Arrests Begin

It looks like things are starting to move along in this.  Especially at the local level which involved our retirement money and a portion of our home equity.  Joyce Allen, the owner of J Allen and Associates in Lousiville, TN, and her former employee Sharon Kay Thomas, have been charged in a multi-count indictment including securities fraud and money laundering. Joyce Allen was our accountant for over thirty years and I many times spoke with Kay Thomas many times on the phone concerning our annuity with Benchmark Captial.  They both made an initial court appearance this week and will be entering their pleas on Monday. 

The indictment states that some clients of the firm (including us) were "deliberately and fraudulently" induced to invest in Benchmark Capital, while Allen knew that the money was never legitimately invested but converted to her own use and to others known by the grand jury.  Needless-to-say, it's sickening to think that while we were working honestly and placing money into the Benchmark Capital annuity in order to to enter retirement soon, J Allen and others living and prospering from our money.  Our thoughts now rest in forgiving those who wronged us and going forward by the grace of God to rebuild as we can.  Our thoughts and prayers to out to those less fortunate.

Read the article at knoxsnews.com .  According to other articles the money laundering involved a series of checks to Benchmark Capital, totaling $1.3 million, deposited by J Allen and Kay Thomas into a bank account that Allen had opened on Candler's instructions. Following Candler's death, the indictment alleges, Thomas, acting on Allen's instructions, withdrew from that account $946,326 in the form of nine cashier's checks. The checks were payable to various individuals, including Thomas, Allen and others including some relatives of the two women.

U.S. Marshals Service photos -
  

Joyce Allen





Kay Thomas



The indictment states that, "The business purpose of Benchmark was to defraud investors by taking their funds in exchange for worthless and nonexistent investments," the indictment states. "One of the purposes of (Allen's firm) was to identify potential investors (from among its clients) then (to defraud them) by selling them investments that Allen knew to be worthless."

Feel free to comment!

Southern Bankers

Some recent searching on the web turn up that Charles D. "C.D." Candler spent over $500,000 in a failed try to start a bank four years ago.  It appears that his behind the scenes role was necessitated by his record that forbade him from involvement with a bank operation.  Plans for the Greenville-based Southern Bankers bank included branches in Knoxville and in Loudoun County Va. by 2011.  There's some interesting reading at knoxsnews.com .  Candler fronted all of the money for Southern Bankers and stayed just under the radar of the FDIC.  Interestingly enough, his board of directors was to include many of his friends and acquaintances from Tennessee and South Carolina, as well as a cousin. Of the 11 principal shareholders, at least four of the six holders of the largest blocks — 10,000 shares or more — included Candler's cousin, and three friends or associates from Tennessee.  One of which was Joyce Allen of the Blount County accounting firm, J Allen and Associates.  That's where our retirement entered the snare.  Maybe even more interesting is that former U.S. Senators Bob Dole and Trent Lott were recruited to be "Senior Advisors" to Southern Bankers.  You can find some information on that detail here and here.

Charles Candler

Candler's Home

Louisville Woman Learns She's an Apparent Victim of 'Reverse Mortgage' Scam

An associated video from Wate.com.

Louisville woman learns she's apparent victim of reverse mortgage scam: The federal investigation of an alleged mortgage scam based in Knoxville could potentially involve millions of dollars in losses to dozens of customers.

"Honest Businesses" ?

Based on information on wate.com it appears that some local neighbors in our home town in Blount County are starting to surface as victims of Charles D Candler and others.  Wate.com states that the fraud could potentially involve millions of dollars in losses to dozens of people.  Other reports stated hundreds of potential victims.  At this point our money (pardon the pun) in on hundreds of families.  Interesting that the IRS isn't talking about the case but not surprising since everything is under investigation at this point.

Here's some of yet another sad story brought about by this event.

"Joy Joines is proud of the home she and her late husband, Kenneth, built in a picturesque cove in Louisville. She calls it her 'little piece of heaven,' but she now fears she may lose everything. ... 'When I called that mortgage company to find out what was going on, they told me, sell it or sign the house over to them,' she said."  Do we need to comment any on the state of 'honest' mortgage companies in the aftermath of this tragedy?

According to the article, Joy Joines and her husband took out a 'reverse mortgage' July 2005 which enabled them to have access to a portion of the equity in their home to help raise two of her great grandchildren.  She states that J. Allen and Associates was who her husband went through to get the 'reverse mortgage'.  She visited Allen's accounting office in Louisville and they told her that she won't be getting a check anymore and that she had to make the house payment.  Based on Carl Bruner, a reverse mortgage specialist, this isn't a reverse mortgage.  Joines has been forced to hire an attorney to delay possible eviction over a mortgage she knows nothing about.

Even the 'honest' businesses seem to be jumping on board to rack in the booty.  Opinions?

House, Plane, and Businesses

Updating our blog, we received a letter from the Department of The Treasury - IRS dated April 11th that requested copies of all records and/or documentation regarding our investment with the individuals and/or entities under investigation.  Needless-to-say we're in the process of gather the information to try and facilitate the investigation.

