As you can see, I've never been in hiding. Clearly.
Back in 2004, Ed and I started a business to try to help people save their homes from foreclosure. We were taught by someone in Michigan who was very successful at it.
The idea was: We matched up an interested investor, with someone facing foreclosure. If the homeowner had enough equity in their home, it could work. The homeowner would voluntarily sell their home to the investor, thus freeing up the equity they had in thier home... while paying off the mortgage company... and preventing the foreclosure. Then, they would immediately buy their home back from the investor on a "land contract".
The whole process was a win-win. The homeowner would not lose their home. The equity that was freed up was enough to pay the investor a decent fee for extending his credit and risk, and there was usually enough for a small fee for us, and often even cash back to the homeowner. Everyone wins. Everyone was happy. Even the mortgage company was happy... being paid off in full.
It was actually a brilliant idea... which had barely ever been done before. And it helped many people save their homes.
What happened though... in short is.... We were a victum of our own success. At the same time that we had just begun a radio advertising campaign... mortgage foreclosures hit an all time high.
We were suddenly swamped with applications to process. We hired more people as fast as we could, but there was no time to train them. It was a disaster. A management and planning disaster. As a result, we dropped the ball. We did not get applications processed fast enough.
We had every single applicant sign a contract -- and with their signature notorized -- stating that they understood clearly that there was no guarantee that we would be able to match them with a suitable investor. No guarantee that we would be able to save their home.
Of course, we needed to charge a deposit in order to pay for the weeks worth of processing paperwork that was needed in order to deterine their deed, their mortgages, determine their equity, get appraisals on the property... then try to match them with suitable investors.
The whole thing was a miserable failure. When people panicked because they couldn't get answers from us fast enough... they freaked out. They complained to the BBB, and all the way up.
Bold Funding was a disaster. We got overwhelmed with applications. So many applications that.... even tho we tried... it was hopeless to try to process them all. As a result, people were let down. It was never our intention to harm nor defraud anyone. We were not present at the proceedings for the civil lawsuit against us, at the advice of our legal council. And that was only a CIVIL trial, by the way. No criminal charges were ever filed. The case is closed for the government too. The statute of limitations is 6 years, and they never considered the case worthy.
People who know me, know that I have been promoting bitcoins, accepting cash deposits and delivering bitcoins in exchange, and I never defraud anyone.
We were only trying to run a business which would help people. It's just that we failed miserably.
I live with the pain of knowing that we let people down who were hoping that we could help them save their homes.... and faster. But all in all, we were only able save a small percentage of the homes we were tasked with.
It was never fraud. It was mismanagement. And we learned a LOT of lessons from that experience. Lessons we will never forget.