Another Article about Upstate Law Group.

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2019/11/06/candy-kern-fuller-andrew-gamber-duo-behind-alleged-financial-scheme/2506658001/

If you were scammed by VFG, BAIC or any other pension assignment company, here are some things to take into consideration when looking at your legal options.

1. If you assigned your pension, it is likely that you can rescind the assignment. Talk to a lawyer. The best thing you can do is stop them from taking MORE of your money.  I suggest that if you stop your assignment you do so under the protection of a lawyer, otherwise you may be digging a bigger hole for yourself.

2. If you bought a pension assignment, you may have no right, or at least limited rights, to sue the pensioner. You can't assume that the company that set up the assignment will be around when it comes time to pay damages. I suggest that you look at suing whoever referred you to the scam company. Usually it is a life insurance agent who is paid a finder fee. Life insurance agents are usually bonded or insured. What they sold you could be an illegal security, and they may be liable for your loss. 

I am only taking buyer cases from buyers located in Indiana. I will consider taking a case for a seller out of Indiana if you can't find an attorney in your state.  Most of the time the seller cases will be non-litigation cases, that is, not involving a lawsuit.  Also, I will not represent buyers against consumer pensioners. 

Have you been sued by Automotive Finance Corporation in Indiana?

We have noticed an uptick in lawsuit activity by Automotive Finance Corporation, -also known as "AFC".  For the past two and a half years, Keith Hagan and I have been handling a lot of dealer floorplan defense cases against Nextgear Capital, and a few cases against AFC. This is because Nextgear historically sued a lot more dealers than AFC.  In December 2019 though, it appears that AFC filed more than 30 cases.

If you are looking for an experienced Indiana attorney to represent you to defend you in an Indiana case by AFC (or Nextgear or any other floorplanner), please call us.  317-662-4529

Success Getting Old Judgment Set Aside Against Palisades Acquisition XVI

Of all of my blog posts during 2019, the post about Chrysler Pacificas stalling was pretty popular. So was the one about problems with Lexington Law.  Even More popular was the post about Dodge Enterprises and Hiday and Ricke. The most popular post was my post about the problems with Palisade Acquisition XVI.  People Searched and clicked on this post 171 times.  (Granted 2 or three were probably me.)  In a world where some web pages get hit 1 billion times, 171 isn't many, but I hope that of those people at least a handful were wisend, called a lawyer and got their judgment set aside. 

Attorney Keith Hagan and I handled exactly one of these cases this year and it went exactly like I thought it would.  We were able to get the old judgment set aside for lack of service of process and we got the attorney from Levy and Associates kicked off the case (appearance stricken) because the attorney misstated her client as Great Seneca Financial Corp., a company that didn't hire her firm because it no longer existed.   Thee judge also agreed with our contention that an affidavit of assignment isn't the same as an assignment, and there was no assignment filed with the court. 

If you are interested in looking at the docket of the case, it is Great Seneca Financial Corporation vs. Kaiser, 71C01-0408-CC-000763,  click here. 

More on the Ghost of Great Seneca in Florida

Earlier this year I wrote about Collection activities by a company called Dodge Enterprises in Florida on old debts relating to dead companies.  That was one of my most popular posts from the last year with 104 hits. (Hey, this isn't the New York Times.) I did not get corresponding calls relating to this issue. If you are subject to collections by Dodge Enterprises, I urge you to call me at 317-662-4529. 

By the way, I am interested in collection actions in the names of any of these dead companies anywhere in the United States. Dodge Enterprises does not have to be involved.

A copy of the original post is below:

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It has come to our attention that a company named Dodge Enterprises, Inc., typically represented by the law firm of Hiday and Ricke, PA, has been collecting on judgments originally awarded to Great Seneca Financial Corp.  Some people may be facing wage garnishments or asset attachments arising out of these old cases. Typically these cases were brought between 2003 and 2007.

As far as I can tell Dodge Enterprises has only been active in Florida.

I have written multiple times on the topic of Great Seneca, but basically, Great Seneca Financial Corp. is a dead company and has been since 2008.  It is one of a group of dead companies listed below:

Great Seneca Financial Corporation
Platinum Financial Services Corporation
Monarch Capital Corporation
Centurion Capital Corporation
Sage Financial Corporation
Hawker Financial Corporation
 Colonial Credit Corporation

If Dodge Enterprises, or any other entity for that matter, contacts relating to judgments originating with one of the companies above, it is very important that you make whoever is trying to collect from you provide proof of assignment of the judgment, and that proof should go back to the original judgment-holder and be account specific.  If they can't provide that level of proof, you might have defenses to paying on the judgments, and if you don't wait too long, you may actually be able to get some money back that you've already paid.

