Complaint Review: Prime Legal LLC

Prime Legal LLC of Clifton NJ is a foreclosure prevention scam and fraud (973)471-33811135 Clifton Ave Ste 207, Clifton, NJ 07013-3643http://www.primelegalllc.com/

At the beginning of February 2012, I got in touch with Juan Grijalva, whom I had known for about 20 years and considered him a friend, about a foreclosure prevention program that he offers through Prime Legal LLC.  Before I contacted Juan, I did not know who he was working for Prime Legal LLC located at: 1135 Clifton Avenue #207 Clifton, NJ 07013, tel. (973) 471-3381

I only knew that Juan Grijalva had worked in this sort of services for Andrew Bartok, and  a/k/a "Kathleen Kelly," a/k/a "Kate Adams," a/k/a "Kathy Adams," of Revelations Consulting, also located in Clifton, NJ.

Since I needed to answer a complaint filed against my business partner and me by a bank to foreclose on our property, I arranged and had two meetings with Juan Grijalva to discuss what he offered.  He informed me he had a terrific program called FORENSIC AUDITING which would allow me to stop the foreclosure, prevent and even reduce the principle amount of the loan.

In addition, Juan told me, that Prime Legal LLC, his employer, had an attorney, William P. Opel, P.A. tel, 862-621-0254.in-house who specialized in foreclosure prevention and principle reduction.  At the time I did not know William Opel nor anyone at Prime Legal, neither had I ever heard of Prime Legal or the savior mortgage prevention program Forensic audit. 

After two weeks of contemplating what to do about the foreclosure issue, I decided to go visit Prime legal, accompanied by Juan Grijalva, and met with Ray Portela the manager or owner.  At the time I brought along my friend Jorge Arellano who might need their services so he could gain some insight into what they offered their clients. The four of us, sat down at Ray Portelas office, and Ray repeated what Juan Grijalva had been telling me before that with their forensic audit, we would be able to stop foreclosure, prevent, and reduce the principle amount of the loan. 

The cost of each audit is $2,200.  Ray went to claim that they, Prime Legal LLC train attorneys to represent the clients that purchase their forensic audits from them.  He said that that week they had trained 16 attorneys to defend property owners from foreclosures and that their business was very successful.  When I asked Ray if he could lower the price of the audit since I would be bringing Dr. Hanna for a second audit, he said, no, we have an excellent product that people demand so we do not need to negotiate down our price

I then called my business partner Dr. Gamal Hanna, with whom I own a property, and introduced him to Juan Grijalva since I had known Juan for about 20 years and considered him a friend.  I even stressed to Juan that I trusted him and believe that because I knew him for so long, he would do right by us.  Since they, Prime Legal LLC, told us that they were doing all this legally, with attorneys representing and successfully defending foreclosures in court, we believed them.  We truly believed they would help us.

Dr. Hanna happens to have another property he owns by himself in the process of foreclosure and also needed the audit services to save the property as Juan promised us. 

On the first week of February 2012, Juan got in contact with Dr. Hanna, and went to his house to collect the initial fee of $1,100.  Prime legal LLC collects a fee of $1,100 per audit before they even look at file to initiate their work. Dr Hanna did give Juan a check so that Juan could bring it to Prime Legal LLC to start the audit.  Later on 2/14/2012 I brought Prime Legal LLC the file for the other property I own together with Dr. Hanna and wrote them a check for $1,100.

A week later, Juan Called me and said that Prime Legal LLC had made a mistake about the fee they had quoted us and were going to charge us more money.  He did not specify how much more but said that what they had quoted ($2,200 ) was for single-family homes, owner-occupied, and not for investment properties.  I protested and made it clear I would rather go somewhere else because I felt they were taking advantage of us. Juan is the middleman and he gets $1,100 for bringing in any clients to Prime Legal LLC.

While the audits were being done, on or about 2/23/2012, Dr. Hanna, and I went to meet the attorney, William Opel, who would help us stop the foreclosure.  Before we met with William Opel, we had sent him two check in the amount of $500 each for each property he was to answer the complaints. Juan Grijalva brought Opel the two checks.

Mr. Opel cashed check number 1157 on 2/17/2012 from Bank of America, and check number 92 on 2/21/2012 from Valley National Bank.

At the meeting, Juan Grijalva and Ray Portela were present to discuss how the audit would help.  The attorney did not express any optimism about the audit being of much help but said he would answer the complaint for us, at a cost of $3,500 each.  We left the meeting with a different picture of what Juan and ray had been telling we could do with the audit and Dr. Hanna told me that these people were up to no good.  I went back to Juan and told him we were skeptical and he reassured me that we would be able to stop the foreclosure with his audits to just be patient till the audits are completed.

Later on or about March 23rd Juan called me saying we needed to answer the complaint because the attorney Opel was not going to do it because we had not signed a retainer with him.  When we met with Mr. William Opel he never mentioned anything about signing a retainer.  He could have told us in person when we met with him in February, but he never brought it up.  He agreed to take both cases and answer both complaints.

