Complaint Review: Trident Fund 1 LLC - San Jose California

The following is a brief synopsis of my experience with Trident leasing and John Riley specifically that led to the complaint herein. Be it known I have maintained detailed records of all written correspondence including email.

Toward the end of June 2014 I found Trident Leasing from an internet search and made phone contact with John Riley and discussed my need of financing three greenhouses totaling $68,000 and a fence to enclose greenhouses for $22,000 for a total of $90,000. John assured me Trident would be able to fulfill my needs and would get me approved within 24 hours of receipt of my application.

I submitted the requested information and although it was closer to a week than a day I was approved for the lease per John Riley. I filled out the requested forms and submitted $5,143 on July 10th 2014 for first and last month’s rent. After a couple of weeks of inquiring as to when the funds would actually be released I was informed by John that I was harassing his co workers and he was fed up and would not finalize the lease. I asked to speak with his manager and he referred me to Nick Winters. Nick was understanding and helpful, and he said he would review the file and get back to me with an answer the following day, which he did. Nick explained the most he could get funded would be $28,000 in the form of two leases, one with Time Payment for $13,000 and another with Pawnee leasing for $15,000. I told him I would consider it and on July 28^th I emailed a request to Nick Winters to have the $5,143 refunded to my account.

On August 7th I informed Nick I would like to go forward with the Time and Pawnee leases. Per Nick's request, I submitted $1,369 to cover the first and last month’s payments for the Time corp. lease. I also asked about the $5,143 refund and he said they were working on it.

About a month went by before the Time payment lease was finally funded for $13,500 but by this time things had progressed on my project to the point where I no longer needed the Pawnee lease. A week later I informed Nick and Leticia I no longer needed the Pawnee lease but clearly needed to recover the improper deposit of the original $5,143 lease payment for the $90,000 loan that was allegedly approved according to John Riley.

After much going back and forth with Nick on December 1st he said accounting had transposed a number when ACH depositing the $5,143 to my account and assured me the funds would be in my account the next day; it was not. The following day, Dec. 2^nd, I called to inquire as to the whereabouts of my $5,143; I was informed by Leticia I would have to speak with John Riley, but he wasn't in. I called the next morning and was transferred to John.  After he stated that the Pawnee lease is non-cancellable and that he’ll be holding the $5,143 for it, I informed him I was going to report Trident to the California State attorney, Kamala Harris office, he said "good I'll talk to Kamala" and hung up on me.

Now it had become a very serious matter so I did a little research and found the following:

From http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/

Entity Name: TRIDENT FUND 1, LLC.

Entity Number:         200319210182

Date Filed:     07/10/2003

Status:            FTB SUSPENDED

Jurisdiction:  CALIFORNIA

Entity Address:         1330 S BASCOM AVE STE E

Entity City, State, Zip:          SAN JOSE CA 95128

Agent for Service of Process:        NAVEEN SOOD

Agent Address:         1330 S BASCOM AVE STE E

Agent City, State, Zip:         SAN JOSE CA 95128

Please note Trident's charter has been suspended and therefore is currently operating illegally.

Recap:

According to Riley, Trident is keeping my $5,143 because I did not finalize the lease with Pawnee. The Pawnee paperwork was signed by me but was never finalized or funded, it is understandable a lease, once funded, would be non-cancellable, but Pawnee was not funded. There is no provision in the contract for not finalizing a proposed lease. Ironically the funds that John says now belong to Trident are in their possession because of a lease he said was approved, collected deposit on and subsequently cancelled. Furthermore the $5,143 had nothing to do with the Pawnee lease.

Clearly I'm on solid legal ground to recover my $5,143 and will pursue them until I receive the refund but this John Riley character must be reigned in and prohibited from dealing with the public in financial matters. I have no complaints with Naveen, Nick or Leticia and will not pursue them providing my funds are returned immediately.