Failed Financial Deal
By Diane Wilson
(08/06/07 -- RALEIGH) - A Troubleshooter investigation into a company that promised millions of dollars, but hasn't delivered one cent. The company promises what it describes as a brand new concept in funding commercial loans. A Triangle woman believed that promise, but instead lost thousands of dollars and saw her life turned upside down.
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The company is Heritage Capital Credit Corporation. It's based in Delaware. In 2004, Diane Spencer paid Heritage $45,000. In exchange, she was promised nearly $47 million dollars in loans. With those loans, Diane wanted to expand her real estate business and buy brand new or nearly new homes in nice Durham neighborhoods to rent exclusively to section 8 families. She was going to finance buying all those homes through the promised loans from Heritage. Now three years later, despite repeated promises from Heritage to close on the loans, they still aren't funded. Diane lost her home to foreclosure, along with 8 other investment properties because of this failed financial deal. She tells Troubleshooter Diane Wilson, "My professional life as a real estate investor is over. Our personal lives are forever changed because our credit is ruined. We lost all of our retirement savings. Everything that we had financially, we put into my real estate business and it's all gone, and there's no hope of getting it back."
Diane's not alone. The President and CEO of Heritage Capital, Carol Johnson, concedes that twenty five other people have paid her company $288,000 in fees to fund loans. She admits no loans have been funded. She says, "We're still working on that we're still working on that." Johnson says she's not doing anything illegal. She adds, "We are running a legitimate business and we are going to do what we promised them that we would do when they bring us a valid project to the table."
But Diane Spencer claims Carol Johnson's husband, Ed, a convicted criminal, really runs the corporation. In 1990, Ed Johnson was convicted of misapplying funds when he was CEO of a bank. Also five years ago, the SEC held him liable for financial fraud. Ed says, "I don't run a public company. I haven't done anything to violate the court order. That's why I don't run Heritage." Johnson claims he's not breaking the law because he's only an investor and technical advisor for Heritage and not a director or officer for the company. But when asked why he was at Heritage offices he said, "I work over here." Over here, meaning First Independent Financial Group. Both First Independent and Heritage share the same office space, phone number, and president, which is Ed's wife Carol. Diane Spencer says she's dealt directly with Ed for Heritage transactions and she wants others to beware of both the Johnsons' empty promises. Diane tells Troubleshooter Diane Wilson, "It's really hurt a lot of people, and it's just amazing that they seem to have no remorse, no concern. Justice needs to be served. These people need to be held accountable for what they've done and for the lives that they've ruined."
The FBI is investigating Heritage Capital. Carol Johnson says she's currently not taking new customers. She adds when she does, they'll no longer require application fees for first-time clients. Johnson also says Heritage doesn't actually loan the money. They package the loans and sell them to investors. As for Diane Spencer, Johnson says she has promised her a full refund in exchange for an agreement not to sue, but so far Diane says she never got a release and so far hasn't seen a penny.
