Family Office Funding Opportunity Misrepresented To Client In Texas

A multi-Family Office referral partner collected $25,000 up front to match my company with one of his family offices to provide up to $100 million in funding for an acquisition. Several times he said he was flying to my city to meet with me, but either just didn’t show up or cancelled at the last minute. Once he requested/ required we pay him $2500 up front for him to make a trip to meet with us, but used bad weather causing his flight to be cancelled as an excuse not to come. I was able to confirm that neither his flight, nor any of the flights from his city to mine, were cancelled that day or evening. He had outright lied. He set up phone calls several times with “partners” of his to have us “pitch” our ask, but it was always very unclear as to what role, if any, the person might play. Never once did he officially present our business funding request to any family office or other investors nor did we get any feedback or change requests to the executive summary or pitch deck we provided. Several times we gave him the option to tell us he could not find investors, but he always vehemently reassured us the funding was going to happen. He told us how several different people were very close friends of his and they trusted him, therefore, the process would be simple and quick. Last month he did actually fly here and spend a few hours meeting with us, and just prior to that he did refund the $2500 we had paid for the trip he cancelled.

Now, 7 long months have passed and no funding and no communication. There are 4 partners involved in my business-4 people with families whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted, both financially and mentally due to the stress of needing funding and expecting funding to come through any day or week, per this person.

Can we sue him for fraud and misrepresentation?

Location: Dallas TX