Complaint Review: Mark Stuart Linden

In 2006, I was employed as a "junior loan officer" at Meridian Mortgage Company in San Diego, CA.  No  IRS Form W-4 was ever presented to me to fill out.  When I was paid (which was only once) it was all in cash.  I knew something was fishy and told my wife that I was bailing.  She insisted that I stay on for one more pay period.  As I suspected there would be no more pay, I was reluctant but agreed in order to avoid a quarrel.

As it turns out, I was right.  Still owing me close to a thousand dollars, Mr. Linden--and his associate John Mogar--closed up shop on my day off.  Having been tipped off by my supervisor, Chris Mercer, that "Mark [was] passing out cash.", I high-tailed it to the office, only to discover that the cash had all been passed out and that there hadn't been anywhere near enough to cover the payroll.  No surprise there.

I immediately went to the Industrial Relations Department to file a complaint against Meridian.  I was informed by the agent that "Mr. Linden is well-known to us."  He went on to say that, being a "Limited Liability Partnership", Meridian Mortgage could only be compelled to distribute its corporate holdings to those creditors to whom it was most indebted.  Once the corporate funds were exhausted, the individual partners need only contribute what they had invested.  In other words, their profits were untouchable!

Some time later, I went to the Department of Real Estate web site.  Neither Mark Stuart Linden, nor John Joseph Mogar, nor Metronomic Corporation, nor Meridian Mortgage, nor Victory Foundation Inc, nor any other entity with which Mr. Linden is or has been affiliated shows a comment indicating any disciplinary action.  Apparently, our government doesn't care if its licensees foment the kind of scams that brought about the mortgage meltdown that has our economy in such a crisis.