We, Dr. Hanna and I were under the impression we were being represented by mr. Opel because he had cashed two $500 checks on 2/17/2012 and 2/21/2012. At the end of March 2012, Dr Hanna received a letter from William Opel saying to the effect that he was not going to repent us and that the original complaint was enclosed and being returned and it was time sensitive.

On the second week of March, Juan called me to tell me he had an excellent attorney that would definitely help us, not just stop the foreclosure, but also reduce the principle.  This attorney is Aderemilekun A Omojola, ESQ of the OMOJOLA & Associates, P.C, located at 730 Clifton Avenue, Clifton NJ 07013; tel 973-955-4721.

I met with Juan and Mr. Omojala who told me he had an unorthodox way of successfully stopping the foreclosures and reducing the principle loan amount.  He told me he would charge us 30% of whatever amount of reduction, plus $3,000 initial retainer fee.  I then went back to my partner Dr. Hanna and told him what this new attorney was offering.  Dr. Hanna suggested we ask for references of any other homeowner whom Mr. Omojola had successfully represented. 

I agreed and set up a second meeting with Mr. Omojala at his office.  When I asked Aderemilekun to give me at least 2 references of homeowners whom he had helped and succeed in reducing the principle loan amount, he told he had none.  He said we would be the very first ones he was going to represent in such matter.  I left and told Dr. Hanna and we realized Juan Grijalva and all these individuals were just taking advantage of our situation.

On 3/24/2012, I called Prime Legal to see if the audits were ready and they said come by on 3/26/2012.  I did go on 3/26/2012 and met with Ray Portella about 9:30Am.  Ray presented me a bill for $650 for 1191-1193 Summit Ave, Jersey City property, and $1,150 for 901 17th Street , Union City property

Ray claimed that they had applied the $500 dollar check we had given to William Opel on 2/17/2012 towards the balance of $1,100 for the Summit Ave property.

The balance of $500 Mr. Opel took from us he was keeping because he had done some research.  Opel did absolutely nothing for us, yet he kept $500 dollars, check # 1157 from Bank of America.

I paid off the balance of what Prime Legal told me we owed them $1150 and $650, $50 dollars more than he had previously agreed upon.

I took both audits and left to see another attorney whom I had contacted a day before: James Krindel, Kridel Law Group of Clifton, New Jersey (973)470-0880 located at 1035 US Highway 46, Clifton NJ 07013

I sat down for an hour consultation with mr. Krindel and he reviewed the audits.  He looked at the audits and he they were public information but were no good to defend a foreclosure and that he could not use them.  I was disappointed when I heard that.  I felt misled and taken advantaged of.  I felt I was defrauded and lied to because all along Juan Grijalva and ray Portela knew that what they had sold us was a total lie.

I went online and started doing research on this kinds of services and to my chocked, discovered that the previously Juan Grijalva had worked for Andrew Bartok of Revelations in Clifton NJ, now closed for alleged defrauding customers and even charged by the government (see link below)

(((link redacted)))

On April 2, 2012, I called Ray Portela and asked for my money back.  Ray had me talk to one of his forensic auditors whom I never met and he told me they were not going to refund my money, that if I was given legal advice was Juan grijalva I had to go after, not Prime Legal.  Juan Grijalva is an employee of Prime Legal and gets paid by them.

Soon after the telephone conversation, I emailed Prime Legal and warned them I would seek help from authorities if they did not refund my money for a service that they promised, but was a complete lie and fraud.

A copy of the email is as follows:

RE: refund of our money for audit services that were useless to us

Monday, April 2, 2012 11:58 AM

From: "Everth M" <(((email rwedacted)))>
To: "Kristen Bronowich" <info@mailer.theloanpost.com>, rayp@primelegallc.com, jgrijalva@primelegalllc.com
Cc: "GAMAL HANNA" <ghanna8246@yahoo.com>, "GAMAL HANNA" <ghanna123@gmail.com>

Dear Ray, I just called your office to respectfully request that your office refund to us $4,400 that you charged us for 2 audits that you, and your agents promised we would be able to use to stop, modify the foreclosure, and even reduce the principle of our mortgages. As you know, the audits are useless and is not anything close to what you promised.
 
we will give you 24 hours to refunds our money, and if we do not hear back from you, we will file a complaint with the attorney general of NJ, the FTC, the Better Business Bureau.
 
you can have your audits back
Mail the check to
Real property Investment LLC
p.o Box 5198
West new York, NJ 07093
 
FYI:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/06/debtadvo.shtm
  (((link redacted)))
 
It has become clear that these individuals do not intend to refund our money. Also, they continue to run a business based on false promises, lies, and fraud, misleading the public and are getting away with it right before our very eyes.  I am sure we are not the only victims here.

There are many homeowner who are seeing these callous, unscrupulous individuals about a service that is a complete lie. We need the authorities to step in in protect us from predatory people like this who only care about getting your money.

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