Troubled travel group Stone & Compass and its founder Robert Goodwin of Marblehead are named in seven lawsuits by financial companies who say Goodwin owes them a total of $863,118. Judgments have already been entered against Goodwin and his company in five of the cases, totaling more than $500,000.
Suits against Goodwin and Stone & Compass have been filed in New York state by the following: Square Funding, Rocket Capital NY, RBLX Funding, Pearl Alpha Funding, Cashium Capital, Swift Funding and Core Funding Source.
Goodwin and Stone & Compass are alleged to have breached their contracts with the plaintiffs. In one case, Square Funding says it purchased 10.50% of Stone & Compass’ receivables for $246,750 and that Goodwin agreed to set up a bank account from which Square Funding could make withdrawals until the money was paid back. Square Funding claims that after depositing $49,350, Goodwin stopped adding money.
“There remains a balance due and owing to the Plaintiff on the agreement in the amount of $202,400.00 plus interests, costs, disbursements and attorney’s fees,” according to the suit.
Investigations
This spring, Stone & Compass canceled trips for hundreds of students and adults around the country. Goodwin said the cancellations were necessary after Stone & Compass was defrauded out of nearly $900,000 by two New York financial institutions.
One of the canceled trips was for students at Seabreeze High School in Daytona Beach, Florida. They had booked and paid for a trip to Greece and Italy for this summer. Goodwin insists he has reimbursed those students and families, but Seabreeze teacher Chris Weinrich, who organized the trip, said they “haven’t seen one red cent” in refunds.
“Furthermore, neither [Goodwin] nor anyone at Stone & Compass has contacted me in the last several months,” Weinrich told the Current. “If he were going to refund us our money, you would think that he would contact the leader of the group to explain what had happened and what was going to happen. That never happened.”
Some Seabreeze families were able to get vouchers from their airlines, according to Weinrich.
Goodwin said that Stone & Compass has “paid back at least 90% of clients. It’s a huge success. Again I could have just gone to bankruptcy and saved a ton of personal pain but simply wanted to do right by others.”
Florida’s Volusia County Sheriff’s Department is investigating Stone & Compass, Detective Bill Weaver confirmed.
“I had several conversations with Robert Goodwin in June and asked him to send documentation to substantiate his claims of massive fraud. He has not provided us any documentation,” Weaver said.
The Florida Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division has launched an “active investigation regarding Stone & Compass” after receiving 19 complaints, according to Chase Sizemore, press secretary for the Florida Attorney General’s Office.
Also in Florida, Flagler College in St. Augustine is suing Goodwin and Stone & Compass for breach of contract, accusing it of canceling trips for 116 students.
“To date, Stone & Compass has not refunded any money to the college or our students,” said Beth Sweeny, director of Flagler’s external and government relations.
“Flagler College chose to reimburse our impacted students for all their expenses,” Sweeny added. “Including the contracted fees we paid Stone & Compass, the college is out about $1 million.”
Flagler is demanding a jury trial.
When asked about the Flagler suit, Goodwin replied, “The suit filed by Flagler I am countering as that particular university ended up running most of their trips. Thus I responded directly to the university with why we feel they have actually wronged us.”
California State University Long Beach is “assessing its legal options” after “Stone & Compass did not meet its contractual obligations and promises to deliver four study abroad programs, which impacted approximately 64 students as well as members of our faculty,” according to CSU spokesman Jim Milbury.
“The financial impact to CSULB is estimated to be over $290,000,” Milbury said.
In emails to the Current, Goodwin said he hasn’t responded to the New York lawsuits and judgments because, “I was waiting to see how things play out with our stolen funds.”
Goodwin said he is cooperating with the New York Attorney General to track down the money stolen from him.
“AG and I had a great conversation last week and it continues to develop AND I’ve been told NOT to discuss a single thing about it and this request came directly from them,” Goodwin wrote.
When asked if it was investigating Goodwin’s claims or whether there were complaints against Stone & Compass, a spokesperson for the New York AG’s office said, “This matter is still under review.”
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office has received six complaints regarding Stone & Compass, according to a spokesperson.
Marbleheader shares story
In Marblehead, a local golfer and member of the Tedesco Country Club says he had to go through American Express to get his money back after booking a trip to Ireland with seven friends through Stone & Compass. One of his friends — another Tedesco member — is still trying to get a refund.
“We were into Rob for $22,000,” said the man, who asked not to be identified. “Then he ghosted me at the end of April.”
The man says he heard from Goodwin’s associate Amon Sharma on May 14.
“He indicated to me that everything had been booked,” he said. “I asked for a confirmation and never received it.”
When the man went to confirm the reservations himself, he found nothing had been booked. He canceled the booking with Stone & Compass.
“It was a bad experience for us,” the man continued. “‘Deceptive’ is probably the least offensive term you could use.”
New headquarters
In May, Goodwin told the Current he would be moving Stone & Compass to Bulgaria, where it has a retreat center. He also said the company would stop operations until 2025.
On July 23, however, Sharma sent an email to some former Stone & Compass participants in Marblehead announcing that the company had merged with another travel group.
“It’s safe to say that after having put a lot of effort and hard work into this we have risen from the ashes,” Sharmon wrote. “It took a lot of doing but we are now fully functional again and accepting tours. The new entity is called N & N Hospitality and Tours. We are headquartered in Scotland and Bulgaria and have had a lot of success filling up our 2025 calendar.”
The website for N & N Hospitality and Tours is under construction.
Goodwin did not comment on the partnership, but did write, “To date we have many wonderful things happening with S and C like working with N and N tours and lots of other great things ALL while still not getting a dime back yet in our stolen funds.”
Goodwin also said he is currently in Bulgaria with a group of Marblehead students. He sent a picture of people sitting by a pool.
“They are with me having an incredible time with them and engaging in life changing moments!” he wrote.
