Con-artist — CityGuru head faces questions for unpaid debts

By Jason Cruz
Northwest Asian Weekly

Drew Morrison

Unpaid vendors, unpaid charities, and unanswered questions.

CityGuru founder Drew Morrison is a sought after man but not in a good way after his upscale, socialite party business failed to deliver on its promises.

Morrison’s company offered subscriptions granting people access to special events, restaurants, and more.  The company even offered philanthropic opportunities as its parties were branded as helping worthy causes like Susan G. Komen or Mary’s Place.

However, vendors and charities are searching for Morrison as he has left a trail of unpaid debt leaving vendors that worked the functions and charities that were to benefit from the parties with nothing to show for them.

The last known event for CityGuru was this past July as the company posted pictures on its Facebook page from this year’s Seafair in which CityGuru held a “Family Day” event.  The event which CityGuru charged $35 per person or $100 for a family of four advertised that “full access to Seafair while having a private suite to spend the day.”  There was no word as to how many people attended the event.  The company’s twitter handle has not posted since early August and the company’s web site is no longer working.

According to a United States Securities and Exchange Commission Form D, CityGuru is a corporation registered in Delaware and doing business in the state of Washington.  It lists James Billmaier, Olin Nichols, and Andrew Morrison as its officers.  However, Billmaier and Nichols claimed to not be current officers of the company.

A recent judgment was entered against Andrew Morrison for $971,441.86 according to court documents filed in King County Superior Court.  The monetary judgment stems from a 2009 real estate flipping business with Texas investor Gary Woolever.  Court documents state that Woolever gave Morrison $425,000 from his retirement fund based on Morrison’s representation that he had been “involved in approximately 900 million dollars in real estate transactions.”  Morrison would “provide the expertise and knowledge to buy, sell and rehabilitate real estate” according to the documents filed by Woolever’s attorney.  In order to secure the transaction, Morrison signed a promissory note to secure the funds that he would be utilizing to invest on behalf of Woolever.  Morrison defaulted on the promissory note according to Woolever’s lawyer.  According to KOMO News, Morrison squandered the money in a variety of ways, none of which assisted in seeking a return on Woolever’s initial investment.  After a lawsuit was filed against Morrison, it was discovered that he never had a real estate license, a securities license, or contractor’s license.  Morrison failed to live up to the promises of maintaining the business venture including not paying taxes.

In addition to the recent revelation, Morrison has failed to pay vendors including models and emcees from chic soirees which promised to be on behalf of charities.  Those charities claim that Morrison failed to come through on his promises as well.  Many people who attended Morrison’s events under the impression that their money would be going to a good cause were wrong.  Also, the charities that partnered with CityGuru and persuaded their followers to attend Morrison’s event with the belief that they were supporting a good cause found they were duped.

Morrison has not surfaced and cannot be located by anyone.  It’s unknown if Woolever will ever realize his $971,441.86 judgment let alone the multiple vendors and charities that are owed money from him. (end)

Jason Cruz can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.