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An appearance on “Shark Tank” was just what the Philadelphia entrepreneur needed. Even though he got just 10 minutes of airtime during the 2014 show, and his Emergensee app — which let users live-stream video, audio and their GPS location during an emergency — was rejected by the millionaire panel, Philip Reitnour thought he had …
An appearance on “Shark Tank” was just what the Philadelphia entrepreneur needed.
Even though he got just 10 minutes of airtime during the 2014 show, and his Emergensee app — which let users live-stream video, audio and their GPS location during an emergency — was rejected by the millionaire panel, Philip Reitnour thought he had hit the jackpot.
The appearance was a “game changer,” he told Philadelphia Business Journal, saying interest peaked in Emergensee with hundreds of thousands of downloads afterward.
But the bump in business was short-lived. Within three years, Reitnour was deep in debt and had declared bankruptcy. His body was found in Philly’s Schuylkill River in September 2017, with a gunshot wound to the head, an apparent suicide.
Now, a Long Island woman who loaned him more than $6.1 million is suing Reitnour’s four kids to recoup her cash.
Maureen Mitchell claims Reitnour hid his debt from her so he could get another source of financing. She also helped pay his tax bill and stave off foreclosure, she claims in a newly filed Brooklyn Federal Court lawsuit.
He used some of Mitchell’s cash to pay for life insurance policies and college for his four kids who haven’t repaid Mitchell, she charges in the suit against the children.
The Reitnour family didn’t return messages.
