Tee Tee Fit, LLC, alongside Tijana Stevens and Marsha Bendle, has filed a lawsuit against Madabolic Franchise System, LLC and its CEO Rick Del Sontro. The complaint was lodged in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on November 13, 2025. The plaintiffs allege a series of misrepresentations and failures by the defendants that have resulted in significant financial harm.
The lawsuit revolves around a franchise agreement where Tee Tee Fit was to operate a Madabolic franchise in St. Petersburg, Florida. According to the plaintiffs, Madabolic and Del Sontro misrepresented the costs associated with opening and running the franchise. They claim that Madabolic required participation in vendor programs without proper contracts or transparency, leading to financial mismanagement. Allegedly, these actions were compounded by repeated website and contract management failures that further damaged their business operations.
Tee Tee Fit claims they were led to believe by Madabolic’s leadership during a marketing event called “Discovery Days” that owning a franchise would be highly lucrative. Relying on these representations, they invested $40,000 as a franchise fee in December 2021. However, issues arose when Craft Bank expressed concerns over inflated financial projections provided by Madabolic during their loan application process. It is alleged that Rick Del Sontro altered these models to misrepresent potential success despite being barred from participating in federally-related loan programs due to prior misconduct.
The plaintiffs accuse Madabolic of fraudulent misrepresentation and concealment among other charges like civil conspiracy and breach of good faith. They argue that due to misleading information about startup costs—claimed to be around $287,000 but allegedly closer to three times that amount—they depleted their working capital shortly after opening. Consequently, Stevens and Bendle had to inject personal funds into the business.
Additionally, construction issues arose with Rollout Connection (RC), an approved vendor whose mismanagement led to unexpected expenses further straining their finances. Marketing mishaps also occurred when incorrect pricing was advertised on Madabolic’s corporate website deterring potential clients from engaging with their location.
In seeking relief from the court, Tee Tee Fit demands actual damages for losses incurred due to deceptive practices by Madabolic along with punitive damages under North Carolina law which could include treble damages as per the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act. They also seek reimbursement for attorney fees along with pre-judgment interest among other compensatory measures.
Representing Tee Tee Fit are attorneys Marshall Jones from Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP based in Charlotte; Jackson Olsen; and William J Cantrell from Cantrell Schuette P.A., located in Tampa Florida who are expectedly filing pro hac vice applications soon for this case identified as Case No: 3:25-cv-00905 before judges at this district court level.
Source: 325cv00905_Tee_Tee_Fit_LLC_v_Madabolic_Franchise_System_Complaint_Western_District_North_Carolina.pdf
