My wife and I invested most every dollar of our IRA savings with National Medical Funding, Trust Management Services or some entity of C. J. Palmieri, through Innovative Financial Services in Phoenix, AZ, (the Agent or representative) in 1999 and 2000. I also had a NON-IRA investment, which I made in 2000.
Total amount invested was approximately $90,000. Maturity value was to be approximately $114,000.
The custodians for the IRA accounts only, are Retirement Accounts, Inc.
The Escrow Agent was a company named Trust Management Services of 268 Bush Street, Suite 755, San Francisco, CA 94104, (415) 765-0405 or National Medical Funding.
We followed up on an Innovative advertisement in the Phoenix newspaper is how we made contact. We checked with the Better Business Bureau and Innovative showed up OK. Other investors had checked even further and it seemed to them as it did to me that this was a well-run family business that had been in operation quite a long time.
All of these investments were estimated to mature in one year according to the Agent Innovative Financial Services. Also, if we wanted our money back before maturity they would discount the interest but would return the investment with the reduced interest.
Our story has been ongoing for perhaps a year now it seems. We did not keep records of my earlier attempts to get something solid from the Representative Shearburn and Mr. Palmieri since we thought the promises and delays given to us by them, while quite unusual, also seemed reasonable. We were to trustful, I guess.
I started keeping track of the conversations we had later and entered information as best I could remember after each conversation.
Since we received the final papers of the agreements from Innovative and Palmieri after the contracts were issued, I have never received a piece of mail from either of them, even after sending them each Certified letters to respond,
A record of some telephone messages and notes that I started to gather together and get in some kind of order Starting February 6, 2002 is shown below:
And on the Qualified IRA for me “T.Yu” #19074, he told me bad health, short life expectancy.
And on the Qualified IRA for my wife “L. Kaminsky” #19070 LAK OD since 5-2001. He said Death certificate should be in next week.
He says; Will be in anytime soon – Death Certificate in.
December 18, 2001 C. J. Palmieri my telephone call says 2 to 3 days will call. Promised.
Late December or early January Palmieri’s secretary called and asked for our Bank routing number.
January 2002 I called Palmieri’s office and got his address from Sect who said Trust Management Services 3515 Camino del Rio, South Suite 201, San Diego, CA 92108, which turns out was the wrong name. It should have been National Medical Funding, same address.
January 17, 2002 I wrote Trust Management Services at 3515 Camino del Rio, South Suite 201, San Diego, CA 92108 certified mail, return receipt requesting them to give me a status report. The letter came back undeliverable.
January 30, 2002 I re-sent the same letter as Jan 17th above, but to C. J. Palmieri at National medical Funding at same address of 3515 Camino del Rio, South Suite 201, San Diego, CA 92108 certified mail, Receipt came back that it was delivered.
January 17, 2002 I wrote Innovative Financial Services at 6767 W. Tropicana, Suite 212, Las Vegas, NV 89103 certified mail receipt requesting them to give me a status report. Receipt came back that it was delivered. I found out they had opened and then closed an office in Las Vegas and was back in Arizona
January 29, 2002 I wrote a regular letter to RAI Retirement Accounts, Inc. the Trustee for the two IRA Viaticals asking them if they could help me, as we were worried about the safety of our money.
Wednesday January 30, 2002 On my call to the AZ Corporation Commission I got the desk of a MR. Lee Pool, Securities Division, who was out. A recording gave me his e-mail address of lp@ccsd.cc.state.az.us and I wrote them a letter stating an overview of my problem. I had reached them at 602-542-2237.
Wednesday Feb 5, 2002 a call to Bob Shearburn.
I got his answering service but Bob did call me back very shortly thereafter. He said that they were in the process of getting lined up on what checks had gone out and which ones had not yet gone out. And that on the “Lawson” account, they (I assume Palmieri) were adding a year’s interest to it.
Kimberly Clark called from Retirement Accounts, Inc. in regards to the letter they had received from us regarding our request to them to see if they could help us out any. She had been working with another client regarding this same situation. She guesses he is trying to get a lawsuit together to go after Mr. C.J. Palmieri. He would like her to give other clients his number so they could contact him if they wished. She said I could call him if I wished, also if I came up with other questions in regards to basically the accounts that she could answer them. If it was something about the investments themselves that there wasn’t much she could tell me. She indicated that Palmieri kept saying that he was sending checks but he doesn’t, and also indicated that this was true with several other customers.
C.J. Palmieri of National Medical Funding called to “update” & let us know that we had a couple of Viaticals ready to pay out. That he couldn’t give us an exact date but that it should be shortly though. Said he would keep in touch with us. He said that Bob Shearburn knows of a list that is to be paid out also. He said again that he would keep in touch with us and appreciated our patience.
Wednesday Feb 6, 2002 6:07 PM a call from Bob Shearburn New Location
I talked with him. Bob has closed the Las Vegas office, which he had opened up only to be able to sell Viaticals. He has closed that office, and now works I think he now operates out of an office in Sun City, AZ . Uses the same Watts number 1-800- 374- 4606.
Shearburn said that according to a Fax he received from Palmieri that both two Viaticals had matured. “Yu on me and “Komenski” on my wife and was sent to RAI according to a Fax from Palmieri to Bob Shearburn. (Obviously they hadn’t, because I talked to RAI mid afternoon the Feb 6th 2002 and they had not received anything.)
An additional check was going to be sent directly to us from Palmieri, to each my wife and I, according to Shearburn, for the interest earned since they had matured 7 to 12 months ago.
Bob had said in a previous call to me on Tuesday, Feb 5th, that the “Lawson” Viatical, a non-IRA one had matured and that Palmieri was sending that along with additional money to us for the interest since it had matured.
February 15, 2002 No reply from either Palmieri nor Shearburn.
February 15, 2002 My wife and I have decided that we need to do something active to recover our money.
February 20, 2002 I called Arnold Neves, Attorney in San Diego, CA to say that we would join with the several others in the suit he was putting together against C. J. Palmieri.
I have made numerous undocumented calls to both Innovative and Palmieri. Both were very hard to catch in. Palmieri’s Sec. most always answered but at Innovative I always got an answering machine. Seldom would I get a call back until after Innovative received my certified letter.
We have filed a complaint form with the Arizona and the California Department of Corporations on forms supplied by them to us. Included in the packet of information that was sent to each of the Departments were copies of all of the information regarding our Viatical investments including the contracts we signed when we purchased them.
This is a major part of our Retirement money. We have both worked hard and saved and wanted to have a winter home in Arizona so my wife could escape the cold weather of Iowa in the winter because of her health. If we lose this investment not only will there be no Arizona home, our whole life full of plans and hopes is washed up. In addition to all of the principal and interest the investment was to have earned, an additional 2 years of interest has already been lost and we are having to scratch.
Needless to say, it is hard to stay calm when all indications are that we have been ripped off good. This is evidently a very complex scheme and well orchestrated. There looks to have been some governmental oversight of these operations lacking. It should have been caught early and nipped it in the bud.
Because of this lack of oversight, I feel the Receivership costs should not come from the remaining assets before the distribution to us the investors. We will at best, come out very short and the Receiver costs will be extremely high because of Palmieri’s lack of cooperation in providing information. It just adds to our financial dilemma.
I also think it will be a sad state of affairs if money sent oversees by the Palmieri outfit escapes the Receiver.
signed
Shamed I’ve been duped