Actual Brewing owner accused of sexual assault by multiple women

This story is uhhhh...something else.

 

Jesus.

 

Yowzers. I generally adhere to innocent until proven guilty, but this sounds undeniably bad. I know it's an exercise in futility, but it's impossible not to wonder what the f goes on in a mind like that. Don't know the legality or logistics, but hopefully there's a way he can be removed and the brand survives so a bunch of hard working employees aren't screwed.

 

Agreed on the first part; it sounds real bad but everyone is entitled to their day in court.

I can answer the second part...if he truly is the sole owner; then the brand really can only survive if he wants it to. He would have to willingly sell his ownership interest.

 

I agree with glass_house, I hope the 36 other employees can keep their jobs.
Fred Lee (the owner) is such a jerk that if the place goes under other breweries and businesses might not want to hire anyone associated with Actual Brewing.

 

Whoa that is both crazy & frightening.
The balls on this guy...

 

First sign the business owner is a rapist- a bed in the workplace.

 

Facebook posts explicitly state that the Lee's are in they process of selling off their ownership stake.

 

Jesus this sounds terrible.

 

Would anyone buy that? If they sell off their ownership, can't the company still be sued for Lee's actions even if he is no longer there?

 

Doesn't seem like this is something worth saving.

 

Yeah I don't work in anything to do with beer or alcohol and was kind of wondering how common a 'sleep it off' room is at a brewery. I've heard of bars having 'snake pits' for drunk people but this is damn creepy. There was a professor at the school I went to about 15 years ago who had a cot in his office "in case the weather was too bad to drive home." I look back on that now and wonder why no one spoke up. Pretty amazing how fast the culture around this BS has shifted in a good way but more change is obviously needed.

 

Even if the ownership changes, I don't see how the brand survives something like this. The name itself is now toxic.

Also, kudos for the reporting in that piece. The amount of work that obviously went into it is far above what you normally see in a free weekly, or at least that particular free weekly.

 

Moral of the story, Fred Lee should have spent more time doing some Actual Brewing.

 

Innocent until proven guilty is for juries and courtrooms. And seeing as how the court system often and consistently fails to find justice for victims of sexual assault, I really don’t care what the legal system thinks of Lee.

He sounds like a habitual predator and deserves some comeuppance.

As far as the remnants of Actual Brewing go, it sucks to find yourself in a situation where your owner’s awful behavior will impact your own livelihood. But the only real answer is to resign, like Moore did. I know it’s difficult—much like Phillips didn’t want to walk away—when you need that paycheck, but unfortunately that’s part of what predators like Lee depend on to continue their disgusting conduct.

 

I get what you're saying. And in this instance, it seems appropriate, given that there appears to be no shortage of corroborating evidence. My point about 'innocent until proven guilty' (on an individual level) is simply that I find the recent phenomenon of [often misguided or straight up misinformed] social media mobs to be a dangerous trend. We live in a time where there's a seemingly constant race to see who can display the most vitriolic outrage the fastest.

All that said, this guy sounds like a royal scumbag and I hope he ends up with a cellmate who hates craft beer and sexual predators.

 

this guy is a real jerk

 

I worked in the industry for a while in Columbus (though lowman on the totem pole) and heard that the guy was a creep. At best, he was a swinger... at worst... smh. I didn't know the full details.

Actual has since deleted their facebook page and has closed their Clintonville location. I think the brewery is done in Columbus... rightly so.

 

Something like this happened in Tampa a couple years back. The co-owner beat his ex-girlfriend and there were other allegations from other women. The other owner split ties obviously. It’s sad to see these things happen in the beer community.

 

That Clintonville bar was only like a month or so old, right? Sucks for all the people who just recently got hired but they're definitely better off not being involved with any of that behavior.

Their beers were pretty bad so Columbus isn't missing out on much.

 

Correct. I think they had been open for two or three weeks, tops. I can't imagine being hired and then needing to leave due to a dumbass owner. Some of those employees couldn't have known what they were walking into.

 

Well that was quick

https://www.columbusalive.com/news/20190215/actual-brewing-company-files-for-bankruptcy

 

And now they are officially done as a company...converted to Chapter 7

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2019/03/20/actual-brewing-heads-for-liquidation.html

 

"While Chapter 11 kept open the possibility that owners and remaining employees could potentially revive the business after coming to terms with creditors, Chapter 7 means the assets will be sold off to repay those debts."

That's too bad for the employees that had no hand in the whole thing; hope they find new jobs quickly.

 

Given their revenue was less than the operating costs this looks like it was going to fail regardless of the charges levied against the owner...

 

Even if the owners form a new LLC and buy the assets back under a new name, the names of these owner will forever be tainted as a result of these allegations.

 

Why would they though? It looked like they weren't profitable even before the scandal broke.

 

Lots of start-up businesses take on losses early until they get up and running.

 

Seems like his scumminess was killing the business even before the news go out to the greater public. The word of mouth within the industry had Actual's number for at least a few years.