CNBC’s ‘The Profit’ ended with legal acrimony and an $11 million payout. Its host is now back on TV.

Marcus Lemonis — the multimillionaire entrepreneur known for dishing out tough love tactics and advice to small businesses across the US — returned to reality television this summer.

“Every episode, I’m meeting businesses at a crossroads,” he told viewers during the double episode premiere of Fox’s “The Fixer.”

“I’m not a consultant. I don’t believe in handouts. I’m a capitalist.”

From 2013 to 2021, Lemonis also hosted another reality show, CNBC’s “The Profit.” Its premise was similar to that of “The Fixer”: Lemonis offered capital and advice to what were described as “struggling” small businesses in exchange for partial ownership and being put “100% in charge.” The show was a hit and turned Lemonis into a minor celebrity.

It also resulted in a sprawling mess of lawsuits, arbitrations, confidential settlements, and small business owners who say that Lemonis damaged their companies and reputations.

Of the roughly 100 businesses featured on “The Profit,” more than 50 filed lawsuits, engaged in mediation talks, or settled with Lemonis and NBCUniversal over the harm they say they endured.

While some of these disputes were known, the scale of the fallout has not been previously reported. Business Insider has learned that in 2021, NBCUniversal, CNBC, Comcast, Lemonis, and the show’s production company settled for $11 million, with 40 companies that appeared on “The Profit” paid $275,000 each.

Arbitrators and federal judges dismissed several fraud and misconduct claims against Lemonis. In two cases, NBCUniversal, Lemonis, and their affiliated companies secured more than $20 million in judgments, loan repayments, and legal fee awards after lawsuits filed by companies that appeared on the show went to arbitration.

Business owners have accused Lemonis and NBCUniversal of aggressive tactics, broken promises, loading on debt, and deals that unraveled after filming. Business Insider interviewed more than a dozen people involved with the show and reviewed thousands of pages of court records, correspondence, and confidential settlement documents.

Lemonis and NBCUniversal have denied the allegations, saying the CEO was only trying to help companies already in trouble. In court and public statements, they’ve argued they disclosed key risks of appearing on the show.

In an interview with Business Insider, Lemonis said he had won “any claim that was ever brought against me.”

“I know I didn’t do anything wrong. I have a clean conscience. I sleep at night very well,” Lemonis said. He declined to discuss the settlement agreement and didn’t respond to subsequent follow-up questions.

“The only money that I could ever think of that got spent was mine,” Lemonis said. “And the amount of money that I ever got out of the businesses — including loans, interest, in any business of any kind — this isn’t specific to any business — was zero.”

Now, Fox has brought Lemonis back to the air with a familiar concept. Fox declined to comment.

‘100% in charge’

Lemonis, 51, got his start selling cars and hustling RVs, snapping up dealerships in the early 2000s that he rolled into a national chain. He became the CEO of Camping World in 2006 and took the RV giant public a decade later. As his profile grew, he styled himself as a sharp-tongued, blue-collar mogul — part businessman, part showman. In 2024, he took over as executive chairman of Beyond, Inc., the parent company of Bed Bath & Beyond, shortly after the home goods brand declared bankruptcy. He was appointed principal executive officer a year later.

“The Profit” first aired in July 2013, part of an attempt by CNBC — NBCUniversal’s business news channel — to find programming for the after-market hours.

The idea was simple. Lemonis promised to invest his money, often in exchange for an ownership stake, to help revamp small businesses across the country. He would negotiate on-air, handshake agreements with business owners and declare himself “100% in charge” before implementing a slew of changes. If owners expressed doubt, Lemonis and producers told them to “trust the process,” business owners alleged in legal and mediation records.

The show took off on social media and, within three years, CNBC said it was its most-watched original series telecast with 1.9 million viewers.

In early 2021, Gerard Fox, a Los Angeles-based litigator with a background in high-profile commercial and entertainment law, sent a series of letters to lawyers at Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal. The letters, which have been reviewed by Business Insider and have never previously been reported on, were put together on behalf of dozens of participants on “The Profit,” detailing what they described as their negative experiences with the show.

After Fox sent his letters, both sides entered into mediation, according to one person involved, heading off potential litigation by many of the businesses. The settlement agreement was signed by senior executives at Comcast, NBCUniversal, CNBC, Lemonis, and the production company, and included non-disparagement clauses for the companies involved and a reciprocal confidentiality clause. Parties on both sides of the settlement denied wrongdoing.

One of the small business owners said they took the money because they feared that otherwise, “NBC and Lemonis will throw $millions at us and in the end squash us,” according to emails among business owners discussing the settlement.

