Harbor Funding Group is being investigated for fraud....beware!!!!!!
DO NOT DO BUSINESS IN MISSISSIPPI WITH GLOBAL FUNDING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, LLC.....based in Florida building under Go Zone in Mississippi....beware....they approximately 5 companies setup that funnel money into Global Development.....flips are involved.....Dream Developers, LLC, Land Solutions, LLC, The Squad, LLC, among others.....someone buys the lots under Land Solutions employed by them....get the picture now
I can add some actual info to this thread. There are several boiler room operations out of Ft. Myers FL and Gulfport MS that ran ads on the internet for the go zone. They put on seminars and took you to see properties in MS that they would build for you. Most were in Bayside Park, an old downtrodden development in Bay St. Louis, MS. It all looked good and you'd be told by a lender, Harbor Funding by way of C & W funding they'd get you a loan for x amount. This would cover the const, points and when it closed, you'd receive a rent guarantee and decor allowance of 10% back in your pocket, basically 90% loan.
Example-$240K duplex . You place $24K with the developer, Blue OAK CONST (had other names before) who then placed funds into escrow with JPO Title . This is where it gets wierd.
Harbor Funding then requested the funds to go to their escrow agent, Michael D. Garber, a NY and NJ attorney from JPO. The wizard pulling the strings behind the curtain of Harbor Funding is Bill Lange, and supposedly,he requested the funds from Garber. It appears he received them and used them to leverage with a hedge fund overseas by putting up millions to get hundreds of millions to lend.
The developer continued selling pre builds based on the info and potential loans from Lange. I "purchased" 2 duplexes from Blue Oak-Gulf Stream Dev and sent them $48,000. I've been trying to get money back for 6 months. Garber has had his accounts frozen by the Bar in NJ. Lange has now disappeared from Seattle but keeps promising a return of my funds.
I don't know if I'll ever see my $ and I don't know a sINGLE investor that has had a closing on property through these guys. There are still some of those involved above ground in Ft. Myers, and still doing seminars, now selling foreclosures in SW FL.
Be very careful. These folks are in over their heads, or crooks, or slick or all of the above. I have lots of info on all this and would love to join any action or furnish my info to the investigators or FBI. It is a can of worms.
As to any assets of Harbor Funding. Lange pledged a LOT of funds and the ruse was a goldmine or gold stocks he had plus the cash. He closed his office last week and did give me the new phone # for him, but I haven't tried it yet.
Scott- the investigation needs to start right where you are with Garber. He is the key to knowing where the money went. There is an attorney /lender in MN that is out 800K and thinks he'll see his funds returned from the court. He doesn't return calls now. He quoted me 3K to file my request with the court, but I'm not sure he's received anything nor whether Garber or Lange has the funds!!
JPO title is no longer where they were in Ft Myers. I think everyone is scrambling for under ground.
Hows' that for more info on this mess? Rich.
Fort Myers mortgage broker who was indicted last year on a charge of loan and credit application fraud pleaded guilty to the charge Friday.
According to federal court documents, Roger Campagnolo transferred $70,000 into David Lynch's bank account so he could qualify for loans to purchase three First Home Builders houses.
According to court documents, Campagnolo faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1,000,00 fine. He has agreed to plead guilty without the benefit of a plea agreement.
It's unclear when he will be sentenced.
Hi Jeff- I'm in Cancun and didn't see the paper. Is this Roger jr or papa? Thanks. Rich
Hi Rich,
Scott Allen represented many of the investors that lost their money. I am now representing many of them in this lawsuit. I do believe that's his only involvement.
Also, it's Roger Campognolo III that has been indicted.
Call me when you get a chance.
Scott Allan - maybe should investigate further. Did he just "advise"? What about injunctions against him. Seems to move states a lot!
Hi Gilad,
I don't think there will be any indictments against Scott Allen as he was never involved with Lange, Garber, JPO Title or Campognolo on their level. He brought investors into these investments not knowing that this was going to happen. He could, of course, be sued by the individual investors that he brought to the table, but realistically, that would be a tough case for them to win. In order to indict for fraud, you have to be able to prove “intent to fraudâ€, and I don’t know if they would be able to do that in Scott Allen’s case.
