A Christchurch man is actively advertising cleaning franchise opportunities across Canterbury and Nelson/Marlborough.

Faamasinoga Eneliko, who goes by Lex, a self proclaimed financial advisor on LinkedIn, is currently listing franchise opportunities under the name Fantastic 4 Commercial and Domestic Cleaning on Trade Me. Listings cover Kaiapoi, Rangiora, Hornby, Halswell, Riccarton, and the City Centre, each promising an average guaranteed income of $10,000 and a guaranteed base income for 24 months.

For a number of people who have dealt with Eneliko previously, this is alarming.

All Faith Cleaning Services

Before Fantastic 4 www.f4.co.nz Eneliko operated All Faith Cleaning Services Ltd (AFCS Ltd) in Christchurch. The company accumulated complaints from customers who paid deposits for cleaning work that was never done, and received no response when they attempted to follow up.

Google reviewer Jason King described paying in advance for a post-sale clean on his house. The company failed to show up at the agreed time, and every subsequent attempt to make contact, by phone, text, email, and Facebook, went unanswered. King noted that others had reported the same experience on Facebook. The money was never refunded.

A website built on borrowed credibility

The Fantastic 4 website features the logos of several businesses and organisations beneath a banner reading "Trusted by Businesses Across New Zealand." When those businesses were contacted, many confirmed they had no affiliation with Fantastic 4 and had not authorised use of their branding.

One business owner, who asked to remain anonymous, had a more direct experience. They brought Eneliko in as a subcontractor on their jobs. When they later went to invoice the end client, they were told the bill had already been paid. Eneliko had gone directly to the clients, invoiced them himself, and collected the full payment without informing them.

At least one of the companies whose logo appears on the site is in the process of issuing a cease and desist letter requiring its removal.

The Candoo franchise

Before Fantastic 4, Eneliko was with Candoo, a New Zealand franchise network, who brought him on as the Master Franchisee for the Christchurch region. The welcome was substantial. Candoo structured the arrangement so that Eneliko paid nothing upfront - the franchise was given to him on a $50,000 loan, on the basis that the region's potential and the commercial work he claimed to already have would see him generating income quickly. They also lent him a personal vehicle to use. He told them he had contracts ready to go for franchisees - a claim, along with his representation that he had 32 employees and an active university contract, that would later prove entirely false. Candoo learned that the university contract had already been lost before he joined the network, and the staff along with it. After citing the messages it appears that Lex was pushing to get money for people that he owed, but Candoo would not sign any franchisees without the available work.

Only weeks into the arrangement, Eneliko approached Candoo's leadership saying he could not afford to pay staff at his other business and asked to borrow $5,000. Candoo agreed, provided a formal loan agreement was put in place with his equipment listed as security. The money was transferred.

Before the first loan was repaid, Eneliko returned asking for a further $5,000, this time for painting supplies, and urgently, as he was already standing in the queue at Bunnings. Despite reservations, Candoo gave him the benefit of the doubt and agreed, on the same terms as before. He never repaid a dollar of the $10,000.

What Candoo did not know was that the equipment Eneliko had pledged as security on those loans had already been sold.

The buyer was Joshua, a young Filipino franchisee who had recently joined the Candoo network and had no reason to be suspicious of the man who was the regional Master Franchisee for Candoo in Canterbury. Eneliko had not simply sold him equipment, he had built an entire false business opportunity around it, pitching Joshua on a pressure washing and painting operation, promising to generate sales at 10% commission and provide ten days of hands-on training. He invoiced Joshua $2,500 as a deposit, under AFCS Ltd, to give the arrangement the appearance of legitimacy.

Candoo had no knowledge of any of it.

None of the promises were kept. When Joshua asked for a refund, Eneliko became aggressive, blaming him and expressing anger that he had told Candoo what had happened. He went further, suggesting, in what appeared to be a deliberate attempt to intimidate, that immigration authorities might have an interest in Joshua's situation. For a young migrant worker who had done nothing wrong, the implied threat was clear. Joshua was left chasing money from someone who had made promises he never intended to keep, and who was now using his immigration status as leverage to avoid accountability.

When Candoo discovered what had happened with Joshua, they told Eneliko there would be no further loans and asked to be repaid as agreed. Eneliko's response was to become aggressive and go directly to Candoo's own staff and franchisees, telling them the company had wronged him. Some believed him. Working alongside those employees, he has allegedly taken cleaning contracts away from the business that had given him free entry to the network, two loans, and the use of a vehicle.

Candoo is still feeling the effects. Since launching Fantastic 4, Lex appears to have used connections made inside the network to draw franchisees and contracts toward his own business and away from theirs. That group continues to actively target Candoo online, leaving negative reviews and comments in an effort to damage the company's reputation. The business that gave him a $50,000 business on finance, lent him a vehicle, and gave him an extra $10,000 in loans is now, by his account, in the wrong for simply asking to be repaid what they loaned him. Unable to repay what he owed, he appears to have decided that damaging the business was the easier path.

In every instance where he was caught out, Eneliko's response seems to be consistent: he claims he was the victim.