Honor Among Theives?

Ya gotta love scam artists, in a way. All of us at one time or another have cheered on the likes of the characters in “The Sting,” or perhaps more recently, “Ocean’s Eleven” (and Twelve). Something about scamming the rich, the powerful or especially the greedy seems downright appropriate.

So when we see scams pulled by the little guy against a bigger guy, we may even have some sympathy for the scammer. Call it the "Robin Hood" syndrome.

But what if the little guy is only appearing to be scamming the big guy? What if the supposed little guy is actually scamming a bunch of his supposed-fellow little guys? And what if those little guys are actually victims of the kind of financial schemes this Court so adamantly opposes and routinely chastises herein? Victims desperately looking for help.

Scamming those who have been taken advantage of is lower than low. The perpetrators of these things can get in any room they want without even opening the door.

Comes now before this Court the principals and purveyors of various debt-elimination schemes, specifically persons associated with The Dorean Group and related entities. The Court recognizes half of the brain-trust behind this thing is now incarcerated in California; the other half (a former convicted felon) is hiding from an arrest warrant and supposedly blogging away to fan the fires of what has now seemingly mutated into quasi-religious fervor among some of the faithful.

The main player's circumstances don’t stop their minions from defending them and still promoting the illegal program, although one would think it would be pretty hard to sell it to anyone who has Internet access and a search engine.

From all appearances, it now appears they are positioning themselves for martyrdom, if not outright sainthood among the deluded crowd.

It is interesting to see how these folks are connected and networked together; they share a common conspiratorial theme (which are various versions of a long-held mythology so the Court won’t dwell on it) but they also have another commonality – they position themselves as having extremely valuable, secret knowledge a consumer/borrower can buy and use to save themselves thousands, even tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

What a wonderful concept! And the only loser in the program is the Squaliforme?

Were it only true. The losers are those who paid money for the programs. Two time losers are the ones who actually tried to use them. Soon to be three time losers are the victims when the legal system puts them through the meat grinder and takes their property. And surprise, surprise, there’s nobody from the scammers ‘round to help out.

And when looking at those participating, it is illustrative to look at the case of one “Jed” (Joyce Earl Delancy) Lambeth.

Mr. Lambeth is by all accounts a man of many interests, including being interested in various debt-elimination schemes, one of them being the Dorean Group, with which he was named in an action taken by the North Carolina Attorney General which resulted in a court order barring them from doing what they were doing to anyone else, let alone promoting it in NC.

Now, if that one won’t work, perhaps being a partner in something called “The Liberty Group,” will keep Lambeth’s attention, seeings how they have their own mortgage elimination scheme as well as links to at least three other scams and one MLM scheme:

• A “loss-mitigation” foreclosure-rescue scheme that preys on mortgage victims about to lose their homes – which you can also become an agent for to make money while doing it);
• One (of two) car-loan elimination scams “Jed” promotes (more on the other one in a moment);
• A link to the New Leaf Associates debt-elimination scheme for which Jed is an agent;
• And last but not least, his partner's health and wellness MLM business
  

Jed also promotes the Echard & Burnham Global Freedom Solutions tax dodge program, where you can learn more of those little-known secrets of why you don’t have to pay income taxes – oh and you can buy a website to make money misleading people too.

If those and the Dorean thing aren’t enough, Jed is also an agent for another car-loan debt elimination scam set up by one David Echard [( does that name "Echard" ring any bells? )] dba “D&H Associates.” There are currently ten or so other “agents” who paid for the privilege of having a web site to lure people into a run-of-the-mill DE scam. Lord only knows how many got recruited, then paid then found out they were duped.

D&H Associates was none other than one David Echard (and a woman who will go back to being anonymous for the time being), who were themselves at one time, down-line agents for an MLM scam that had it’s home in Canada: United Financial Consumers. Back in 2003, these folks started marketing an “equity recovery” scheme that the RCMP stepped in, er, onto:

“We have just been informed by the Winnipeg Commercial Crime Division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), of a clever scam being perpetrated by several people across Canada against life and health insurers, mutual fund companies, banks and possibly other types of
financial institutions. In this case, the company receives a well crafted 19-page contract entitled an "Agreement for the restoration of the equities including Promissory Note and Security Agreement" together with a $10 Postal Money Order representing the contract's monetary consideration. The action of any employee or agent of the company on the money order would become forensic evidence of the acceptance of the agreement which amounts to accepting liability for a debt of $2,604,810 plus all sorts of costs, including legal costs.”

Clever, eh? Well, it was for a time.

Maybe the highly-publicized demise of the Dorean Group will help dissuade victims from grasping for the lead-lined life-preservers these scammers are selling.

If only we could round them all up...I could have this one over in about an hour. Not enough cells to go 'round; they'll have to double bunk some. Then again, we could use some hard labor help 'round here.

The Honorable Judge Roy Bean