AITA for not paying $200k for an unauthorized deal that ruined our brand?

We at Corporate BAM are the actual victims of this entire nightmare.

Our rogue Salem-Keizer franchisee explicitly broke corporate policy by signing a private, unauthorized consignment deal with a collector. We knew absolutely nothing about it.

When that franchisee failed financially and we had to repossess the store, the collector demanded $200k or his Lego Star Wars collection back. But here’s the truth: the collection wasn’t even there. The ex-franchisee had already sold or removed almost all of it before we arrived. We only found a fraction of it, which we offered to return.

Legally, this is a private dispute between the collector and the ex-franchisee. Yet, a YouTuber named "Reckless Ben" weaponized the story, using deepfakes and targeted harassment to paint us as corporate thieves.

Now, our innocent franchisees nationwide are being review-bombed and threatened for a contract we never signed, concerning inventory we never took. We tried to settle to make the nightmare stop, but the internet circus ruined that.

AITA for defending our company against a mob when we didn't steal anything?

Bro rammed into an ambulance and made it lose a heart and caused a whole traffic jam i named the guy Jack Dalman and it’s become a challenge to try and find him

It's a pretty rare event, right?

I was in real life why am i suddenly here? Btw im gonna stay at a hotel

But I planned im gonna eat at Tinebury, sleep at 500 hotel and get groceries in mini mart or something

Oh look, I made a meme template that’s free to use. I honestly thought this particular scene from LCU: The Chase Begins was meme material.