FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail:

Enough Already!

By Alan Blair

In early May of 2006, while working Hurricane Relief in Alabama, a close friend of mine sent me a link to an article about the Mondial Moto company of Italy that he had found on the web. He felt that it would be of particular interest to me since I had seen and ridden the Mondial Piega motorcycle previously and had held an interest in the bike coming to America.

The article was about the resurrection of the Mondial brand, and the fact that someone was buying out the company assets with plans to put the important Italian icon back on the map. That someone, as luck would have it, was Andrew Wright. At the time, I knew nothing about Andrew Wright, and this whole resurrection thing was very intriguing to me. In an effort to find out more, I looked up Andrew and spoke with him for some time about the possibilities of bringing the Mondial to America.

During my conversation, Andrew assured me that he would be interested in working with me as the American Importer of the Mondial, if I were to help him in his quest to raise the remainder of the money he would need to crank up production in late 2006. And since I was only a few hours away in Southern Alabama, we made plans for a meeting in Valdosta, Georgia for the following week to discuss how we would bring back an important piece of Italian history. Little did I know what I would be walking into.

The following week, I jumped into my truck and headed to Valdosta. I was really looking forward to our meeting, because Andrew had walked the walk so well that he had me believing that he was really working on acquiring the company and rebuilding it.

When I arrived at Andrew’s home in Valdosta, his wife was making dinner, and Andrew and I began to discuss the workings of the Mondial company and spoke of the reasons it had not succeeded in the past. Following the meal, Andrew and I had a lengthy conversation, going over his plans for resurrecting Mondial, at which time he shared a lot of impressive information with me. He seemed to really have a hold on who was to be involved in every aspect of the process. He had plans for a new engine, since the previous Mondials had the Honda RC51 power plant (something that Honda would not allow if the bikes were to be sold in the U.S. market). He had lined up new suppliers that would allow Mondial dramatic production cost cuts over what was previously possible using the previous suppliers, allowing Mondial to set more reasonable and affordable price points on all levels. He had an impressive presentation that was semi-complete with numbers, which seemed to be well thought out. The only piece of the puzzle remaining was the resurrection of the Mondial Business Plan, which was outdated, incomplete, and basically not well-written.

As we discussed the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the company, Andrew had an answer for everything. He explained that he had spent so much money traveling back and forth to Italy, and on legal fees, that he fell short of what would be needed for the initial production run. He spoke of the “Ziletti Replica,” a sportbike so grand in scope, that he claimed its number had been pre-sold online very quickly, and had supporting documentation to prove it. He was very thorough and very convincing.

The next day, as I headed back to Alabama, I dropped a call to a couple of friends of mine, one of them being a former DEA agent and riding buddy that could tell me more about Andrew and his past. At the time we found only minimal information about Andrew and his escapades, but enough to raise a few flags. Though when asked about the smuggling accusations, Andrew had the perfect story, and had certainly explained it well enough to get me off the trail of finding dirt for a while.

The other friend I called on my way back to Alabama, was a friend from Houston that I had worked with on other business projects in the past. And since we would need an overhaul of the business plan for Mondial, I knew that he was the man to help me get this done. He and I could produce an effective business plan that would help us to meet our goals of finding funding for Mondial. He agreed, and we began to plan from that day, knowing that there was no time to waste.

In the days and weeks that followed we had numerous conversations with Andrew, and had swapped numerous e-mails in an attempt to procure the information and numbers that we would need for the business plan. We found a lot of numbers that didn’t add up, and slowly came to realize that some of the associated costs were not well thought out. We had to work hard to get numbers to make sense, and to get them worked into useable graphs and spreadsheets. It was around this time that we both started doubting Andrew’s ability to take the helm on such a project, noting his lack of attention to detail. But since he was in the driver’s seat, and we felt this was a great opportunity, we knew we would have to work with him to get the factory up, and hope that things went according to plan. Besides, we had already discussed going to Italy to assist in the initial builds at start-up, at which time we could help him adjust to the environment that I had a lot of experience in.

It also began to seem odd to us that every time that we called Andrew to get more information, he would poke and prod us to hurry up and get this finished, almost to the point of expressing reluctance to give more information. I explained time and time again that this was something that had to be done carefully and correctly if it were to get us the amount of money that we would need to start up production and make it through the initial growth periods of the company. Andrew also began to sound perturbed, stressing that we would fall behind soon. But we stayed focused. Though now it was August anyway, and we were putting the finishing touches on the plan. We even had a good idea of where we would be getting the money we were looking for.

A few days later, on August 14th I received an e-mail from Andrew stating that he had found a “Lucrative Funding Deal” for the company, and that it was going to cost him $30,000 to make this deal work. He stated that he had spent so much of his money on this project to date, that he expected me to wire him $20,000 that day, if I wanted to remain a part of the program. Needless to say the red flags really blew in the wind that day! If he expected me to send him that much money, I would have to see some supporting documentation on this so-called “Lucrative Funding Deal,” and we would need a valid contract denoting each detail of our agreement with him and Mondial.

I got on the phone with Andrew and asked what kind of funding required him to put up $30,000, and why didn’t he just give us what we needed to secure the investors that we were already talking to. And of course the crap got deep when he began to make up a story about why he couldn’t even FAX us some supporting documentation to validate this “Lucrative Funding Deal.” At this point I knew that there was some real dung flinging going on, and that Andrew was probably planning to use the money I would be sending him to leave the country, as we knew he would eventually be doing to return to Italy anyway. And of course, I soon found out about the sentence and never entertained sending him the $20,000 that he requested, so we haven’t spoken since.

I soon began to find more articles, and of course found out a lot more about Andrew’s smuggling charges, and a lot more. And though I have to admit that after reading more about Andrew’s plight with the law, that he may have been pushed through the system without the right of an honest appeal process, it doesn’t change the fact that he was knowingly trying to dup me out of $20,000, or that running away from the law doesn’t fix his problems. But I am a believer in “You reap what you sow.”

I’m sure that by now Andrew Wright is sipping tea in Italy somewhere, and wishing that I had given him the $20k that he’d requested. Though if I had, he would be sipping his tea through a straw for the rest of his days after I made a vacation trip to Italy to find him, and he’d be wishing that the US Marshalls had found him first!

On another note, we certainly don’t need anymore con artists running their games within the motorcycle industry where most of us would like to see more prosperous ventures taking place. Additionally, I hope that this doesn’t shed a bad light on motorcycling, or the great and historical motorcycle company, Mondial. At this point, I have to admit that it is looking more and more like Mondial will never resurface to take its rightful place in the motorcycle industry. I really felt that it was a cause worth pursuing. So, Mr. Ziletti, if you’re reading this, drop me a note. I have a great business plan for resurrecting your great company.

(The former owner of RPM, Alan Blair is a businessman based in Houston, Texas.)