Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: California ABC license transfer

This requires more information.

To whom did you give the money?

Who has your money now?

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Re: California ABC license transfer

You've got a claim against the seller; none against the new buyer, unless you can show he was on notice of your purchase. If you can't resolve it, you'll have to sue the seller. Get an attorney to help you do it right.

Re: California ABC license transfer

What would the new owner have to do with your investment money? You don't have a contract with the new owner, and the new owner doesn't have your money. Your investment money is, as you say, held in escrow. The escrow holder MUST follow the instructions given it by you and the other party jointly, at the time escrow was opened. You (or your brother, perhaps) participated in giving those instructions. What do they say?

Business-deal escrow instructions almost always have instructions as to what the escrow holder must do with funds deposited in escrow if the deal fails to close. Sometimes the instruction is to return the money to the party that deposited it; sometimes the money is to be forfeited, per instructions, as a non-refundable deposit; most often, the joint instructions to the escrow holder provide for something in between, such as refund less a small sum as liquidated damages.

Another factor for an outside investor like yourself - someone who is neither the buyer or the seller - to consider is "what kind of escrow was this?" Was it a purchase escrow with the purpose of handling the deal between the buyer and seller, and to which the buyer and seller were the principals who gave the instructions to the escrow holder? Or, was it an escrow for holding investor money until the deal was all put together and all the financing was in place?

I think you need to find out who is the escrow holder for the escrow in which your money now sits. Your brother may have improperly put investor money in a purchase escrow where the buyer and seller were the principals (parties), rather than a holding escrow for the protection of investor money until the investor escrow can "break" and the deal close.

I think there are two possible parties you might need to question about your missing money....the escrow holder, and your brother. There is a good possibility in this suspicious mind that your investment was mis-handled.