Feel free to call us at 317-662-4529 if you have been garnished or are facing collection by Dodge Enterprises arising from an old debt or judgment.

Upstate Law Group's Participation in Pension Assignment Operation Exposed by Newspaper

The Charleston (South Carolina) Review and Courier has posted an investigative piece describing the relationship of a South Carolina Law Firm, the Upstate Law Group, in a pension assignment operation.  The article is available online here.

The names of the companies selling the pension assignments changed over the years, but the participation of Upstate Law Group remained constant.  Why this case has not been referred to the United States attorney for criminal RICO action is beyond me.

Here's the beginning part of the article.  To read the whole thing, you will have to go to the Review and Courier site:

For nearly seven years, a small South Carolina law firm helped operate a nationwide scheme that preyed on desperate military veterans, misled investors and netted millions of dollars in allegedly illegal profits.
The Upstate Law Group, with its office in Pickens County, worked with a network of salesmen to lure in cash-strapped veterans and convince them to sign over their monthly pensions and disability payments.
The businesses then persuaded retirees to invest in the federal benefit payments, promising up to an 8 percent return on their money.

The veterans received a lump-sum payout for handing over several years of future income to the investors. The upfront cash came at a steep cost.
The problem is the entire arrangement is illegal, according to state and federal authorities. Federal law prohibits veterans from assigning their pension or disability payments to another person.
That didn’t stop Candy Kern-Fuller, owner of the Upstate Law Group. Since 2012, she helped her associates sell the military benefit contracts across the country.
The name at the top of the paperwork changed over the years: Voyager Financial Group, SoBell Corp., BAIC Inc., Performance Arbitrage Company and Life Funding Options.
But the system continued.
Using websites, the string of companies persuaded veterans from states as far flung as Florida, Idaho, Texas, Alaska and Michigan to sign over their benefits. And they peddled those supposedly “secured” payments to retirees in places like Nevada, New York, Arizona, Tennessee and California.
The scope of the operation is staggering. Records obtained by state regulators show the companies lured in hundreds of veterans and pocketed millions of dollars in fees, which they siphoned off the top of each deal.
The Upstate Law Group effectively served as the banker, legal counsel and debt collector for the operation — offering an air of legitimacy to the scheme.

About 5 years ago, I sued Upstate Law Group on behalf of a client who got involved with a Voyager Financial Group pension. I wrote about it at the time, and since then I have helped a number of people who were victimized by pension assignments without filing litigation.  In the early suit, Upstate Law Group's defense boiled down to an argument that their involvement in collecting the pension assignment was an isolated incident.  I didn't think that was true at the time, and it is clearly not true now.  We were able to get that case resolved to my client's satisfaction without digging into the details.

What I didn't know until I read this article today was that Upstate Law Group actually sued a number of the pensioners in Greenville County, South Carolina. In my opinion, this is a violation of the venue provisions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  The problem is, that when people stop paying on these obligations without a lawyer, they can be targeted, and they may not be able to find a South Carolina lawyer to get the case dismissed.

I urge anyone who is ceasing payments on a pension assignment contract to consult with a lawyer and have the lawyer write the letter stating that you are ceasing payments as a matter of right.  If you have a lawyer, your lawyer should know what to do if you are sued in the wrong forum.

More on Hometitlelock

I've gotten a couple calls concerning Hometitlelock since I wrote this blog post.  These people didn't read my post very carefully, because they thought I was Hometitlelock.  Not only am I not affiliated with them, I feel like I would be casting shame upon my family if I were.

You might be a victim of home title fraud, and you might be struck by lightning.  I suspect the odds of being struck by lightning are higher.  The due diligence procedures of banks and the requirements of notarization suggest that it is extraordinarily unlikely for you to be the victim of home title theft. 

Congratulations to Ron Burdge on $500,000 RV verdict

My friend, RV and Lemon Law lawyer extraordinaire, Ron Burdge, won a $500,000 jury verdict against Winnebago in July 2019.  I am not taking RV cases now, and a big reason is that these cases take years to resolve and can involve commitment of hundreds of thousands of dollars into the litigation. That money either has to come from the client, the attorney or both. 

This was a case that involved a defective slide-out that was subject to 9 repair attempts.  What strikes me is that the manufacturer decided to take this case to trial rather than admitting that its product was defective.

Unfortunately, getting a verdict like this is the exception rather than the rule. The problem that the owners of defective RVs face are very well explained by v-blogger Steve Lehto in the video linked below.