Fraud Running Rampant in America Today

Posted in Legal Information - Criminal Law

Prove Me Wrong!!!
Author: Kate A. Pontiff

We have seen fraud running rampant in America today. Millions of fraudulent documents to get loans approved so that commissions could be collected. Then millions of documents were fraudulently signed in order to foreclose on properties. The credit default swap debacle. But no one is being called to account for it... Here is an opportunity to get it right. Will we? I doubt it. Prove me wrong.

The Academy Award for documentary went to "The Inside Job." The director voiced frustration that no one single perpetrator of this crime has been prosecuted – a message that resonates with the American People. The frustration stems from the fact that executives took home billions of dollars from credit default swaps and derivatives while homes were being foreclosed on and American families were being thrown out into the streets. But that doesn't even begin to tell the story of the theft that was perpetrated on the American People. The fact of the matter is that government budgets at the local, county, state and federal level are all under siege. There isn't a budget to prosecute well-funded criminals and therefore very few, if any, will pay for their crimes. The unfortunate message for America is that no appetite exists to curb the bad behavior of high-dollar criminals.

Thankfully that isn't the end of the story. Many who have had their pension funds stolen or homes foreclosed upon have recourse through private attorneys who are championing their causes in Superior Courts around the country. In some cases there are legal arguments that take these cases into Federal Court. Both of these venues are providing valuable relief valves for pent up frustration voiced by some of the victims of these crimes. Absent these important relief valves the American people would have taken to the streets in much the same fashion as the protesters in Libya, Egypt or Tunisia.

But the same rules apply. Fighting and winning against well-funded criminals creates a virtual mountain of paper that becomes overwhelming and expensive. Three years of litigation become cost prohibitive for most plaintiffs and there are only a limited number of cases that can be brought that make financial sense. Lawyers that are willing to advance the costs of the lawsuit are hard to find and in many cases the assets have been transferred or squandered so recovering a substantial portion of stolen monies is difficult at best.

In the case of John F. Snyder vs. Jay Wayne Allen and Mike Brown in 2001 for the return of $600,000 plus damages it appears that John F. Snyder transferred $600,000 to Great Britain with the understanding that he would receive a 50% return on his money a few weeks later. After a few years of excuses and fabricated stories he realized that the money wasn't coming back and he sued. (But according to a memo dated Sept. 5th, 1999, written by Wayne Allen himself regarding the matter – Allen said that he had deposited Synder's money into a CD at Nomura Securities. But in reality, the Synder money was given to a Terry Wingrove, who claimed to represent Nomura, and then the money was used "not to "unencumber" or "free up" a CD… rather Wingrove apparently used all of that money to acquire real property and various items of art and antique furniture located within the residence on the property." Wingrove is now residing in Wormwood Scrubs Prison in London.) http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/haugheys-aide-ran-one-man-bank-506743.html

http://www.comsuregroup.com/news.asp?newsId=797

Allen answered the Snyder complaint on February 8, 2001. It was dismissed on February 21, 2002, after a settlement was reached in which $975,000 was paid on behalf of Allen by Chicago Insurance Company.

Robert Sliepka and his wife retained the services of Jay Wayne Allen and Mike Brown to secure their retirement fund. They placed $3,000,000 in the trust and instructed that it be placed in conservative and diversified investments to provide income for them for the remainder of their natural lives. Instead they placed the money into the Master's Hands Foundation and wrote The Sliepka 1997 Charitable Remainder Unitrust an unsecured promissory note. The Master's Hands Foundation's trustee was a partner of Jay Wayne Allen which constitutes a conflict of interest. A settlement was reached and the terms of this settlement were not disclosed and have been sealed.

On November 19, 2003 Lloyds of London received an application for the renewal of an insurance policy. "After enquiry, are any persons listed in Supplement 1 aware of any circumstances, allegations, Tolling agreement or contentions as to any incident which may result in a claim being made against the Applicant or any of its past or present, Owners, Partners, Shareholders, Corporate Officers, Associates, Employed Lawyers, Contract Lawyers or Employees or its predecessor in business?" In response to this question Jay Wayne Allen checked the box marked "no."

From the trial brief we read

"Following service of the Underlying Action, the Allen Defendants tendered defense and indemnity thereof to Underwriters and to a prior carrier, Chicago Insurance Company. During the course of its investigation of the Underlying Action, Underwriters learned that that suit was not the first time the Allen Defendants were accused of conspiring with Michael Brown to misappropriate funds entrusted to them in connection with the Allen Defendants' rendering of services as estate planning attorneys. On December 15, 2000, a lawsuit styled John F. Snyder v. Michael Brown, eta!., Case Number OOCC15093, was filed in the Orange County Superior Court. In addition to Brown, the lawsuit named as defendants Plexus, Allen and his law firm as it was then known, Fleming & Allen, LLP. The complaint included causes of action for (1) Breach of Contract; (2) Breach of the Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing; (3) Legal Malpractice; and (4) Breach of Fiduciary Duty. The Snyder and Sliepka lawsuits were so factually intertwined in certain respects that, once the Snyder action was filed, Allen could not have failed to know that a claim by the Sliepkas was not just possible, but likely."

On September 1, 2006 Lloyds of London was awarded a judgment against Jay Wayne Allen.

