Real question: Let's say someone hands his business over to a friend who is down on their luck. He tells them it's a good thing. They make a handshake agreement, no paper work transition. The business is a retail sister company of his distribution company, so 100% of ordering goes through him and an account is set up.
Quickly it's apparent to the new owner that things aren't working for this retail business. After three months it's hemmhoraging money and is abruptly shut down. There is a nice sized debt now.
Armed with a better understanding of the company than just the trust of his friend, the new retail owner crunches the past reports and finds it's consistently bad across the years. Then he interviews past employees/ managers and they confirm having conversations with the owner about the unprofitability of the retail business.
How would one recommend moving forward for the seemingly shafted friend?