Gerard Fox declined to comment for this story. After a lawsuit he filed on behalf of another business that appeared on the show was dismissed in federal court, a judge sanctioned Fox, saying she was misled about the terms of that dismissal.

“The goal of ‘The Profit’ was to help participants find a path to success for businesses that were often close to failure,” a CNBC spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider. “While some did not succeed, the show aimed to help businesses get to profitability and shine a light on the challenges that face small business owners across the country.”

In a document prepared for the mediation, the network said it had no role in the deals between Lemonis and the businesses, and that it wasn’t responsible for how those deals turned out.

Many business owners declined to comment, with some citing contracts they signed prior to filming that stipulated heavy fines for speaking about the show.

In 2023, NBCUniversal and the production company settled with five more businesses, which were represented by the law firm Quinn Emanuel, according to court documents. That same year, NBCUniversal also settled with the owners of an Illinois marina company who claimed that their business was disparaged on the show. Lemonis was not a party to these settlements.

Stephen Marmer, a psychiatrist who has taught at UCLA’s School of Medicine, was hired by the attorney Fox on behalf of the companies for the settlement discussions. Marmer wrote in a report how, after interviewing 48 of the business owners or their family members, many described damage to their confidence or self-trust, humiliation in front of vendors or staff, or alienation from family members and business partners.

At least five people said they had been suicidal or engaged in suicidal ideation, according to the report.

“If the narratives presented in these interviews reflect what actually happened to those whom I interviewed, I can see how they were injured and how and why their symptoms arose,” Marmer concluded. “Most of them will need ongoing treatment to recover from the PTSD and gaslighting they experienced.”

“I was surprised that CNBC stuck with him as long as they did,” said Dan Isenhart, a longtime employee at the Southern California wine shop Amazing Grapes, which filed for bankruptcy three years after appearing on the show and was not part of the settlement. “He caused a lot of heartache for a lot of people.”

Bankruptcy, litigation, and debt

For some companies, appearing on “The Profit” was a boon. Mike Anderson said revenue for his and his brother’s business, now focused on screen printing, is 10 times what it was when they filmed their show. “It’s a night-and-day difference,” Anderson said.

Another business owner, Ana Quincoces, said her ongoing relationship with Lemonis has been fruitful, including work he directed her way. The two considered opening a restaurant together, she said. Quincoces added that her prior experience with reality TV — she appeared on “The Real Housewives of Miami” — may have better prepared her for the experience.

Not all feel the same.

By 2021, Steve Weissmann’s business, Tumbleweed Tiny House, was bankrupt, embroiled in litigation it would ultimately lose, and millions of dollars in debt to Lemonis.

In 2017, when Weissmann appeared on “The Profit,” he described his business in court documents as successful, making millions in revenue, and meeting with potential investors. “We were growing at 60 percent compound annual growth rates, which is very successful growth,” he told Business Insider. “But we were losing money as we grew too fast.”

He said that he initially applied to be on the show because he was impressed by Lemonis’s reputation as a business guru.

On the first day of filming, Lemonis expressed concern at the way Weissmann accounted for customer deposits, Weissmann said.

When Weissmann asked Lemonis what the future of the company looked like to him, Lemonis responded, “You not going to jail,” according to a transcript from the taping.

When he went home after filming, Weissmann said he held his wife while they cried, and she vomited. Weissmann, who said that his accounting was above board, said he decided to take the deal offered on-air or risk being called a criminal on TV. The footage never aired.

What did make it to air was Weissmann telling Lemonis, “I’m running on the edge.” They ultimately verbally agreed to a deal that involved Lemonis loaning $3 million to the business in exchange for 75% ownership. It also involved a radical change to Tumbleweed’s business model. Lemonis told Weissmann to move Tumbleweed away from custom builds and toward standard units.

Weissmann told Business Insider he questioned the move — most customers preferred custom models, he said — but agreed.

According to statements in court filings, after the episode aired, Lemonis eventually stopped responding, and Tumbleweed was left with excess inventory from the production of standard units. After months of turning down orders for custom homes, Tumbleweed started to run out of cash, according to statements in court documents. Along the way, Tumbleweed also took on loans of around $2.8 million from a Lemonis company to stay afloat.

Less than three years after appearing on “The Profit,” in 2020, Tumbleweed filed for bankruptcy, which Weissmann called “devastating.” He said he wasn’t involved in the $11 million settlement because he was already involved in these proceedings.

A Lemonis company sued Weissmann a year later, seeking the nearly $3 million in principal and interest on loans made to Tumbleweed, for which Weissmann was a guarantor. Lemonis’ lawyers argued that the bankruptcy filing had triggered an immediate obligation to pay back the money.

