Originally Posted by re-foundingmother

Some funds were included in the mortgage obtained by buyers and some funds were given directly by sellers from their proceeds... and some were done on the same buy/sell transactions. you and ralph are both right about questioning who should get what because there is not blanket response. The scam has too many iterations.
There was more than one way that this scam has been allowed to continue.

There is more than one way that people were "sold" on this investment strategy.

I do not know how to post links in these posts... maybe Sage could help with next paragraph?

Please check the article already listed about Metropolitan Money Store and please check the article in Oct 14 Washington Post "The Get-Rich Pitch then the LetDown" by Michelle Singletary.

If no one thinks these people know each other and their schemes are not related in the same communities... there is no such thing as co-incidence, people. And I hope that the feds and AG's are looking at that connection.

The coverage by the media or lack thereof is no accident either. What are big problems to you and I are still small business "potatoes" and happening in mostly minority communities.

These predators know that while they are "keeping it at home" and under the radar of Big Business (under $150Million) and Big Brother, the media will drop off mostly because there is always a market for the unsophisticated investor to take advice from the wrong source and thereby stay at the bottom... by just cutting their losses and moving on eventually because there is no easy way to complain or to exact justice and regular people would rather regain a quality of life that doesn't include fighting everyday.

It is an arduous process to complain to DLLR or go file a small claim or expensive to get an attorney and there are so many loopholes (possibly intentional design) to make it hard to pursue the wrongdoing. And many people don't understand or even know about their rights, or the new Maryland Foreclosure Consultant bill of 2005 for example.
I think Senate Bill 761 or 671.

The punishments are listed as high but enforcement is low because only individuals complain. And the scammers get through the loopholes by saying they support the original idea.

Look at www. mdforeclosurelaw .com (or as it will direct you when typed in correctly Platinum Financial) and see if any of the company's activities or people are related to any of the three other companies listed here, MDH, Metropolitan Money Store and Financial Independence Group. I think you'll find that they are. Or maybe they are legitimately trying to be the do-gooders but they certainly know about the scams surrounding them and have done nothing with their "good works" to help eradicate the scammers.

And it doesn't stop there.
This is what I meant earlier about crossing all the different businesses... all these scam companies advertise on the same radio stations, same pennysavers, same community meetings. Scammers give their "earned" advertising dollars to the entities that we want to investigate and cover them. And even more on the internet or with JV's with all those MLM companies -- stealing the credibility of the source by paying to advertise there. Hmmmm....

At least for what I know about the POSCafe "system," they were planning to control advertising delivery in many retail locations with new media and digital signage and that that part was the most expensive and the most "supposedly" lucrative part of their investment package, i.e. reason to loan money from your home sale or mortgage.
(meanwhile actually developing an advertising company is pretty slow and low revenue at first and you need more than one trick up your sleeve, especially when you don't hire well -- again, on purpose to not develop what you say you are developing)

When I saw on couple posts that MDH was listing as one option to get out, an ATM, I nearly laughed out loud.

Bank of America just announced raising fees for their ATM's. And MDH just offered ATM's as 1 of three options to get out of the $50k loan. Are different groups preying on the same consumers? Or are they modeling each other? Does AHW have any basis for his thinking that if the Big Guys can do it, why can't I?

The media is absent mostly because they'd have to take on the big guys too in order to cover these "small business" transgressions. But we just can't label everyone a conspiracy theorist, can we now??

You bet there are high people in high places hiding some of this and not for the reasons you expect.

More will come out about the MDH mortgage issues of course, but the lending institutions themselves are having widespread problems that the media will cover instead, so please expect it to take a really long time. And guess what? they are the same basic content issues just different context. I mean, if you were the Media, why wouldn't you cover Donald Trump's bankruptcy or preforeclosure status instead of mine in Prince Georges County?

And yes, with all the traveling and parties at the big hotels and other states "waiting" to follow Maryland lead, the assets of cash are mostly used up and having the time to disappear, even overseas. Several of the enablers and the investors themselves are helping with that by continuing to support and continuing to use a blind eye and the employees that are also investors are still saying that what they are doing is right.

AHW has been charming, charismatic, good fund-raiser, and instilled a great deal of loyalty toward the "little guy just trying to get ahead like everybody else." And he had great models for less than stellar integrity in the industries he tried to join. Several times. If the media had covered the 2001 Bankcard Group scam even more but the AG still just slaps a wrist, why do we expect round two across 8 states to be different?

The prosecution and investigation costs too much. And the small business person or small band of investors just isn't worth it. And the media makes more advertising dollars by covering Britney. Plus too much media coverage would dilute the "due process" that our scammers are entitled to.

And while the individuals (like many of the posters and investors) keep that status of low profile instead of banding together much sooner to stop the problems when they see and question them, the media just won't call you back unless your name is Britney.

Originally Posted by MarinaDelReap

Also, I noticed they took down the Metro Dream Home propaganda: Metro Television Network

But have no fear I saved the link that streamed the videos last week:

LifeStreamTV

enjoy.

Originally Posted by ralphmalph

"Not sure how this will end"??? I am very sure... no one will receive another penny from any of these companies and the legal authorities will find that most of the money is GONE. In the end there will be pennies paid on the dollar to those who invested with this scam.

No hype, just fact. There was a lot of spending including lavish homes, extravagant trips and copious donations to charities. But there was never any income, so it was all coming from investor's monies.

Is that clear to everyone? For every dollar they took in, they likely paid out $0.90 between mortgage payments and the principals lavish lifestyles. So what does anyone really expect to recoup from this fiasco?

Originally Posted by re-foundingmother

And to Ralph, please don't take this the wrong way, 'cause I enjoy sparring with you a little here, --
if you "yell" at people in these posts and make them feel stupid or embarrassed about the decisions they made,
THEY'LL PROBABLY STOP POSTING.
People need this space to vent and compare notes. And to find help and some comrades in arms.