Although what these guys did was illegal, fraudulent activity, I don't think they would have been caught without the financial market taking a dive in late 2008. Look how long Bernie Madeoff was able to scam his victims! If it had not been for this financial meltdown, he would probably still be going along his merry way instead of sitting in jail, where he belongs!
Because I have lost my investment through this group, I became very involved in getting restitution in this particular case, and because this is my business, I am now representing over 80 of these investors in my attempt to recover their lost investments. The attorney I brought to the table expects to get this restitution in 2010!
Sorry I've been MIA. I just thought that I shared my 2 cents and would let the authorities handle it.
Gilad,
Not sure who you are and not sure how you know me, but you seem to not have any of your facts straight. I will not even dignify and go into detail about defending myself about "company involvement". Be careful what you say, is all I am saying.
For the few that DO know me know that I have a business in NJ. I am a NJ native and only moved to FL in 2002. Been in real estate since 2003 in NJ. That is why I am in "several states". I have a home in FL and NJ and a business in both. Something wrong with living in different area codes once in a while? Gilad, nice meeting you :-)
For those of you keeping up on news, Campagnolo plead guilty but the charges were totally unrelated to what we are all interested in.
Have any of you been contacted by the title guaranty company for the Title Connection to refund money left in escrow? Apparently some of the money remained with the Title company and not sent to the lender (Harbor Funding Group). It is about 15-20% of the amount deposited so I am asking them for a breakdown of where the money went. They want a release singned to get the Title and the title guranty company released of future damages since they followed the instructions of escrow and sent money to the lender.
Hi Gera,
No, I have not been contacted by any title guaranty company. I would like to have their contact information if you could share it with me. Early in 2009, I did get JPO Title to return funds to 5 of my clients. These funds had not been transferred to Harbor Funding Group and the return was 100% of the 10% down payment submitted. No agreements had to be signed by my clients. In no instance did JPO Title Company keep 15 or 20%. There was in many cases a $1,000 deposit that was submitted for administrative fees, but that was the only fee that was separate from the 10% down payment.
I would like to check this out, as I do believe there are no more funds being held by JPO Title. I know there were some other title companies involved.
Sharon
Hi Gera (and anyone else affected!)
I am leading a large group of investors from around the globe dealing (via our lawyer) with the guaranty company, auditors and insurance for E&O with the Title Connection (dba the squad llc).
Please do not be misled by the sums remaining in escrow - in some cases it is zero or a $100 or so, in others it's around $5-6k (very few above that sum). We are currently establishing legal liability for various other additional elements and disbursements they have made with harbor funding, garber etc.
It is entirely up to you but we have established an agreed method of return of these funds that are left that does not involve signing the waiver/release you mention - put simply, our legal advice tells us that signing that release will effectively debar you from claiming the rest of the money owed to you.
We have a series of actions ongoing via our lawyer which is aimed at recovering the rest of our money and we are at an advanced stage in the process. We have established liability in a number of areas other than the funds that remain and are now dealing with the insurance company on those issues.
We have agreed return over the next couple of weeks. As we are at an advanced stage we have decided we can take no further clients after this weekend as to do so would compromise progress. The legals are funded by a group fighting fund via contributions from clients plus an administration fee, we do not operate on a contingency basis, however, being blunt, the incentive to act quickly and get results is there for our lawyer as we simply walk away if there is no returns that significantly outweigh input. The sheer scale of the economies of scale have proven to work really well for us but i appreciate this may not on the surface seem as attractive as no up front contribution but at least you get to keep 100% of returns and are not tied up for any length of time. So far the returns we have agreed has shown a cost as a % of returns around 4.5% . Ultimately we aim to recover that cost as part of further actions as well.
Please get in touch with me directly if you would like to join us or get more details. I'm sure you understand I can't go into details about the case publicly due to legal constraints.
Please understand, we are dealing solely with recovering funds from the title connection dba the squad, global community development, harbor funding group, major financial services and michael d garber pc . If your claim is with another title company then i'm afraid we are not in a position to help at this time.
