article_snippet.sent: Friends say Cantu had recently become strained by a lawsuit filed by a former investor in Moto and iNG, a restaurant Cantu shuttered last year.
article_snippet.sent: Last month, investor Alex Espalin accused Cantu in court papers of co-mingling funds from Moto to keep iNG afloat, even though investor Alex Espalin advised Cantu to close the business.
article_snippet.sent: investor Alex Espalin claimed Cantu stopped talking to investor Alex Espalin after investor Alex Espalin confronted investor Alex Espalin about using Moto's bank account for personal expenses including, trips, meals, a cookbook and other unrelated ventures.
article_snippet.sent: According to a lawsuit filed by a former investor in Moto and iNG, a restaurant Cantu shuttered last year, investor Alex Espalin initially invested $100,000 in Cantu's businesses and another $50,000 later on and had a 15 per cent ownership in Moto.
article_snippet.sent: Strained: A month before Charlie Trotter's death, Cantu was hit with a lawsuit from an former investor in Moto and failed restaurant iNG, who accused Charlie Trotter's of commingling Moto's funds to keep Charlie Trotter's other business ventures afloat .
article_snippet.sent: Cantu definitely had a strain, from all publicity going around [from the lawsuit].
highlights_snippet.sent: A month ago, a former investor filed a lawsuit against Cantu, accusing the chef of using Moto's bank account for personal expenses .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: According to friends, Cantu had become strained in recent days because of a lawsuit against Cantu .