent of Fat Fish shares were already owned by other parties.  47 ABC obtained stockholder affidavits which prove this. The affidavits signed and notarized on May 3rd, 2015, are supporting documentation for a liquor license application for Fat Fish, Inc. 

In April 2015, Carlini formed Fat Fish, Inc. as a stock corporation, naming himself as sole member of the board of directors.  In that capacity, it appears he named his girlfriend, Jaime Hamer, the President and Owner of the company.  In the process of setting up the restaurant, Carlini and Hamer needed a local person to partner with them to meet the application requirements for a liquor license for the restaurant.  The stockholder affidavits show one of the applicants for the license needs to be a "Resident Agent" who has "resided in Worcester County for two years," "own property in Worcester County," and is "a registered voter in Worcester County."

That's where James Moore from Berlin came into the picture. His wife Kim tells 47 ABC Carlini befriended her husband, who then agreed to help Carlini acquire the liquor license.

"People in this area do this a lot," explains Kim. "They will hold a liquor license, for a fee. And that was our deal.

"Generally people do a chunk which is between 5 and 7 thousand dollars, for the liquor license but he didn't have the money to pay us upfront, so we agreed, or my husband agreed to do it for 250 dollars a week."

Kim says the attorney who helped them file the necessary paperwork said in order to complete the application James must be a shareholder in Fat Fish. Kim says it was Carlini who decided how much stock James would have in the company, "He said, 'okay, I'm going to give him 30-percent and Jaime will be 70-percent."

But the Moore's say the partnership went south when their payments stopped coming after 3 weeks. So they consulted another attorney about backing out of the deal. But that wasn't the only red flag that something was wrong.

"People from all over the county, our friends called us," Kim told 47 ABC. "I mean, we had phone calls…if we didn't have five phone calls a week, we had 10 phone calls a week.  You need to watch this guy, you need to watch this guy, you need to watch this guy."

The clincher was when Chef Boncore told them about his investment agreement. Kim claims she was floored when she saw the agreement was dated July 4th, around the time the liquor license was issued on July 10th, "So he was already taking money for shares that were none existent."

Kim says she and her lawyer contacted the owner of Justmo Ventures, LLC who is listed on the investment agreement as a shareholder, a DC area CPA named David Zimmer. "When I called David Zimmer, because I was curious, he said, 'Oh no, he sold me…I gave him 25-thousand dollars, he sold me 25 percent of the shares. And I said, well there aren't 25 percent of the shares to sell you."

Kim says all parties were in agreement concerning the investment agreement, "This is complete fraud. And his attorney even said, David you have a fraudulent document.  You do not have shares."

47 ABC reached out to Zimmer and he confirmed he paid Carlini the money and that he even had a cancelled check to prove it. However when 47 ABC asked to see it he said he didn't want to disclose that to us because he was in the process of trying to get Carlini to pay him back.

Kim says the phone conference call with Zimmer was the final straw, "We had seen an attorney.  He advised us what to do.  And my husband went in and pulled the liquor license off the wall."

The Moore's also had their attorney draft another agreement which Kim says officially cut ties with Fat Fish and Joseph Carlini in October 2015. 

47 ABC found the Fat Fish wasted no time securing another liquor license partner. Worcester County sent us the next liquor license issued for Fat Fish, Inc, which was dated October 27, 2015.

"He has absolutely zero remorse for the things that he does, what he takes advantage of," stated Kim. "I honestly think that he cannot help what he does. He seriously needs to be evaluated, like I'm not kidding you," Kim says they went directly to the authorities with their information.  The detective on the case confirmed that those details have been sent to the Worcester County State's Attorney.

"I honestly was a little nervous because I think he's kind of a loose cannon," admits Kim. "But, you know…I think that you shouldn't be afraid to speak out.  Like, I think everybody needs to come forward and say what he's done because he needs to be stopped. He needs to be stopped, what he's doing.  It's terrible."

Also speaking out, Ben Hild of Pasadena, Maryland, "It's kind of hard to do that, but unfortunately I don't want anybody else getting hurt in this and losing money."

Hild and his father own a diesel repair company, Hild's Marine Service, that works up and down the east coast, "We basically work on a bunch of boats down here, so we're down here about 5 months out of the year."

He met Carlini at the Fat Fish in West Ocean City, the summer of 2016. He admits they became pretty close friends, saying Carlini asked him to invest in Fat Fish twice, "He said, 'Hey, would you like to own Fat Fish in Salisbury.' And I was like, well obviously, when somebody says that, I guess from my perspective, yeah, that would be cool."

Both requests were made over text messages, which Hild shared with 47 ABC. The first happened just about a month after they first met on August 4th. And he reportedly texted Ben Hild and investment agreement on October 5th, "Basically he was trying to get me to pay him 25-grand and I would be 25-percent stock."

Legal experts say that business owners can ask people to invest in their companies to increase capital. But in Carlini's case, he's legally barred from soliciting investments in the state of Maryland due to a prior theft scheme conviction.

47 ABC reached out to Carlini multiple times to hear his side of the story. We also asked him if he would put us in touch with Jaime Hamer.  He refused and turned down our interview requests.

47 ABC contacted the Maryland Securities Commissioners office to find out if they are currently investigating any claims made against Joseph Carlini for potentially violating the commissioners Final Order. A spokesperson from the office told us they can't confirm nor deny any active investigations. But they did say, if anyone feels they are a victim of someone who has had SEC actions taken against them, they should contact the Securities Commissioner and file a complaint.

To file a complaint or to report a potential violation of the law, call the Maryland Securities Division 410-576-7050.

In the final part of this 4 Part 47 ABC Special Investigative Report, we'll have an update on the unlicensed contracting charge which could come back to haunt Carlini because of the ongoing criminal investigation and 2 felony theft charges he is currently facing.