Complaint Review: Brad Thornton The Lending Company (now at Opes Advisors)

AMERICAN GREED" in Lane County, Oregon:

Mortgage Broker Brad Thornton with Opes Advisers (not the guy in the picture)and formally the President of The Lending Company lied to me about a private lending investment and stole well over $150,000 from me. It's the same as if he robbed and financially raped me at gun point. I did business with Brad Thornton of The lending Company and Opes Advisers three different times.  Two times as the mortgage borrower and the last time as the lender.In 2008  Brad Thornton spent two months talking me into investing all of the money from the sale of my home of 20 years because it was 100% safe.  Private lending or equity backed investments are extremely safe if you are not being intentionally lied to.About 4 hours before he told me to go to his office to sign the loan papers and fund the loan,  I asked him who to make to cashiers check out to, the borrower or the title company, he paused and the said "the borrower". He knew right then that I was handing over a cashiers check made out to a borrower that he more or less controls.  The borrower owed him and his family more than I was lending and he was the broker that found most of her loans for her.  I did not know he had any personal interest or would benefit in any way from my investment. So he did not process the loan as promised he put the promissory note in 2nd position  which he never mentioned until I got to his office that day and he had time to put the plan together.  He said it was just as safe really because their was still over $800,000 in currently appraised property even after the !st and 2nd mortgage.  He changed everything he promised this loan/investment was about. He stood there and looked me right in the face knowing he was taking off with my money and that I would never see it again. He knew it was all I had and that loosing it would be catastrophicI'm sure since they owed over a million dollars they could never repay. They  were already on the verge of bankruptcy and Brad told me that they had an 800 ctedit score and owned ev erything outright.

And here was the way for them to pocket my money and the borrower to file on a million dollars. All of the other lenders were safe because they at least got the property and homes securing their loans because he brokered them properly. He denied ever brokering this loan and said that all he did was introduce me to the borrower.  I never met the borrower.  Brad actually charged me an additional $150 to hand deliver all of the papers to the title company in Newport and make sure that the check is not handed over until everything is verified and signed.  He never had the borrower sign the loan papers.  Both the borrower (who admitted in her deposition that she never signed the loan papers) and Brad Thornton kept telling me that I needed a copy of a signed loan document to collect a loan. Brad had given me the unsigned copy before he was supposed to leave for Newport.  But I found out that he never left for Newport.  Debra Pena was waiting in town and the two of them went to the bank and cashed my life savings.

He did not secure my money with 1.2 million in equity he put it on property with negative equity and told the borrower to pay him and his sister off with my money. It was free money to them. I lost over $150,000 and much more.  I posted the depositions from the borrower and Mr Thornton on google docs.  I settled with him for $45,000 because I had no money for council and had already borrowed thousands to pay for lawyers.  Brad closed The lending Co. and gave up his license 2 weeks after robbing  me.  Then he and his partner signed on with Opes Advisers.  I have the entire story on google documents.  My mom had done 15 mortgages with him over the years.  He rented an office from our family accountant where my niece worked for 8 years.  I had every reason to completly trust his word and his license.  When you go to a doctor or dentist and you see their license on the wall you have a sense of trust.   He knew he was robbing my children and me of everything.  If he could take my money and give me no equity to secure the loan and no signature on the loan document then he will take excessive commissions from you if he can get away with it at the very least.

There are people like me who could never do something like this to someone and then there are those who can.  Brad Thornton is a person who has already done it.