A dozen San Diego businesswomen say store owner owes them each thousands

Lori Sutherland from Ramona has turned fine and functional art into a small business venture. 

She sold her creations on consignment by renting space inside Public Market stores. This business model allowed her to be in a storefront without paying the overhead. 

She’s upset at a now-divorced couple who she accuses of taking her money. Sutherland did business with them for a few years at two of their stores, but in January, she says everything started falling apart.

A few months later everyone and everything was gone, said Sutherland, along with more than $1,600 that her business generated at the beginning of 2023. 

She said a man named Kanee Matloub, one of the owners, took her money. She took a picture of him when she found him a few months ago working at a boba shop he now runs in Mission Valley.

Sutherland is not the only one who says Matloub and his ex-wife Rosa Claudia Sotelo owe them money. 

We met with six of the 12 small business women who reached out to us. Most had never met before but had so much in common. 

They showed the NBC 7 Responds team text messages very similar to one another. They told us they were from Matloub asking for patience. He told them sales had been low and therefore he had been slow to pay them.

Sunny Chism told us she received some payments until July, when she and the other vendors say Matloub promised he would get a full-time job to pay what he owes. A few weeks passed and none of the vendors heard from him or his ex-wife, they said. 

The women estimate the couple failed to pay them more than $35,000 combined. 

They contacted NBC 7 Responds. We learned that Matloub and Sotelo ran four stores under the name “Public Market.” They were located in Mission Valley, North County, Grossmont and UTC.

According to Instagram posts:

• Grossmont Public Market opened in July of 2020 
• UTC opened in May of 2021, but then moved to Mission Valley six months later
• The North County location opened in October of 2022

The vendors believe marital trouble between Matloub and Sotelo created turmoil in the business. Court documents show the couple separated in late 2020 and divorced about six months later.

The vendors said they were told by spring of this year that all of the Public Markets had gone out of business.

According to documents filed with the state, Matloub and Sotelo used the name Amal Corporation to register the retail businesses. These filings show that, by August of 2023, Sotelo’s name was no longer associated with the businesses.

NBC 7 Responds called, texted and emailed the couple repeatedly but never got a response.

The team went to the new boba shop he opened in Mission Valley and asked him about the money these vendors say he owes them.

He denied knowing what we were asking about. We shared with him the amount the vendors said he owed them and their frustrations. He asked us to leave.

 The vendors said his unwillingness to own up to his failed promises really irks them all over again. 

Matloub’s new boba shop:

• He filed incorporation papers with the state for that store in January of this year 
• In February, he added a business partner’s name
• In June, a new filing removed his name entirely
• In late October, another new filing named him as the CEO, CFO and secretary. He removed his partner’s name 

 At least three of the vendors have filed in small claims court against Matloub and Sotelo.