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CIIIMTG, LLC Lorenzo Nava CIIIMTG charged $20,000 to obtain a Lender Commitment Letter; Lender failed to close the loan; CIIIMTG won't return fee. Los Angeles California
I engaged Lorenzo Nava of CIiIMTG, LLC to find me a private lender for an oil well re-development deal in Texas, USA. Mr. Nava submitted my loan application package to a supposedly very large private international hedge funds by the name of Alpine Financial & Real Estate Investment Group, Inc.; Dr. ZT Nguyen/Corporate Principal; this company has offices in both Vietnam and the Turks & Caicos Islands.
The total loan amount was to be $1,228,000 including all closing costs and fees. I was told by Mr. Nava that the loan protocol for private loans is very different from regular commercial loans. The big advantages are that a private lender is not bound by all of the usual restrictions of a commercail bank and that they typically will loan a much higher percentage of a project cost than will a bank and they can usually close much faster and provide better loan terms.
I was told that if I was approved by Alpine for my loan that I would need to pay Mr. Nava a $20,000 fee as soon as I received a "Commitment Letter" from Alpine and that this fee would be non-refundable. I told Mr. Nava that I was not comfortable with paying any fees to anyone prior to closing. He told me that he did not want me to shop the loan to other Brokers and I understood that he did not want to put forth the effort to get me a loan and then have me back out or go elsewhere; if I backed out then it would reflect badly to his Lender. This particular deal had so much collateral in proven oil reserves and equipment that the actual loan amount would only be a very small percentage of the project value. The loan terms that I was to receive were 10 year repayment at 3% interest with an interest only option and no prepayment penalty and we were to be guaranteed to close in 30 days and this was to be a non-recourse loan. These were great terms and I would have no reason to back out of the deal.
Even though I liked the terms, I told Mr. Nava that since I had never personally met either him, or Dr. ZT with Alpine that I was still reluctant to pay his fee "upfront". I asked for references for both himself and for Alpine and I was told that strict confidentiality requirements precluded him from providing any such information. He told me that I should not consider the $20,000 payment to be an "upfront" fee because I would only pay it once he had actually gotten me a "Commitment Letter" from the Lender and I would then be guarantedd to close in 30 days. He told me that the only way the loan would not close would be because of me either not paying some required fees to the Lender or by me not closing the deal. Mr. Nava told me that Alpine was a huge private Lender that he had done a lot of business with and that they were very reliable. He further told me that he was not in the business of keeping his clients money if the loan did not close so if for some reason the loan did not close for reasons beyond my control that he assured me that he would refund my payment.
In late November, 2013 I received a loan approval notice from Mr. Nava and Alpine. I asked to have a conference call to include Mr. Nava, Dr. ZT Nguyen, my intended lease Operator, our Attorney in Texas, and me. Mr. Nava set up the conference call and we all understood the terms of the Loan Commitment including that fact that I would be required to pay Alpine roughly 10% of the original loan amount before other fees and expanses so that they could purchase something called a Lender's Mortgage Insurance Deposit. Based on our loan amount, this fee came to $103,000. I told them that I was fine with paying this money at closing. I was told that this money had to be paid to the inurance company right away and as soon as they received my payment that we were guaranteed to close in 30 days. My lease Operator, our Attorney, and I all objected to this and we again asked what happens if the loan does not close. We were directed to a clause in the Lender Commitment Letter that clearly stated: Important Notice - This LMID will be 100% refunded to the Borrower, if the loan is not closed by the Lender. Dr. ZT also pointed out that the document stated that the loan will close in 30 days from receipt of the LMID payment. Mr. Nava pointed out that I would have no risk to my money if the loan did not close since both he and Alpine would refund my fees in such an event.
My Operator and our Attorney told us that in order to move forward I would also have to pay a non-refundable down payment in the amount of $75,000 to the current leaseholder so that the lease would be withdrawn from the market in order to give me enough time to close this loan. They said that even though Alpine was guaranteeing us to close in 30 days, we would have an extra couple of months of grace time to allow for some slight delays. I told everyone that I did not have all of this money prior to the loan closing and I would therefore have to go out an to borrow it.
Based on all of the written and oral assurrances by both Lorenzo Nava and Dr. ZT, we all agreed to move forward. I was able to borrow enough money quickly to pay the leaseholder and Mr. Nava. I wired funds to each of them on Nov. 20, 2013. It took me another month to raise the $103,000 for Alpine but I wired these funds on Dec. 27, 2013. After allowing for the New Year Holiday and the required "hold" time for international wires, I received confirmation from Dr. ZT in early January that he had my cleared funds in his account. Therefore, we all agreed that the closing shoudl occur in the first week of February.
The loan never closed in early February and for the next six weeks or so, I got one excuse after another from Alpine as to why the insurance company would not move forward. I asked Mr. Nava to arrange a conference call with Alpine and me in mid March. During this call I informed them that the I had far exceeded my grace period of time to close with the leaseholder and that the lease was now back on the market. Essentially I had lost the lease (which meant that we no longer had a project to fund) and I had lost my $75,000 downpayment on the lease. I was told that I could send a loan cancellation letter to Alpine requesting an immediate refund. I sent the letter to them on March 18, 2014 but I never heard from them again for a month. On April 23, I received an email message from Dr. ZT stating that the insurance company required my letter to be notarized before they could process my request. I immediately got this done and resent the letter. Dr. ZT sent me a confirmation email stating that he had received the notarized letter and that he would immediatley forward it to the insurance company for processing.
