Complaint Review: Marcus A. Stokes

 I want to alert everyone not to do business with Marcus A. Stokes, who currently resides at (((redacted))) Chicago IL.  (((redacted))).  His most recent cell phone number is (773) 806-9065.

 Mr. Stokes has had various business names, addresses, and contact information, including:

 Global Equity World Wide, P.O. Box 10159, Chicago, IL.  60611 (773) 599-0754 or (773) 806-9065

GEWW Acquisition LLC, 440 North Wabash Avenue, #4004, Chicago, Il.  60611 (312) 275-7351

Global Equity World Wide, 980 North Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL.  60611

Stokes Construction, 6700 South Lake Shore Drive, #4K, Chicago, IL.  60637

Developvision, Inc., 6700 South Lake Shore Drive, #4K, Chicago, IL.  60637

Marcus@gewwonline.com

Marcus@globalequity.microsoftonline.com

Marcus_Stokes@msn.com

Mr. Stokes is either an astute scam artist, or he is delusional and believes the lies he tells.  Regardless, he will most definitely rip you off if given the opportunity.  Please, for your own sake, don’t give him the opportunity. 

Mr. Stokes essentially stole approximately $50,000 from us.  He was referred to me by a close friend as a person who could facilitate a short sale of a condo that I owned.  I didn’t do my due diligence on Mr. Stokes.  That is my fault, and a very expensive lesson was learned. 

Mr. Stokes said he could facilitate the short sale, and he signed a document stating he would do just that.  However, a short sale was never executed.  The first thing Mr. Stokes did was to redirect the monthly rent money to his own account.  He said it was to be held in escrow, and would be distributed to the mortgage company and me when the short sale closed.  That was never done.  He kept all of it (approximately $40,000).

Mr. Stokes said he would work with the mortgage company sell the property and to satisfy the loan.  Since he was not a realtor, he brought in Wanda M. Adams, who at the time worked for Re-Max South Suburban Realty, 19740 Flossmoor, Il 60422 (708) 798-1333. 

Ms. Adams was supposed to represent me as the listing agent, and get the property listed in Bank Of Americas Equator system (Equator is where all prospective short sales are to be listed).  She never did any of this.  I’m speculating that Mr. Stokes remunerated Ms. Adams in some way to help him with the con, but I don’t have proof of this.  Regardless, because of her association with Mr. Stokes, I would suggest to never do business with Ms. Adams.

Mr. Stokes also said he was going to pay the property taxes due to Cook County, where the property resides.  He never did that, and he kept all of that money (approximately $10,000).

Eventually the property was sold in foreclosure, and Mr. Stokes was never heard from again. 

There were many other lies told to me by Mr. Stokes through the process, but what I’ve written here sums up the situation pretty well. 

If I would have done my due diligence on Mr. Stokes like I should have, I would have uncovered this incident from 3/2001.  Apparently, Mr. Stokes was portraying himself as a licensed architect.  In reality, he has no such license, and was ordered to pay a civil penalty of $3,000:  http://www.idfpr.com/dpr/news/DISCPLN/0103_dis.pdf

This would have told me all I needed to know to not do business with him.  Please, don’t make the same costly mistake that I did.  Do not do business with Marcus A. Stokes or Wanda M. Adams.