Weissmann responded by filing a counterclaim and then a lawsuit against NBCUniversal, Lemonis, the production company, alleging fraud and breaches of fiduciary duty, among other claims.

The case went to arbitration, as required by the show’s participation contract. An arbitrator sided with the defendants, writing “the weight of the evidence shows that Lemonis was attempting to ‘save’ Tumbleweed, not have it fail, even if he did not ultimately succeed.”

In early July, a judge confirmed a $14.4 million arbitration award to NBCUniversal, Lemonis, Camping World, and the production company against Weissmann and Tumbleweed, including $7.7 million in attorney fees.

Lemonis and NBCUniversal secured another win in 2023. An arbitrator awarded $7.1 million, including more than $6 million in attorney fees, to NBCUniversal, the production company, and Camping World after the trustee of the bankrupt design firm Precise Graphix lost in arbitration. The arbitrator cited “the complete failure of competent, credible evidence” to support the trustee’s allegations, which included fraud and breach of contract.

A ‘prop’ check

Other business owners allege that Lemonis took advantage of companies he pledged to help, according to interviews and legal records reviewed by Business Insider. Many of the allegations of exploitative business practices were also detailed in a 2018 Inc. Magazine article.

In one 2016 lawsuit, the owners of a Pennsylvania-based restaurant franchise, My Big Fat Greek Gyro, said they applied in hopes of expanding and selling more franchises. While filming, the lawsuit said, they agreed to a deal with Lemonis for $350,000 in exchange for a 55% stake in the business.

Once the cameras were off, the lawsuit alleged, the owners were told to return the check they received from Lemonis, and that it was just a “prop” for the show. The owners claimed that they never received the money, and that Lemonis used the promised funds for renovations, changed the businesses’ name to The Simple Greek, while ultimately “freezing” them out of their business after establishing a new LLC that was owned by a Lemonis company.

“Prior to the show, we were collectively making about $160,000 a year,” one owner said in a 2022 deposition. “Eighteen months into the show, we had no income.”

The lawsuit, which alleged, among other things, fraud, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty, is ongoing in state court. Lawyers for Lemonis have called the claims “baseless,” arguing he invested millions of dollars to try to “salvage plaintiffs’ floundering business,” and allegations of misconduct were, in reality, Lemonis “operating the business pursuant to his undisputed decision-making powers as the controlling owner of The Simple Greek.”

In a 2020 lawsuit filed by the New York company Bowery Kitchen Supplies, the owner alleged that after agreeing to an on-air deal for $350,000 in exchange for 33% of the business, a producer took back the “prop” check.

Like the Greek restaurant owners, he alleged that he never received the promised funding, and that Lemonis made drastic changes to the business, including liquidating hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of inventory and shutting down the store for costly renovations, leaving the business deep in debt. The case was later dismissed as part of the 2021 settlement.

At least 10 companies or business owners filed for bankruptcy after appearing on the show, court records show. Another 17 closed down, according to the letters that Fox, the attorney, sent to Comcast.

‘We have been diminished’

The 2021 settlement talks were not the first time that participants on the show attempted to notify NBCUniversal about their complaints, according to Fox’s letters and other records obtained by Business Insider.

In 2013, a business owner hired an attorney to prevent NBCUniversal from airing their episode, after they said misrepresentations were made during filming, the letters say. The network declined, and the episode came out.

The daughter of a business owner who appeared on the show also said online that her family was humiliated by Lemonis and the production company. The executive producer told her in late 2014 that “CNBC lawyers had seen the post and were not happy,” and that she’d be sued by the network if she didn’t take it down, the letters said.

That year, the family member of a different business owner wrote to CNBC’s president and chairman; NBCUniversal’s CEO; and several other network executives. She said the show portrayed her family in a false light and defamed them, according to the letters. In 2015, another owner sent “a detailed letter” to NBCUniversal, “informing them of the fraud and defamation that the show and Lemonis perpetrated on him,” according to the letters.

While speaking on the “Shark Tank Podcast” in 2015, Lemonis said that following one of the episodes, he “got emails from the family and aunts and uncles and cousins and how upset they were that I had portrayed them that way.”

CNBC aired the show’s final episode in September 2021.

Now, as another batch of businesses appear on Fox’s “The Fixer,” Steve Weissmann says he wishes he’d never said yes to “The Profit.”

“We have been diminished in a way that we never deserved to be,” Weissmann told Business Insider. “I was on a reality television show and made to look like an idiot.”

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