Authorities Take Action against Premier Furniture

Nneka Chukwu and her husband paid Premier Furniture almost $5-thousand dollars for a bedroom set.
"It's been a nightmare!" she told us.
It's been two years and they made many repeated phone calls to the store, but they never got the furniture and never got their money back.
"I couldn't believe that somebody who is doing business who depends on customers to make their business viable would treat their customers the way they did," said Cletus Chukwu, her husband.
The West Palm Beach couple is among the 42 victims state investigators say were taken advantage of by Premier Furniture.
The store closed a few months ago at the Palm Beach Mall in West Palm Beach.
The Florida Attorney General's Office is suing Premier Furniture and several of its principals, saying the firm violated the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. "I'm happy. I've been waiting for this so long, so I'm very happy, said Nneka Chukwu.
The lawsuit filed in circuit court in West Palm Beach says quote: "On repeated occasions, they failed to deliver furnishings for which full payment had already been accepted..." and ignored people's complaints and refused to give refunds.
Investigators say Premier defrauded 42 customers out of $104-thousand dollars. The complaints go back as far as September 2005.
The attorney general's office hopes to get an injunction to shut them down permanently.
After closing their store at the Palm Beach Mall, the people who ran Premier re-opened a few months ago under a new name, Furniture Empire, on Military Trail in Riviera Beach, just south of the Beeline Highway. We went there seeking comment.  "The attorney generals office has filed a lawsuit against you guys saying you took advantage of dozens of people, and didn't deliver furniture they paid for. What do you say about that?" I asked.
"Will you step outside? I don't know what you're talkin' about," an unidentified employee told us as he motioned for us to leave.
"Won't you talk with us about it?  Can you talk with us about it?"  The employee ignored us, and quickly closed the door as we stood there.
Authorities at the attorney general's office in Tallahassee say it could take months, even years for these people to get their refunds. But the goal is to get them their money back.
The lawsuit also says quote: "Defendants responded to consumer complaints by stalling consumers, neither delivering the furnishings purchased nor making refunds. Defendants continue to accept payment for new furniture from customers knowing the furnishings purchased would probably not be delivered, based on the Defendants' past performance."
The lawsuit says Premier also did business under the names Furniture Max, Inc., Furniture Enterprises, Inc., and V&M Furniture Holdings. They had locations in West Palm Beach, Lake Worth and Boynton Beach.  Also named in the lawsuit are the following individuals who ran these furniture businesses:  Jason Ventura, Moises Ventura, Sam Ventura,  Michael Marcellino, and Neil Marcellino.