Of more interest is what we found on the knoxnews.com web site.  Good picture of Charles D Candler's last home and some interesting facts about his less than honest business practices in the past.  Interesting article and our thanks to knoxnews' Jim Balloch.

The news trickles in. Here's a summary of the knoxnews.com report. 

IRS agents in South Carolina seized a corporate jet airplane linked to Charles D. "C.D." Candler, who committed suicide amid a federal probe into allegations of a multistate mortgage and investment fraud scheme.

The airplane is registered to a fictitious firm with a Knoxville address linked to Candler. It was seized in Greenville, S.C., where at least one of Candler's firms had an office.  Candler bought the used plane in 2009 and ONE of his firms now under investigation, Benchmark Capital Investments LLC, is the listed owner. 
The airplane's registration number N70HL is currently assigned to "J. Allen Inc.," with the same Merchants Center Boulevard address as Candler's Knoxville office. Tennessee Department of State records show the only firm by that name was at a different address and dissolved in 1994.  The Blount County (TN) accounting firm J. Allen and Associates is part of the federal probe. Owner Joyce Allen was unaware that Candler had placed the jet in a name so similar to her own legitimate company, her lawyer said Friday.
"Joyce Allen did know that Candler had a plane, and we believe that he has placed that airplane in the name of 'J Allen Inc.,' " said lawyer Ralph Harwell. "However, Candler did not ask her (if he could), or even tell her that he was going to register the plane in that name. She has never done business under the name 'J Allen Inc.'"

On March 1, Candler, 67, drove his silver 2007 Mercedes-Benz into the Greenwood Cemetery and shot himself to death. The Knoxville Police Department final report states that Candler purchased a funeral plan exactly one month earlier.  "Lying on the console/middle arm rest of the car was a note and funeral plans for Mr. Candler," the report by Investigator Michael Booker states. "The notes gave his name, his wishes after his body was discovered, and a suicide note addressed to Candler's wife."  A laptop computer, memory discs and various documents in the car, were turned over to an investigator with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the IRS has taken possession of the Mercedes-Benz.

knoxnews.com

aero-news.net

The Honorable Way Out?

Here's another link that really doesn't provide any new information but it has an interesting intro.  "It's curious, how someone who lived so dishonorably suddenly decided to take the honorable way out...."
Greenspans Body Count - Charles D Candler

By the way, we recieved more information from the investigating agencies today via US mail.  More on that later.

Where Our Story Starts

It might be worth a little background on this blog in order for some to appreciate the drive to create such a blog.

On March 29, 2012 I stopped at the mailbox on my way out for the day.  As usual the mailbox contained assorted fliers with coupons (which I use often since going into semi-retirement) and a couple of pieces of non-descriptive mail from the USPS.  My thoughts were, "Junk mail. Toss it.", but I threw it to the passenger's seat and continued on with my day.  Toward that afternoon while waiting on someone I decided it was a good time to sort through the junk mail.  In both pieces of mail from the USPS was a single page letter explaining in short detail that as a client / investor with either Benchmark Capital, Inc., Benchmark Capital Investments, LLC., J. Allen and Associates, Inc., Charles D. Candler (a.k.a C. D. Candler), Cornerstone Mortgage, and/or Southern Bankers, we were possible victims of a fraudulent investment scheme.  These entities were under a joint investigation by the IRD-Criminal Investigation Division, US Postal Inspection Service, and the FBI.
Unfortunately we indeed had investments with Benchmark Capital in the form of a Home Equity Annuity (a portion of our equity receiving dividend) and an Investment Annuity (our retirement).  With some quick research via the Internet we determined that Charles D. Candler had been found dead in the Greenwood Cemetery on March 1, 2012 from an apparent self inflicted gun shot wound.  Apparently, in February 2012 some investors in the Home Equity Annuity did not receive their dividend checks which prompted at least one person to call the Knoxville Police Department to inquire.  After Candler was found dead at the cemetery from a self inflicted gun shot wound, Federal agents entered his Knoxville office to continue what was an ongoing investigation. 

On a more personal note, we now sit with our retirement in a state of unknown.  Money earned 33 years prior from my first job after college, inheritance from money earned by my wife's father - an honest, hard working blue collar worker, and other money tucked away for our 'twilight years' - seemingly gone.  A large part of our children's inheritance gone. 

Feel free to comment, provide feedback or information.  Hundreds of lives are most likely touched and our prayers go out to each family who must now face this seeming tragedy.

The Beginning

After some comments and feedback from our 'trave blog' we have active, we have decided that it appears worthwhile to devote some time to a more specific blog associated with Benchmark Capital, Inc. and Charles D. Candler (C. D. Candler). 

Our goal is to provide a forum for passing information along and providing support to those victims of what appears to have been potential fraudulent investment scheme. 
To begin, here are a few reports from various news sources and their respective reports.

knoxnews

wbir

wyff4

Please feel free to post your comments, new sources, and general information associated with this tragedy.