kennedy funding ripoff report

kennedy funding ripoff report

Exposing the Kennedy Funding Ripoff Report

1. Introduction

It’s as simple as this: The Kennedy Funding financial is nothing more than a rip-off. After reading the story done by the Indiana Business Journal, and speaking with the various Vista III members, it is plain to see that Kennedy Financial is a disaster. From the very beginning it was evident that there was going to be trouble. Headlines like “Vista Members Suing Country Estate over Loan” expressed the inevitability of error. According to the story, a group of Vista members took a 1.4 million dollar loan from Kennedy Financial. This loan was to be repaid with a total of 2 million dollars worth of installments. Sounds simple right? Not exactly. After failing to make a 168,000 dollar interest payment, the owners of Country Estate (the Vista group named in the report) defaulted on the loan. Subsequent to the default on the loan, Country Estate was mortgaged in a sheriff’s sale to a rival company. Now I wonder why the owners of Kennedy Financial would allow Country Estate to default on the loan? This is because a group of Vista members got together and did some research on the land. They found that Country Estate was worth 1.5 million dollars more than the loan. The owners of Kennedy Financial had a plan. They were trying to get Country Estate at a fraction of its worth. After defaulting on the loan, Country Estate still attempted to pay some of the money back and reclaim what was theirs. Country Estate was refused. This pissed off a lot of the Vista members, because they were very close to breaking ground for a new school. The rest of the loan money was to be allocated to the construction of the school. Country Estate was again refused. Now Country Estate felt violated. They addressed the situation in an attempt to come to a rational agreement. The law required, but the sheriff’s sale could not be stopped. Country Estate was seized and there was no saying when or if they would get it back. At that point Country Estate cut their losses and repaid the remainder of the money. This whole situation has caused nothing but trouble for the owners of Country Estate. They say that it has mortgaged them with legal issues and it has put a strain on their financial stability. They are planning to move the school to a different area because the existing situation has left a bitter taste in their mouths. Country Estate sums up the loan from Kennedy Funding as “a complete misfortune”. This may be the best way of describing it.

2. Unveiling the Kennedy Funding Scam

Kennedy Funding, Inc., whose founder is Richard L. Kohn, claims unfairly for bridge loan investments. According to the report, Kohn has earned a well reputation on $50,000,000 foreclosure by 3 different properties of Sarasota Gulf Club and its resort back to the year 2004. The result makes Kohn and his companies have to repay possible excess cash and with collateral can earn way much cheaper than its cost. The consumers became the winner on this problem. Back in year 2006, Kohn has terminate funding $12,000,000 loan to Ernest Williams who’s the president of Pinewald Development, Inc. But on the year 2010, Pinewald submitted a lawsuit to Kennedy Funding on bridge loan scam with certain circumstances which case have settled. And the most recent one is lodge on March 7, 2012 Aksan United Fortune, Inc., who was being sued by Kohn and his companies with funding $15.5 Million on Delray Beach Resort and have to obtained the worst experience and finally the lawsuit has settled. According to the sources, there are two determinants to pursue this lawsuit by Aksan, first is the fund being misused and there’s no significant progress on the project, and second becomes published by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation on Kennedy Funding, Inc. to Aksan United Fortune, Inc. was committed a massive fraud about the bridge loan investment. With this case, it’s exposed the grand strategy to earn money from bridge loan investment by selling closed-end loans that is regaining on annual interest and $100,000 application fee with high interest rates, up-front points, additional fees, notary fees, high attorney fees, penalty if the borrower paid the loan earlier and there’s no cash or credit to the borrower at all. This strategy is involving several company, charity or foundation with property as the collateral that has lower credit condition and a states that Kohn and his companies can help to improve credit and provide an essential rehabilitation at the property. This lawsuit might be affects the future of Mr. Richard L. Kohn and Kennedy Funding, Inc. on the bridge loan investment business.

3. Tactics Employed by Kennedy Funding

Proofing the title: When a property owner had interest in a judgment for a relatively large amount of money, Kennedy would then make an offer for a larger sum than the first offer. This was mainly because if the property was in a bad neighborhood or had existing mortgages or liens, Kennedy could then purchase the property for a price much lower than the second offer by claiming there was a problem with the title, even if there was not. This is accomplished by requiring title insurance, which can be difficult and quite expensive to obtain for a property with title problems. Time and again, Kennedy had run a title search and requested title insurance on a property only to later find reason to cancel the contract, usually because a higher offer from another company had been made, or because the property became unattractive due to information found by Kennedy about the judgment’s debtor. According to property owners, the title insurance companies were unwilling to insure the title unless Knight acquired the property with a sheriff’s sale. This tactic often led to litigation by title insurers against Kennedy Funding.

Lower-ball offers: Kennedy would generally send in a representative (often an attorney or paralegal) to make an offer to the property owner. This offer was often very low and in most cases was the first notification to the property owner about the judgment. Kennedy’s goal in this tactic was to get the property for as low a price as possible.

There are a few consistent tactics Kennedy used in deriving profit from the property owners who sought their help. All of them involved getting the owner to sell their property to Knight once he had possession of a judgment.

4. Victims of the Kennedy Funding Ripoff

The victims of the Kennedy Funding ripoff, wrecked by a 52-year-old man named Jim during 2008, were primarily real estate investors. These investors sought out Kennedy Funding to obtain bridge loans in order to keep their properties from going into foreclosure. The properties were used as collateral to secure such loans. Most of these people were elderly and had several properties that were fully paid and free of any liens. The promise of a loan was the beginning of a nightmare for these investors. Many of them signed loan documents in which a number of the material terms were left blank or incomplete with the assurance of their return to Kennedy Funding to finalize the terms. However, after the money was delivered by wire, these investors either received a substantially different loan agreement or no loan documentation at all. Jim assured one investor, an 83-year-old man with a junior lien against his property, that he would be cleared for a loan in 30 days. After 30 days, he told him to hold on and wait for the right moment, repeatedly assuring that money would come soon. This investor later died without seeing a single dollar come from Kennedy Funding.

5. Taking Action Against Kennedy Funding

It can be supremely challenging to become involved in a lawsuit against a party with deeper pockets, and it can also be a very difficult prospect to sue a financial organization. The Kennedys have seen many attempts to put legal pressure on Kennedy Funding and the Kennedys, however, due to their habitual defaulting on loans and the legal murkiness that surrounds the contracts, lawsuits have not seen much success. The complexity of the financing contracts can mean that litigation is played out in an attempt to protect an asset from seizure. With varying success, this has been achieved on different occasions, and the maneuverability of the Kennedys in their attempts to protect hidden assets and avoid legal accountability has been an additional frustration to creditors. The tactics adopted by Kennedy Funding to secure assets offshore and in the form of hand to hand secured loans are indicative of their dishonest approach to high-interest mortgage lending. At the request of the plaintiffs, RICO claims have been considered against the company with a possibility for class action. Although undoubtedly expensive, this would be a promising tactic given the modern establishment of factual evidence. However, the potential for the company to file for bankruptcy and then reform under a different name is a necessity that requires preventative legal action. This is an ongoing issue for many creditors seeking to liquidate defaulted loans and is often met with obstruction from the party indebted.