The latest case against Jay Wayne Allen in Orange County Superior court was recorded Aug. 11, 2009 (Electronic Funds Solutions vs. J. Wayne Allen et. al.) alleging Fruadulent Conveyance by Jay Wayne Allen (and his associated companies Maingate Solutions, Allen & Associates, Allen & Yphantides, Law offices of J. Wayne Allen). The conclusion of this case is unknown.

The Steuve family, a storied and historic family of hardworking dairy farmers who formed the famous Southland dairy commonly known as Alta Dena Dairy, had, unbeknownst to them, a person masterminding the theft of all of the assets and liquidity. Unfortunately for the Stueve family, their Madoff was their own family attorney and trustee of all of their charitable foundations-- Raymond A Novell.

Raymond A Novell, also known as ⠬Ran⬠grew up near the Stueve farm and creamery, even working for the Stueve family in their ⠬cash and carry⠬ business while in high school. Novell also attended high school with the Stueve daughters, went on a summer tour of Europe with one of the Stueve sons, and was so close to the family that he promised to walk one of the Stueve grandchildren down the aisle at her wedding. Novell was also always there for the large Stueve family functions-- the birthday parties, the weddings, the after school sports events, the anniversary celebrations. So it was no surprise in the 1980s that Novell became the company attorney, yet he was unsuccessful in defending the Stueves in a lawsuit which cost the family $10,000,000. The founders of the Alta Dena Dairy were three Stueve Brothers: Edgar, Harold and Elmer Steve, who are all now deceased. The brothers were hardworking German farmers, who prized being loyal and having character, and so they kept Raymond Novell as their attorney, despite his weak legal representation.

Moreover, while representing the family, Novell had trouble with the State Bar of California. He admitted to misappropriating client funds from his attorney-client trust account, placing client funds in his general account, and spending the funds; and, as a result, he was suspended from the practice of law for 40 days in 2001 (http://members.calbar.ca.gov /fal/Member/Detail/67003), from approximately November 2001 to January 2002. Novell was also placed on probation for two years. During his suspension, and while prohibited from the practice of law, Novell continued to provide legal representation to the Stueves. Part of his representation consisted of removing the Stueves' ownership interests in the company the family had built into trusts under his control. It appears that none of the Stueve family members knew about his suspension from the California State Bar, as Novell neglected to inform them.

Before Raymond Novell started handling their business and family affairs, the Stueve brothers had a combined wealth of over $50,000,000.00. The Stueves, having a family estate of considerable value built through decades of hard work in the dairy business, wanted only to ensure that their family estate could be organized and managed so as to: first, provide income to fund the relatively modest living expenses the family members; and secondly, to funnel any assets remaining in the estate upon each member's death to the family's various charitable interests.

Novell with attorneys Jennifer Novell Miller and J. Wayne Allen approached the Stueve family with dire warnings of impending tax liability that would wipe out most of the estate, and thereby deprive them of the ability to meet the above-stated goals, upon the death of one or more of the senior Stueve brothers. Given the family's long-standing relationship with Novell, which began when he was in grade school, the Stueves trusted Novell and took his warnings very seriously. The family looked to Novell for advice on how best to position the estate in order to ensure that their estate planning goals could be met.

Novell informed the Stueves that the estate was "cash poor" and would not have enough money available to pay that tax burden without liquidation of its various assets for amounts substantially below their fair market value. Novell and Allen warned the Stueves that, as a result of those impending tax burdens, and without an immediate and comprehensive restructuring of the family's estate plan, the estate would not retain sufficient value to meet the family's goals of providing lifetime support for the Stueve children and grandchildren and funding for their considerable charitable interests.

Novell, Allen and Novell Miller advised the Stueve family that this onerous tax burden could be avoided, and the family's estate planning and charitable goals realized, through implementation of a complex plan requiring the establishment of various irrevocable trusts and formation of various charitable foundations.

For assistance with a complex family estate scheme for the Stueve family, (that was actually was designed to enrich Novell and his family and his associates) Novell enlisted the help of various other and entities, whom he at one point has described as a "team of wealth management specialists." Novell's "team" at various points in time included, but was not necessarily limited to, attorney Wayne Allen, his daughters, attorney Jennifer Novell Miller and real estate agent Maggie Novell, and his wife, Helen Mouat, a former CFO of a public company.

Novell and his team of conspirators are believed to have taken over $15,000,000 in loans and over $3,000,000 in fees. The team has formed foundations and funneled money to themselves by making loans to themselves, to Novell's daughters and Novell's wife and several businesses that Novell had started while charging trustee fees, and also charging hefty management fees and commissions.

In total, Novell is alleged to have converted, looted, and lost millions and millions of the Stueve family fortune, and, had the Stueves not realized something was amiss as the plan was in its last steps, they would have lost it all. It is alleged that only a few months before the plan was discovered, Novell and Allen had proposed a complex transaction which would have transferred another $30,000,000 to fake charities controlled by them.

Attorneys have created a mountain of paperwork in each case but there is no interest from the FBI, District Attorneys, Federal Prosecutors or even the State of California Bar Association to take any legal action to protect additional people from predators like the ones mentioned in this article. It is always the same old story, "we simply do not have the budget to fight well-funded defendants." Unless something changes the American people may have no choice but to march in the streets to demand that something be done. Years of turning a blind eye to the wealthiest of criminals and their activities has actually encouraged more unacceptable behavior. The civil complaints are a road map for the prosecution but nothing will happen because law enforcement, the FBI, and our national politicians really don't care about the common people, their homes, retirements, or civil rights.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/criminal-articles/prove-me-wrong-5161215.html

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