Complaint Review: Sterling Capital LP (Mr. Francisco "Frank" Saez Fuentes - Los Angeles California

****BEWARE BEFORE DOING BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE, IT COULD COST YOU MORE THAN JUST YOUR TIME, IT COST YOUR MONEY AS WELL***

This transaction begun around February 2010 through a colleague of ours, we were introduced to Mr. Peter Scollenne and Attorney Bruce Abbott (Blackhawk Wealth Management) and they were preparing to Management a platform trading opportunity for clients with at least One Million ($1,000,000.00) USD cleared funds for management.  This opportunity was clean, and simple as advertised but also supposedly safe.  Scollenne and Abbott were to act as managers and Joint Venture Partners on the investment and for bringing in the clients, they would share in the Managed Buy-Sell of US Treasuries.  

Through our broker relationships, my partners and I introduced two potential clients to them (one face-to-face) and the other by phone from his Florida residence to Scollenne and Abbott.  Each of these clients elected to move forward because of the presentations and because of a law firm (representative -- Todd, Ferentz, Schwartz & Rimberg) and because of the trade group Asset Manager (Mr. Francisco "Frank" Saez Fuentes) who was supposed to Manage and Trade the clients funds.

Transaction Breakdown and Timeline below:

Note:
Amount of Investment was $1,000,000 (one Million USD) per client which was the
minimum investment amount.
      
Both clients signed Joint Venture Contracts with Blackhawk Wealth
Management and with Capital Access Group LLC as Capital Access Group had the
relationships with the Bank (JP Morgan Chase) as well as a contract for Fresh
Cut Treasury Strips that were going to be bought and sold for profit (margin)
and the clients were promised 30% of the spread on a Weekly basis.

Breakdown of the companies involved in the Joint Venture Agreement

o  Capital Access Group LLC is owned by a Ray
LeTreill of 1900 Main Street, Suite 300 Irvine, California 92614

o  Blackhawk Wealth Management is owned by Peter
Scollenne (President) and Attorney Bruce Abbott of 7668 El Camino
Real, Suite 104-456 Carlsbad, CA 92009

o  Capital Access was to receive 50% of the profits via this JV Agreement

o  Blackhawk was to receive 20% of the profits via this JV Agreement and subsequently
disburse 5% to the intermediaries and consultants

o  The clients were scheduled to receive 30% of the weekly profits
       
The clients were told that they had to move their money after showing a POF (proof
of funds) letter but that their money was secure and protected via a Hedge
contract that would not allow the trade to happen below a certain threshold so
a profit was guaranteed.
     
The clients were promised Sub Accounts under a Master Account as well as online
access to where they would have daily access to view their principle and profit
through a Userid provided to them on JP Morgan Chase

 To make clients comfortable, Blackhawk Wealth Management solicited a law firm to act as the fiduciary and over sight group on this transaction.  The law firm was highly acclaimed by the name of Todd, Ferentz, Schwarcz & Rimberg LP led by Attorneys William Todd and David Schwarcz.  This law firm has a partner investment group that they represent that was tasked with handling the funds and trading and account management on behalf of this Joint Venture with Blackhawk Wealth and Capital Access.  The company is Sterling Capital LP led by Francisco (Frank) Saez Fuentes
  
o Todd, Ferentz, Schwarcz & Rimberg are listed on the web at www.tfsr-law.com  and their office
address is 6310 San Vincente Blvd, Suite 360 Los Angeles, CA 90048

o  Sterling Capitals office is listed as the same address: 6310 San Vincente Blvd, Suite
360 Los Angeles, CA 90048

 Transaction details & Timeline:

 On or about the first of March both of these clients transferred exactly $1,000,000 US Dollars to a Trust Account at Think of Swim (JP Morgan Chase) Managed by Sterling Capital to begin this US Treasury Buy Sell program.  Both clients had previously sign management agreements and both were assured that the trades and subsequent payments (weekly returns) were ready to begin.

 Immediately after wiring the funds the clients had to asked repeatedly for wire confirmation receipts (Copy attached).  The online access was not granted but promised and trading did not occur but a number of excuses.  This continued for more than six weeks as the principals involved blamed JP Morgan for the delays saying there was not enough money on deposit.  The account had received $3M (three clients) but no trading.

 
Sterling Capital LP later took it upon themselves to move the money from JP Morgan (New York) and sent it to Perrin Holden & Davenport Capital  (PHD Capital) http://www.phdc.com/.  The clients were never informed about their funds being moved.  They were never asked to sign a document to grant permission for the move.  This move occurred
on/or about April 1st, 2010.

 Around mid-April (16th, 2010) the clients were told that there was a successful Hedge trade and one test trade on the Treasuries and they were paid around $8900 dollars each and this was called Opportunity costs to cover the cost of
their money being out of their accounts

 At the end of April 23-30th the clients received another disbursement of approximately $9000 each for hedge trading
 
On May 20th the clients received a final disbursement of approximately $85,000 for Hedge Trading

 During this final disbursement, it was mentioned by (a colleague that introduced Blackhawk to us that both Peter Scollenne and Bruce Abbott were expecting to receive approximately $100,000 each for their roles as JV partners in these transactions on this payout.  During this time Abbott made a questionable trip to Europe for almost two weeks of summer vacation using what likely amounted to proceeds earned from this previous payout.

 There were no additional disbursements made throughout the Month of May.  The clients demanded disbursements and evidence of trading for June 2010 and there were no amounts paid out.  The clients asked for the same in July 2010 and August 2010 and were told (By Frank Saez) that the money was placed into a long term hedge contract (without prior consent) on the part of the clients and that there would be no further profits until September 2010. (No money was sent)

Both clients send demand letters (first, Second and Final demand letter) throughout the month of June (see the attached copies).

 There was a meeting held on August 10th, 2010 at the offices of the law firm (Todd, Ferentz, Schwarcz & Rimberg) and it was finally during this meeting that Frank Saez of Sterling Capital admitted that half of the principle of $3,000,000 was lost to market fluctuations in the hedge trading.  During this meeting Francisco "Frank" Saez Fuentes asked the clients for additional money to be deposited so that he could attempt to make up the loses.

 As of this writing, none of the principles have receive their initial investment (principle funds) that were supposedly secured and none of their profit.  Frank asked for more money to be deposited with him during this meeting to
attempt to make up for the loss of principle.

Since these losses, I have continue to see offers circulating on the Internet from Blackhawk (Scollenne and Abbott) for other managed Buy-Sell and Treasury trades.  A token effort to meet and emails flowed back and forth from these two to these clients who suffered losses but months later now over a year and the initial principle has not been returned nor the promised profit to the clients nor the intermediaries.  One of the clients had congestive heart failure and became very ill after suffering these losses.

These people are still allowed to operate and circulate similar offers via the Internet today with no securities license and I wonder how many other Investors have been schemed and taken advantage of.....

****BE VERY CAUTIOUS OF THESE PEOPLE******