Team Dq Pageant Prep And Image Consulting

On March 20, 2017, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, Consumer Fraud Unit, filed a civil fraud lawsuit charging Derrick Lee with certain violations of the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. On March 27, 2017, Derrick Lee was personally served with the Summons and Complaint.

Derrick Lee did not answer or otherwise respond to the complaint. On August 22, 2017, the Honorable Moshe Jacobius entered a Final Consent Judgment that concluded the lawsuit against Derrick Lee. The Final Consent Judgment contains an injunction that restricts some of Derrick Lees future activities. Significantly, Derrick Lee is prohibited from soliciting charitable contributions in Illinois on behalf of the Ann & Robert H.

Lurie Childrens Hospital of Chicago or any other not-for-profit entity or charitable organization without its express and written consent. The Final Consent Judgment also imposes a money judgment of $3,400 upon Derrick Lee, including a payment of $2,900 to the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Childrens Hospital and $500 to partially reimburse the States Attorneys Office for attorney fees and investigative expenses. Derrick Lee further stipulated that he had collected at least $3,000 for the benefit of the Hospital and that he had already provided $100 to the Hospital.

The Final Consent Judgement is attached for viewing purposes and is public record. ** Stipulations 10-13 and Derrick Lee's signature on the consent judgement should answer any and all questions as to the intent of the money that was collected.

As a contestant, I agree with many of these revelations. It sucks that I spent so much money into a pageant that was spoiled from the beginning.

All the fees post-application was ridiculous. I was paying by myself & everything cost. I was surprised we were blessed with food the day of.

Derrick promised a lot of things were going to happen after the pageant that never came into fruition.

Some of the runner ups were promised leadership positions in next year's pageant and nothing. I was supposed to have a headshot photo shoot with Eva and nothing. Just empty promises. Derrick required attendance at several rehearsals or contestants would be kicked out of the pageant!!

Mind you these were always in Chicago and during the winter months. If you didn't live close to Chicago the pageant wasn't in your favor. Pageant prep events would be held there and I know one contestant who drove from the St. Louis area to Chicago for an interview prep with "judges" on a Monday night!!

Before all this came out Derrick took money from me by promising I could compete again with a local title and a photoshoot.

So now I'm wondering how I can get that money back. Anyone know?

Derrick Lee was extremely unprofessional. He loved to call people out when he didn’t like them or something they did.

He would do this in front of everyone. He took an email that was sent to him to take care of and thought the “proper way” to handle it was to post it into a Facebook message to the ENTIRE GROUP of queens with the only purpose of humiliating the queen and her father.

I was mortified for her and her parents. This is just one example of Derrick Lee at work.

*I would upload a picture to prove it, but unlike Derrick I do not want to embarrass the family or contestant any further.

The Miss United States pageant held March 26, 2015 - March 29, 2015 at the Copernicus Center Illinois was directed by Derrick Lee of Team DQ Pageant Prep and Image Consulting. Derrick Lee held an online photogenic competition hosted on his pageant website www.missillinoisus.com. The competition was a fundraiser to raise money for Ann & Robert H. Lurie's Children's Foundation (https://www.luriechildrens.org/en-us/about-us/Pages/our-foundation.aspx) The competition worked like this. Contestants would go out and get family and friends to donate one dollar with all proceeds going to the hospital. Online voting opened on March 2nd and concluded on March 28th. The winner would be announced at the Miss Illinois United States pageant on March 29th. The photogenic winners along with the new state queens were to deliver a large fake check to the hospital within one week of the pageant. Unfortunately that did not happen. Instead Mr. Derrick Lee kept the money.

Derrick Lee never signed a contract with the hospital to use their name or collect donations in their honor. The hospital contacted him several times. He never contacted them back to execute the proposal. Thousands of dollars were collected and one of the winners asked several times about going to the hospital to present the "Big Fake Check" to them and different reasons were given over and over. Derrick Lee had even told people that the voting website was linked direct to the hospital so he didn’t know how much money was raised. None of which was true. All donations were submitted to a PayPal account under the name Team DQ Pageant Prep and Image Consulting and the email on the account was derrick.illinoisus@***.com. Mr. Lee made it very clear in all of his public posts, messages and also conversations with contestants and staff that “all proceeds” or “every dollar” were supposed to go the hospital. Most of the posts even tagged Derrick or the Miss Illinois Organization page.

It was only after people started asking questions that Derrick Lee months after the competition ended went online and made a $100.00 donation on October 13, 2015. All proceeds do not mean Derrick can donate $100 of the thousands he collected. Proper authorities have been contacted.

This is just one scam Derrick Lee has pulled lately. Derrick Lee was never under contract for the Miss Nebraska or Miss Wisconsin Miss United States systems; however, he promoted himself and such and took entry fees from unsuspecting contestants wanting to compete without a signed executed contract from the Miss United States system for 2016. Just recently he attempted the classic bait and switch telling one such contestant that he was now the director with another system and she could compete there. Of course that entry fee was more expensive.

Another one was during the week of the national pageant. This was over the Fourth of July in Washington DC. Derrick Lee claimed the hotel screwed up his reservation and playing on the emotions of his contestants asking to sleep on their floors. He would rotate from one room to another. Come to find out Derrick Lee had a reservation and only cancelled once he got to Washington DC because he didn’t want to pay for it. Throughout the week he also put his food tabs on contestants’ bills.

Derrick also was not upfront with contestants as to the cost of the pageant. There were tons of hidden fees. They were not informed in advance about a required ad page that cost $79 and that each contestant was required to buy 10 tickets at $20 each. It wasn’t until after you paid him your non-refundable entry fee that he would hit you with additional costs.

Derrick was also not very nice to staff, contestants or royalty. He had the national *** queen travel to his pageant only to be told she could not take the stage. It wasn’t until a staff member put her on stage going over Derrick’s head that the NATIONAL queen was recognized. This is just one example of Derrick treating people unprofessionally and disrespectful.

Derrick Lee’s business Team DQ Pageant Prep and Imaging Consulting doesn’t even exist in the eyes of the state. He doesn’t have the proper credentials to be doing business here. No one seems to know where he came from; all we know is too many people in the Midwest have been defrauded by him. Derrick Lee as victimized several people, I am just one of many and this needs to stop.