Again - we are closing in finality new applications this weekend so please get in touch if you would like to join
[EMAIL REMOVED]
Best wishes to Sharon and Scott in their respective campaigns also to get their and their clients money back from these people, the sheer magnitude of this problem is now becoming quite apparent and hopefully we will see some more urgent assistance from the authorities - simple fact is they are swamped with this stuff and we need to do what we have to do ourselves.
Thankfully we are now seeing some results from our efforts
Best regards and good luck to all affected by this!
Steve
Steve,
Was title connection affiliated with JPO Title in any way? Rich
Hi Rich -
as far as I am aware there are no links between jpo and the title connection.
The commonalities however seem to be that all these title and realty companies all used bill lange and michael garber. It isn't clear yet how the relationships developed ie the title companies sought out lange/garber or the other way around.
cheers
Steve
Steve -
You are correct. There are no links between JPO and Title Connection. I live for the most part in Ft. Myers and have been in real estate since 2003 and I've heard of all of these guys. To clear things up on what the links are in my opinion:
As I was doing traditional business in Mississippi, I was persistently pursued by Roger C, as he was an acquaintance/friend of mine. I truly believe he had the right intentions, but I don't know if he knew about the Ponzi type approach from the beginning. Roger C worked with JPO, Garber, Lange, C & W Development, etc. He was also working on establishing his relationship with GCD.
The link between Title Connection and GCD is direct. The relationship between Title Connection and Roger C was that (from what I heard), any deal procured by GCD was going to be serviced by Roger C's mortgage business. Due to GCD's direct affiliation with Title Connection, the owner of GCD requested that all deals CLOSE with Title Connection from the title company standpoint. This puts Roger in direct contact with Title Connection, but JPO was totally separate. Although both of them are guilty of fraud (IMO), they are not directly tied.
It's like a big family tree. If you can picture it, Lange and Garber at the top. Then branches to Roger, Global CD, etc...then the title companies...etc..
I continue to get calls from disgruntled investors and groups alike and from what I gather, I wouldn't be surprised to see this scam hit $100 million.
Steve and Sharon, my question is this: You guys have all of your clients and are pursuing reimbursement through several routes. Being that the Feds' are involved, lets say they achieve warrants and freeze assets that they have located. Wouldn't those assets be spread and distributed in portions to the investors depending on proof of losses? What I'm trying to say is what if I have a client who hasn't spoken to an attorney, but is a victim. Is he eliminated from reimbursement if there is any at all? I know that with Bernie Madoff, they distributed regardless of class action or not.
Sorry for the length, but I haven't posted much in a while.
Sharon,
The warranty company that contacted me is for The Title Connection so I do not if they have anything to do with JPO Title. I think the only thing in common with my deals and yours is Harbor Funding Group. If you provide your e-mail I can contact you directly.
Steve,
I will send you a direct e-mail because my case seems almost identical to yours. I do however have the same concerns as Scott. Are we really going to have an advantage after spending a lot of $ on legal fees over those who did not and how much money is really going to be left to distribute? I know you can't really answer this but I am tempted to just take what is there now and move on.
Hi Stephen,
I do wish you the very best in your lawsuit. We should all be able to recover our funds.
All of my clients used JPO Title. I do know that JPO Title and R.C.Realty (Roger Campognolo) are affiliated. I believe they were in the same office. All of my client’s monies went to either JPO Title or R.C.Realty before being transferred to Michael Garbers escrow account. From there they were transferred back to Bill Lange or one of his affiliates overseas.
Scott, to answer your question: I do know that the assets that were frozen in Michael Garbers account last year did in fact go to those individual investors that still had funds in that account. If you could prove those were your funds, they came back to you.
With respect to what the attorney is now doing in trying to locate money in other accounts, I would think the same system would apply, that is if the funds have not been co-mingled. That will be up to a Judge to determine.
As far as a "Class Action Lawsuit", yes when and if funds are located, the proper owners (provided they have actually signed up for the class action lawsuit) should be informed, whether or not they have or have not retained an attorney.
