Judgments and fines over his head, fraudulent Florida mover files for bankruptcy
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‘Unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent’ mover Shawn Thompson
From judgments in Miami-Dade and Orange County to investigations by state agencies, Shawn Thompson’s practices as a mover have been under scrutiny the last few years. Several customers, a Miami-Dade judge and now the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services say Thompson’s a fraudulent, bait-and-switch extortionist.
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A Fort Lauderdale-based mover, facing judgments and attorneys fees in Miami-Dade and Orange counties that could cost him over $310,000, has filed for bankruptcy protection.
Shawn Thompson’s Jan. 26 bankruptcy petition in West Palm Beach federal court — the day before a hearing in Miami-Dade on $242,000 in attorney fees — triggered notices to the two county courts that the filing halts most collections against the debtor.
How the bankruptcy filing affects a $110,000 fine imposed on Thompson in August from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for 22 state statute violations isn’t clear. In the final order with that fine, the state also banned Thompson and any company owned by him from operating as a mover again in Florida.
READ MORE: Fraudulent mover Thompson fined $110,000, banned from business in Florida
Thompson filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which “is also called a wage earner’s plan. It enables individuals with regular income to develop a plan to repay all or part of their debts,” the U.S. Courts’ Bankruptcy Basics website said. “Under this chapter, debtors propose a repayment plan to make installments to creditors over three to five years.”
Thompson’s petition, which his Nowack & Olson attorney Christopher Olson acknowledged in an email was “skeletal,” didn’t include the required listing of property, such as the Palm Beach County home Thompson owns with his wife; detailed list of living expenses; listing of creditors and how much Thompson owes; and details about Thompson’s income.
The required information to submit may have been familiar — Thompson and his wife, Marcen Morris, filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in September 2019. That case was dismissed on Feb. 19, 2020, based on, court documents say, the couple’s failure to make payments.
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The court gave Thompson until Feb. 9 to satisfy the petition requirements or face dismissal. Olson, handling the case with Mitchell Nowak, says a full filing will be done “once our firm has reviewed his documents and prepared the balance of his schedules.”
Thompson has refused to comment for articles about his companies, and has told the Miami Herald not to contact him by email or phone.
What a Miami-to-Gainesville move could cost Thompson
The $242,000 in attorneys’ fees Thompson could get hit with come from the lawsuit brought by Nicolette Gonzalez. What cash Thompson successfully got from Gonzalez on the front end could be taken four-fold from him on the back end.
Gonzalez used Thompson Nation Holdings’ Small Move Movers for a July 2022 Miami-to-Gainesville move. Not only did Small Move’s employees turn it into an 11-hour odyssey, the company tacked on $3,243 in new charges. They held Gonzalez’s belongings when she refused to pay the inflated price.
The cash cost to Gonzalez: $479 for a hotel; $5,596 for short term furniture and wardrobe replacements; and $788 for missing items once she got her belongings back from Thompson.
Miami-Dade Judge Michael Barket said, based on Thompson’s testimony, the mover extorted Gonzalez and was a “direct participant in this unfair, deceptive and fraudulent scheme.”
Barket awarded Gonzalez a $7,619 judgment and the fees for Gonzalez’s Kozyak Tropin Throckmorton’s attorneys, led by associate Rasheed Nader.
READ MORE: New fraud or extortion could send a Florida mover to jail after order by Miami judge
This case was filed Aug. 5, 2022. Gonzalez’s attorneys have dealt with the case and Thompson’s appeal to the Third District Count of Appeal, which rejected the appeal in its entirety.
In the filing for attorney’s fees, Nader broke down legal costs — research, copying, court reporter, etc. — as $6,977.50 and attorney hourly rates as $235,917.50. The $242.895.25 aligned with his expert witness on “reasonable attorneys’ fees,” litigator Jordi C. Martinez-Cid, who will be installed as the new Cuban-American Bar Association president on Feb. 28.
Nader and Martinez-Cid make up the witness list for the evidentiary hearing that would have taken place on Jan. 27, but for Thompson’s bankruptcy filing.
What the Orange County court wants from Thompson
Much of the income and asset information the bankruptcy court demands from Thompson is information that he has avoided giving the Orange County civil court after a $60,150 judgment for customer Scott Meyer against Thompson, Thompson Nation Holdings and Moving Giants.
READ MORE: A $699 move became $1,801 just 19 miles later
When the court tried to serve Thompson with an order including a fact sheet for financial information, court documents say Thompson refused delivery of the order from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in October. Before that, a process server trying to deliver the order said he was forced from Thompson’s house by someone throwing rocks at him and threatening him.
Thompson has avoided that case entirely by not participating at all, even after being served at his Fort Lauderdale office. That’s why there’s a default judgment against him.
Before the notice of bankruptcy, the court demanded Thompson appear on March 25 to answer why he shouldn’t be held in contempt for not filling out the fact sheet and giving it to Meyer’s lawyer.
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