Beware the Business Saboteur

"When the guys from the fake fight, which took place on the dance floor, were brought out, one was laid down on her coat. Upon seeing this, the still irate woman kicked the fake fighter, causing him some unexpected very real injuries, including a broken jaw." Wilkie acknowledges the story sounds like a Hollywood script.

Still determined to sue him, the scammers decided that this would make their case even stronger, now claiming that while evicting one of the fighters, they rammed his head into the door, breaking the glass and injuring him while throwing him to the ground. To make matters worse, the police detective on the case wrote all this up in her report.

Wilkie, however, turned detective once his insurance agent pointed out that the surveillance tape showed only the first patron being escorted out, and not the fighters. In fact, as proven later on by Wilkie with the help of a video expert, the rest of the tape, which was in police custody, had been erased.

At this point, other loopholes began to appear in the case before it went to court. Wilkie, who went on to dismantle the story, even proved that the detective was part of the scam.

"I showed that she had written up her report prior to interviewing the witnesses. What were the odds that two witnesses, one inside and one outside, and a police detective, before talking to any witnesses, would come up with the exact same story? Not very likely," adds Wilkie, who won the criminal case. The civil case was then dismissed when none of the participants in the scam showed up. Nonetheless, it still cost Wilkie $60,000 in court costs.

In the end, Wilkie, who sold the club two years later, says it's important not only to have your surveillance cameras on, but also to make sure you watch the tapes if anything unusual occurs.

These entrepreneurs learned the hard way that not everyone has their best interests at heart. Despite the underhanded tactics they faced, they managed to keep thriving businesses. What they learned can serve as a lesson to other entrepreneurs: Mandate a system of checks and balances, keep a wary eye on accounting discrepancies in your business and know who you're working with.