Fox 4 has information about a lawsuit that Bruno's owner just filed. The lawsuit says Best Home Services conspired to steal his workers and put him out of business.
"This has to do with the intellectual property they stole. This has to do with the employees they stole."
Louis Bruno feels targeted. He believes beginning in 2017, Bruno Total Home Performance's biggest competitor, Best Home Services, began stealing his workers.
And when they left, he says, some took Bruno property with them.
"The day he quit, he brought all our consumer financing and ductwork training to them. He was training their staff on it in two to three weeks." Lois Bruno said.
When asked how he knows that, he said "it's evidence in the lawsuit."
"He took my proprietary training documents that said 'copyright 2014' on them. Bruno documents that we've been using since we made Bruno University. And all that Best Home Services did was take our logo off and put their logo on."
We asked why Bruno didn't go after them a couple of years ago when they started taking employees away. Why now? "We let it go because it wasn't damaging us. Now it's causing us real damage," says Bruno.
He tells Fox 4 that last December, Best Home Services got word he was about to sell his business and they sabotaged the $50 million deal.
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Fox 4 spoke to the owner, who hasn't seen the lawsuit and would only say he has no idea what Bruno is talking about.
A month after the sale fell through, the Attorney General's Office raided Bruno. Hundreds of former customers came forward, accusing the company of poor workmanship, and talking people into work; they didn't need.
A week ago, the Attorney General's Office filed paperwork saying Bruno still has not handed over all the documents they asked for.
Would this lawsuit be necessary if the investigation and the raid hadn't happened? "This lawsuit has absolutely nothing to do with the raid or any potential investigation. It has absolutely to do with the damages caused by us not selling the business."
Bruno's lawsuit asks Best Home Services to give him any money they've made, from what he says was the theft of his property.