My clients have actually hired the attorney for a set fee and he will have all of their documentation to go after those funds unlike someone who simply signed up for the class action lawsuit. Additionally they have periodic updates from me as to our progress, as I am in constant contact with the attorney. That will give us an advantage. I've always believed the squeaky wheel gets the oil! I will not sit back and wait for someone to knock on my door to tell me my funds have been found!
There has been over a year of investigative work done and we do expect to recover our funds in 2010.
We have an excellent case and the fact that the attorney is doing this for my clients with no retainer fee tells me that he most definitely expects to win this case.
If you would like to contact me directly, you will find all of my contact info by clicking onto my name.
Wishing all the very best,
Sharon
Hi Gera,
My contact information can be found by clicking onto my name. I will be happy to discuss your particular situation and let you know if I think we can help.
Best,
Sharon
These posts are on target. All want closure. None want to pay lawyers for indeterminate collections. Those with higher losses have more incentive.
Does anyone know the status of the DOJ investigation? That's a decision factor. I wonder if multiple actions help or hurt the DOJ.
Is anyone talking with the journalists reporting on this? FL press is hungry for this story.
Thanks.
Here is what i did find out: Regardless or not if I am signed up for a class action, I am still entitled to recover any monies that are found in accounts seized or frozen just as those who are involved in the class action.
Carlos: The DOJ usually takes up to 18 months to fully investigate these, and that is a direct comment from a friend of mine with some experience in that field. An example is a local brooklyn Ponzi Scheme in NY. Took almost 2 years from the point of contact to figure it out. Fraud cases are very complex and difficult. I wish I knew more at this point but we are not entitled to that info until any possible indictments. I hope we are close.
Hi Carlos,
I do know that the DOJ investigation is about complete because they are ready to indict. I also know that the DOJ has given our attorney the go ahead to move forward with the Class Action, so apparently they preferred that it be kept low profile until they were ready to indict.
Scott: You may be right on with your 18 months theory, because this investigation began in the last months of 2008, and they are about ready to indict at this time.
Sharon
I think we are getting close.. I got a phone call the other day that gave me some good hopes that things are progressing.
They are a scam. I used to work for them back before they were forced to change their name due to their bad reputation. I knew them as Liberty First. I witnessed some dealings that lead to my immediate resignation. If you need a witness to testify in court, please let me know.
DJ- hard to tell who you were working with. Who was it?
I take what is stated on here cautiously. Someone says that Campagnolo and JPO are not in cahoots. Huh? I went to find JPO- entered the same front door that leads to campagnollos office and conference room! JPO door was closed and 2 office girls were gone.
I spoke a lot with Lange and he is near the top. I'm sure we'll eventually see which real estate agents, lenders, title companies and const companies were involved.. For now, I wouldn't trust ANY of those posters that seem to think any entity is or isn't deeply involved. I'm willing wait and see who is indicted and where it leads.
What did they know and when did they know it. I'm out 48K and hope to see some of it before I die! I also have received calls from investigating entities and think we might actually see names of the initial batch under indictment. My guess is over 10 in first batch. Just a guess....... Rich
For those interested, Roger Campagnolo was sentenced to 10 months today. Totally separate crime. Article says he is cooperating in other cases to lessen the sentence. We'll see.
I can't think of anything else he would be cooperating on beside the Lang case. I don't care about Campagnolo as crappy as that sounds. I actually feel bad for him that he was gullible enough to do something with Lang and lie to his own good friends...which I was one of. ..I want Lang to talk candidly about what he could possibly do or did with all that money.
My name is Christopher Kivlen and I am one of the co-owner's of Harbor Funding Group located in Glen Cove, NY. We are a registered New York State Mortgage Broker and we are NOT being investigated for fraud or anything else. Our reputation is in fact impeccable
We have no idea who this other Harbor Funding Group is, but we want potential customers to be assured that we are NOT THEM.
Thank you.
We have no idea who this other Harbor Funding Group is, but we want potential customers to be assured that we are NOT THEM.
Thank you.
Christopher - It appears that the company that people seem to be referring to is one out of Washington state.