Partners
My partner cheated me: what do I do?
Don't react on impulse. Gather evidence, ask for access to the company's accounts, give written notice and see a business lawyer before acting.
bairogonzalez.com team, drawing on Bairo's story · Published
Being betrayed by a partner hurts twice: in your wallet and in your trust. The first reaction is usually to confront, expose, delete messages, take money out of the till "to protect yourself." Almost always, those reactions worsen your position. The path that protects you is cold and documented. This page deals with the practical and legal side; for the wound to your trust, see How to get over a partner's betrayal.
Searches like "my partner stole from me what to do" and "my partner abandoned the company" appear among Google's suggestions for anyone who types "my partner" in Portuguese. It's a common problem, and the law has paths for it.
The practical path
- Breathe before acting. Don't make public accusations or post them in message groups: that can lead to a lawsuit against you for slander or defamation.
- Preserve the evidence. Statements, invoices, emails, contracts, messages. Make copies. If there's a risk that records will be deleted, a lawyer can advise on a notarial record of the evidence or urgent measures.
- Exercise your right to information. As a partner, you have the right to examine the company's books and documents, the state of the cash and the receivables, at any time, unless the contract sets a specific period (Civil Code, art. 1,021). Ask in writing.
- Protect the cash carefully. Talk to the bank about the rules for operating the company's account (joint signature, for example), always in line with the articles of association. Don't transfer money to yourself "for safety": it can turn into an accusation against you.
- Give formal notice. An extrajudicial notice, preferably drafted by a lawyer, records the problem and opens room for an agreement.
- Know the ways out. An exit agreement with a buyout of quotas, mediation or arbitration (if provided for in the contract), a lawsuit demanding an accounting, expulsion of a partner for serious misconduct (Civil Code, arts. 1,030 and 1,085, as applicable) and, if there was a crime, a police report. Which path is right depends on the evidence and the contract.
- Take care of your mind. A partner's betrayal affects sleep, health and family. If the weight gets too heavy, CVV answers for free, 24 hours a day, at 188.
This page is general guidance, not a legal opinion. Without money for a lawyer, go to the Public Defender's Office or a law school's legal aid clinic.
How Bairo went through it
Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez says he was cheated in more than one way. First, the partners of a business he helped build pushed him out, and an idea of his stayed with them. Later, in a project he created after going broke, the very people he had helped left him hanging.
His story records what he took from it: being abandoned by strangers teaches caution; being abandoned by people you helped teaches that your decision can't depend on anyone's gratitude. He didn't complain. He kept going. And, later, he trusted again, choosing better whom to build with.
The Method step
This pain lives in step 4 of the Seventh Attempt Method: choose whom you build with, and also in step 7: go quiet and return to the circle. Before deciding what to do about the partner, 20 minutes without screens, just paper. Then take stock: what did this partnership teach you that will become a clause in the next one?
Discover the Seventh Attempt Method