I also notified Lorenzo Nava that since the loan did not close through no fault of mine, I expected him to immediately refund the $20,000 fee that I paid to him. Mr. Nava has taken the position that he earned his fee because he got me a "Commitment Letter" from the Lender and it is not his fault that the Lender did not close the loan. He told me to read his Agreement that I signed. I reminded him of the many times that he assured me that if loan did not close for any reason other than some fault of mine, that he would refund my money. I have emails to this effect and I have my Operator and our Attorney as witnesses to these assurrances on our conference call back in November. Mr. Nava told me that my issue is only with Alpine. He also informed me that he had another client who was having the same issues with Alpine.
I have had no success getting back any of my money from anyone and it has been difficult knowing how to pursue the matter since I live in Ohio and Mr. Nava is in California and Alpine is in another country. Thus far I have filed a complaint with the HSBC Bank in Vietnam where I sent the payment to Alpine; I alerted them to a potential financial fraud that was being perpetrated by Alpine using an account in their bank. They are looking into the matter and will get back to me.
I have filed an official complaint against both CIIIMTG and Alpine with my local police department in Ohio. They are in the process of forwarding the complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice - Interpol Diviison in hopes of getting some assistance from the authorities in Vietnam.
I have contacted the U.S. embassy in Vietnam to notify them about Alpine and the potential financial fraud that they are engaged in and that there are at least two parties, including me, that are having issues with Alpine. The embassy sent me the names of a few law firms in Vietnam who handle such cases and who have English speaking lawyers. I don't want to waste any more money on lawyers if I don't have to; especially if Alpine is a fraud and my money is gone.
I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in Los Angeles against CIIIMTG. Mr. Nava has responded by saying that he has a signed contract with me and his fee is non-refundable and my sole issue is with Alpine and not with him. He wants the BBB to close the matter and restore his good rating. I have since supplied my response with the facts that his fee was supposed to be returned to me if the loan did not close through no fault of mine. I have email acknowledgments of this as well as witnesses to such assurrance that Mr. Nava made to me in this regard. I have not yet heard anything further and it is now June 4, 2014.
While I agree with Mr. Nava that all of my problems and lost money are the result of Alpine not closing this loan as per my loan agreement with them, I also know that it is only because of Mr. Nava's assurances to me that Alpine was a very large and trustworthy private Lender, and that we would absolutely close this loan in 30 sdays, that I agreed to borrrow the money that I used to pay our around $200,000 in fees to him and Alpine and the downpayment to the leaseholder. Adding insult to injury is the fact that I no longer have a project and thus no way to repay the principal of the loans that I took out, but I also have to keep payine interest on these loans.
While I feel that Mr. Nava definitely shares responsibility with Alpine for my losses, I am merely asking Mr. Nava to return my $20,000 as he had previously agreed to do if this loan did not close.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
CIIIMTG,LLC
LOS ANGELES,California,
USA
DUE DILIGENCE ON CIIIMTG,LLC AND LORENZO NAVA
#2General Comment
Sat, January 28, 2017
MEMO 12/19/2012
From Bob S
Lorenzo Nava, CIIIMTG
To whom it may concern,
I have researched Lorenzo Nava, CIIIMTG .
I called the F.B.I. And the Federal Trade Commission. I also checked with the California State Attorney Generals Office, Better Business Bureau national database, and the Freedom of information Act Federal database (to search across all Federal Government websites at once).
I also checked several “scam” websites on the internet. This is what I found.
F.B.I. Although they could not tell me if any complaints were filed or if there was an ongoing investigation they could tell me that his name and his company name did not appear in their data base.
F.T.C. They told me that if there were any complaints or legal filings against Lorenzo Nava or CIIIMTG that I could find them through the Freedom Of Information Act.
Freedom of Information Act Neither the name Lorenzo Nava or the business name CIIIMTG showed up in FOIA .
Better Business Bureau, Los Angeles One complaint, resolved through BBB, details on the BBB website. CIIIMTG has been a member since 10/6/2008. This complaint shows up elsewhere on the internet. I also checked the BBB national database and this is the only complaint.
California State Attorney Generals Office No Complaints. He filed as a business entity 5/15/2008.
Internet Postings “Ripoff Report” and “Scam Informer” each had the same six complaints posting from 2009-2011, all anonymous; monies deposited not returned,non performance, going to the authorities, the FBI. None of these people has filed a formal complaint, no charges have been brought.
Mortgage Broker Outpost.com, Business Week, part of Business Exchange; Post by “assassin 17” complaint , he is a member of Broker Outpost. You must be a professional in the field of Real Estate to join this website. His only contribution to Broker Outpost was a song about mortgages.
Anyone can post a complaint on many different websites anonymously. There is no way to find the author. On Lorenzo's website ,on the bottom of the column on the left, you will see Malicious Postings. Check it out. I have found no real evidence of Lorenzo or his company being involved in any misleading or illegal practices. His lenders and borrowers act in confidentiality.
Each Scam website offers a disclaimer saying that they are not responsible for false complaints. In my opinion these websites should have verifiable complaints or be removed from the web. Accusations without accountability. One website I found particularly interesting
was “(((REDACTED))). They offer postings for complaints along with postings of responses to the complaints and a method to resolve the complaints. All accusatory websites should be like this. Someone once said “they couldn't put it on the internet if it wasn't true.”
I have also found some people posting responses that are favorable to Lorenzo and his company especially on LinkedIn, but one on Brokers Outpost. I have personally spoken to three different clients of Lorenzo who spoke highly of him who used his services as a consultant. He has been in business since 2008, member of L.A. BBB since then with an A rating, and I don't believe the accusations against him are true. I believe it to be a matter of “sour grapes” with some of his disappointed clients.
Sincerely,
Bob S