'The Profit' Host Lemonis Countersues Bow Truss Owner Tadros

CHICAGO, IL — CNBC's "The Profit" host and celebrity investor Marcus Lemonis has countersued the founder of Bow Truss Coffee, Phil Tadros.

Tadros sued Lemonis earlier this month after failed negotiations to transfer the company ended with most of its locations shuttered.

Lemonis, CEO of the Lincolnshire-based Camping Wold, filed the suit in Cook County court Feb. 17, several weeks after Tadros sued him over the failed sale of the Chicago-based luxury coffee chain. He also owns the Lake Forest restaurant MLG Chicago and sold his Lake Forest home last year.

"Bow Truss was in much worse financial condition than had been represented by Tadros and did not have the ability to pay its employees, vendors, landlords and other of its creditors," even after he loaned the company nearly $100,000, according to Lemonis' countersuit.

Tadros' original suit, filed Feb. 1, accused Lemonis of scuttling the deal to sell Bow Truss by talking to the press, but the countersuit said it was Tadros who disclosed details of the two men's arrangement to Crain's.

The countersuit asked for a repayment of the $97,394 Lemonis contributed as well as punitive damages.

Photo: Edsel Little (CC)