Complaint Review: JP & Associates Investment Firm LLC - Fayetteville North Carolina

The owner of this company Lynda S. Steele aka Lynda Plunk, Lynda Alvitre, Seng Peth Bouunharaj bilked 8 investors out of over $700, 000. There was a court case and on May 11, 2009 she admitted to fraud and the investors were awarded over 1.5 million dollars in judgments against her and her company.

She is now being investigated by the FBI and IRS. There is other actions also being taken at this time that will be posted as soon as they are concluded!

Here is a newspaper article against her and her then husband Andrew Alvitre. There will be another article soon showing what the outcome of the case was which is FRAUD.

Investors' lawsuit accuses pair of loan fraud

By Drew Brooks

Staff writer

Two former Fayetteville loan officers who once gave a pregnant waitress a $1, 000 tip are accused of bilking investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The investors allege in a lawsuit filed in May 2008 that Andrew Alvitre and Lynda Steele failed to repay almost $700, 000 to eight people in North Carolina, California and New York.

The lawsuit, filed in Cumberland County Superior Court, also names Family First Mortgage Corp., a business that Alvitre formerly operated.

Steele is identified by several last names, including Alvitre, Spiel and Seng-Peth Bounnharaj, according to court documents.

Lawyers in the case met Monday to file a pretrial motion. A trial, expected to last four days, will be scheduled for a later date, according to court documents.

According to the lawsuit, Steele obtained several loans between 2004 and 2007 from the investors, many of whom met Steele and Alvitre while attending seminars they hosted at Fayetteville hotels.

The plaintiffs are John Barron Brown of Harnett County; Elmer H. and Patricia J. Hebert of Alameda County, Calif.; Mark Kanczak of Wake County and his mother, Margaret Kanczak, of Erie County, N.Y.; Robert F. and Eleanor L. McGinnis of Cumberland County; and Jason C. Spencer of Wilmington.

The money was supposed to be used to invest in real estate in Cumberland County, Charlotte and Wilmington. But the investors allege that the pair paid little, if any, of the loans back and did not buy the agreed-upon properties.

Steele also obtained a BMW from one investor but stopped making payments on the vehicle after one year, the documents allege.

Instead of paying her debts, Steele testified in a court deposition that she used the money to pay other investors, pay wages to Family First employees, pay for an addition to the company's building at 2206 Hope Mills Road and make loans to other parties.

Lawyers for the defendants did not return messages left with their offices Tuesday.

Neither Steele nor Alvitre are currently licensed as loan officers in the state.

Steele voluntarily surrendered her license in October 2007 after being investigated by Fayetteville police and the state commissioner of banks.

In a related court order filed in Wake County, Steele was barred from engaging in mortgage lending within the state in any capacity.

Steele was investigated by Richard L. Hendricks, financial crimes investigator for the state commissioner of banks, who said in an affidavit filed with the court order that Steele was being investigated by Fayetteville police for orchestrating an alleged pyramid scheme.

The investors in that alleged scheme are the same ones who filed the civil suit, according to the affidavit.

Hendricks said in the affidavit that Sgt. Keith Benedict, a Fayetteville police detective, was investigating several complaints alleging that Steele obtained property by false pretense.

The affidavit said that Steele filed for bankruptcy and that Benedict found that Steele did not file tax returns for 2005 and 2006.

Court documents show Steele's bankruptcy case was dismissed in July 2007.

A spokeswoman for Fayetteville police was not available Tuesday to discuss the status of the criminal investigation, and no criminal charges appear to have been filed against Steele or Alvitre in recent years, according to court records.

Steele and Alvitre were previously known in Fayetteville for their generosity at an International House of Pancakes.

According to a 2006 Fayetteville Observer story, the pair earned a reputation for occasionally paying the checks for other tables, especially if the patrons were soldiers.

In March 2006, the pair gave a pregnant waitress a $1, 000 tip as a belated baby shower gift.

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There is much more to this story.

Ms. Steele also put false information on LinkedIn.com calling herself the owner of various companies. LinkedIn.com saw this and removed her from the system.

JP & Associates Investment Firm LLC was a part of the the lawsuit and the judgments were against the company also. So beware of this scam artist and run the other way. Better yet call your local authorities if she tries to do any kind of business with you! Soon JP & Associates will be shut down for good! And when she is in prison!

Star47

linden, North Carolina

U.S.A.