The structured settlement scheme was introduced as a beneficial scheme for the people. Those who found themselves in critical conditions could actually make profit out of their unfortunate situation through these plans. The schemes were however, obliterated in their essence, when factoring companies started to gain prominence. These companies started coming up with offers that became more and more lucrative as time went on but their credibility could never be justified. People were sucked into scams and shams which led to a slew of some very terrible events. People would think that involving a court in their transactions would protect them but this post has enlisted many cases where the inaction and wrongful actions of the judges have led to the victimization of certain people. It is sad to see this happening and also realizing that even judges will not protect you in certain cases.
Here is a list of many bad things that happened to people who wanted to sell their structured settlement. Things have gone terribly wrong with some people because the judges in these cases have worked negligently and without taking the best interests of the people involved in a case into consideration. These sad but true stories have been enlisted as follows:
- Cedric Martez Thomas who is a New York native was skunked by Novation Funding LLC, a company which still continues to falsely advertise that it pays the maximum payouts. It had made more than 1 million profit dollar spread but despite its obviously illegal workings, it was approved by an Okeechobee Florida judge Gary Sweet in October 29, 2015. If this is not what you call a terrible awful deal produced by Novation, then we wouldn’t know what else. It is a very sad and unlawful event which should have been brought to notice sooner.
- Lauren Ashley Nesbitt who is an Oklahoma native, was skunked by Seneca One for an estimate profit in excess of 1 million dollars. The workings of the company had been approved by Bryan County judge Mark Campbell. This is just another terrible and very shameful deal for the consumer, produced by Seneca One which still continues to work as a buyer of structured settlement payment rights.
- Terrence Taylor is a victim of the Portsmouth Virginia circuit three ring circus which had been presided by former Judge Dean Sword Jr. The former judge is of the opinion that the 11 sale transactions in 2 years were not illegal in any way and were approved. This event has been a cover story in Washington Post in its December 2015 publishing and is currently in litigation.
- D. is another Florida native who was rendered unemployable because of his disability.He is a young father of two children and was shamefully skunked by a Florida factoring company that was working closely and conspiring deviously with an investment bank. Thankfully, there is a pleasant scenario here as A.D. was referred to a lawyer who helped him a lot. He negotiated the the transfer order to be vacated and A.D.’s due to the lawyer’s efforts, all the payments were restored. This is one case which has gone right but it is not all right to ignore that Indian River Florida judge Cynthia Cox was the one who had approved the bad deal. It is obvious that she did an incredibly poor job of evaluating the best interest of A.D. and put the poor man in a state he didn’t deserve to be in.
- X is a young New York native who was skunked by New York factoring company into placing almost two thirds of his net proceeds into a suspect investment scheme. The scheme lured him into this shady business as it promised to pay him an impossible interest rate if he simply complied with their conditions (which did not seem too difficult at that time). There were no returns and the leader of the factoring company was subjected to a FINRA ban. Also, fortunately X hired a lawyer who negotiated a return of the 1 million dollars he had supposedly invested in the factoring company. This transaction is very shady and despite its impossible claims, it was approved by New York judge. You really can’t trust judges these days, now, can you?
- Prince George’s County Herman Dawson approved the lead paint structured settlement factoring deals which involved many Baltimore inner city minorities, out of which some were functionally illiterate. This scam involved offering sham independent professional advice to these minority groups and the whole event made a huge story. The story also made it to the front page Washington Post and motivated reforms and action in the state of Maryland along with a Maryland Attorney General lawsuit.
This is nothing and there are so many snippets of all the things that go on. Sadly, there is more bad news which will come out soon enough. It is really sad to see that the structured settlement secondary market has been such a shady scene from the beginning but the fact that in the coming months, some questionable judicial approvals will be brought to light only means there will be justice.
To conclude this, it is important to note that until there is licensing and regulation of sales practices and business conduct, the structured settlement industry as a whole will be questioned.