A Croton-on-Hudson broker that arranged the sale of a Pleasantville business is suing the owners for $500,000 in expectation that they will renege on a deal.
Travco Inc. accused Michael DiGuglielmo and Anthony DiGuglielmo Jr. of anticipatory breach of contract in a lawsuit filed on Aug. 28 in Westchester Supreme Court.
Travco claims they are concocting “manufactured grounds upon which to deprive plaintiff of the fruits of the finder’s fee agreement.”
Travco arranges mergers and acquisitions for owners of businesses valued from $2 million to $200 million, according to its website. It is run by Stephen B. Sacher, an accountant.
The DiGuglielmos operate AMX Mechanical Corp. and AMX Cooling and Heating LLC, a family-run enterprise founded in 1969 that handles residential cooling and heating jobs and complex work such as a $13.6 million project at Maria Fareri Hospital in Valhalla.
In April 2024, the DiGuglielmos hired Travco to identify potential buyers, according to the complaint. Travco was to be paid 6% of the purchase price, according to the finder’s fee agreement, then and additional 10% of funds from a 2025 – 2026 “earnout.”
This past July, Travco arranged for WayPoint Capital Partners, a Stamford private equity firm, to buy the AMX companies. Travco received the 6% payment, the complaint states, and it estimated that the second payment will be worth $500,000 to $1 million.
But the DiGuglielmos, AMX companies, and WayPoint are allegedly trying to repudiate the earnout fee because of a press release.
The same day that Travco issued an email blast announcing the sale, a WayPoint official and Michael DiGuglielmo complained in emails that the press release violated a confidentiality agreement. On July 21, attorney Michael. E. Greenblatt (Welby, Brady & Greenblatt, White Plains) issued a cease-and-desist letter accusing Sacher him a “flagrant breach” of the finder’s fee confidentiality provisions.
Travco is asking the court to declare that a press release about a completed does not violate the confidentiality agreement, and to award at least $500,000 in compensatory damages.
Michael DiGuglielmo and WayPoint principal Carina Smith did not reply to emails asking for responses to the allegations.
Travco is represented by attorneys William P. Harrington and George P. Burns Jr. (Bleakley Platt & Schmidt. White Plains).
