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Meet the Victims |
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| The testimonials on this page were provided by individuals that invested with Les Stipek. If you invested with Les Stipek, please submit the details of your experience. If possible, include how much you invested, when you invested, what he told you to invest, how much you made or lost and the impact it has had on your life. |
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| Victim 1 |
I had nearly $500,000 in various investments, all sold to me by Leslie Stipek. In January 2005, when my 5-year pension payout ended, I contacted Mr. Stipek to start drawing on the return of my investments, as had been projected in January 2000. At that time he informed me there wasn’t enough return for me to draw on, and in fact one of the investments was in bankruptcy. I got a job, sub-contracting to my previous employer, rather than take a reverse mortgage on my home, as was suggested by Mr. Stipek. He assured me this was only a temporary situation, for maybe six months.
In June 2006, I learned that all of my investments, except for the oil company, are in bankruptcy or receiverships. As a result, my net worth is now only half of what it was when I made the investments. My entire retirement and 401K savings appears to be gone.
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| Victim 2 |
Thanks to this scam artist, my wife and I who both retired 5 years ago, have lost $437,306 ! I am certainly glad that I did not refer any of my old co-workers in his direction.
He could not even prepare our income tax returns properly using Turbo Tax.
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| Victim 3 |
Mr. Stipek recommended I invest $80,000 in Greensboro Financial Equities, LLC, which was acquiring a North Carolina parcel of real property to improve the parcel with retail sales facilities selling from those retail sale facilities prefabricated model homes to members of the general public. I invested the $80,000 on 1/29/2004 and in March 2005, I received notice from Dennis L. Roossien, Jr., Receiver for Fleder Receivership, asking me to complete an Investor Proof of Claim Form. This was the fist I was made aware of any claim against Greensboro or any entity affiliated with Greensboro. Upon contacting Mr. Stipek he assured me that this would not affect my investment and I did not need to worry about it. Further investigation with the SEC revealed that this was part of a PONZI scam.
Mr. Stipek also recommended I invest $165,000 in A & N Twin Energy One, LP, which is involved with drilling operations in Wyoming, which I did on May 13,2004. On April 3, 2006 Mr. Stipek sent me a letter proposing a merger with Bison Twin Energy, LP. I advised him that prior to my approval I needed to see Taxes and Financial Statements for 2005. He has failed to comply with my request. I also requested a return of funds as he never should of sold me the investment because I did not qualify per the requirements of unregistered securities and he knew my financial status. Mr. Stipek responded on April 19, 2006 that other investors requested a return of principal; no mention was made of my request for financial statements. On April 20, 2006 I received a letter from Mr. Stipek stating that a majority of the investors agreed to the merger and procedures to document a single remaining entity as A & N Twin Energy One, LP would take effect and I would continue to receive my monthly interest. On June 9, 2006 Mr. Stipek sent another letter stating that the wells in which we invested were not producing enough to pay the June interest distribution and that it would probably be another 3-4 months before any distribution would be made. I believe this is another PONZI scheme set up by Mr. Stipek.
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| Victim 4 |
Hello to all of you who were unfortunate to meet L. Stipek. Both my late husband and I worked for Hughes Aircraft Company in El Segundo. We attended a couple of "retirement seminars" that L. Stipek held in a hotel in El Segundo. I cannot understand how Hughes Aircraft let L. Stipek advertise in their magazine. Nobody checked him out. We did not which I regret.
When I became a widow at age 67 I contacted L. Stipek to help me invest our investments. BIG MISTAKE. I invested a lot of money with L. Stipek and at this time I have no hope to get even 50% back. This has been very stressful financially. I even introduced him to a widow friend of mine and now she is out a lot of money. We are both over 70. I ALWAYS ask Mr Stipek if he himself also invested in those crooked deals and he always said YES. I believed him since he seemed so honest. How wrong we all were.
Where do we go from here?
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| Victim 5 |
I got word of Leslie from Kaiser Hospital in Long Beach, CA
where I am sure doctors, nurses, techs, etc invested with him.
I am in total shock as I thought he was honest and let me tell you why
after a couple of years or less that my investments were not coming in.
I called Leslie I was having health problems and now money problems as well
because he did put some of my $100,000 at putnam where I could draw on that
for some time maybe one year.
When I called I said I was broke times were hard
and he loaned me $2,000 which I did pay back
but now that I think of it it was wierd he said
and I quote "I cannot write you a check
cause that's not legal(smile)so I will have to bring you the cash"
and he did. We also made a promise I would pay him back
when I got some returns,and low and behold a few months later I received a very small viatical like hmm--$1200 ok? So now that I see the true light of what us happening to my
and your savings lifetime savings--he wanted to keep me quiet for awhile as I remember
before he said he would come with some cash, I did mention perhaps
I should get a lawyer to investagate Benefical finance. He said oh no that wouldn't be a good thing just hold on the viaticals should be coming up soon:
I have may lose my savings yes that feels terrible, but I feel stupid
and foolish also and that not a good feeling;
Mind you others long ago did make a good return on viaticals
it was a good way to invest, but sad to say no one will be foolish enough to
do this again with anyone!
So attend the hearing see you there !
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| Victim 6 |
I am 74 years old and my wife is 65. I retired in 2001 and my wife in 2003. I invested with Stipek all of my 401K. That was about $82,000. First I lost $40,500 in the Branson deal. I also invested in Cancun and so far I am loosing about $42,000. When I signed the papers we needed a Notary, then he told me dont worry my daugther is a notary and she will sign. That was illegal because I had to be present. My wife also invested with him about $73,000 in Cancun 38000 and in Nexstar $35,000.
He should be tried and put in jail or have the same fate as Hussein. Thank you
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| Victim 7 |
Thank you so much for documenting and the distribution of information on Stipek. He got about $900,000 of my pension (that is most of it). So far, I have gotten back $55,000. Fortunately, he did not get my 401k or my home. I've had to go back to work and I am now consulting for Boeing and Lockheed and doing some expert witness stuff. We are going to try to sell our home and downsize. We are raising and are guardians of our 12 year old grandson. This complicates the whole mess. When I get a break from my consulting, I'll write up my story for the website. (If you want, for starters, you may insert this short e-mail)
Again, thanks for all your hard work.
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| Victim 8 |
We have lost practically all of our 401K on the investments we made with Stipek. Fortunately, for both my husband and I, we know what it is like to be poor. The unfortunate thing is that we worked hard for so many years to save for our retirement and now we live on Social Security and my husband's pension check.
This is not how I pictured our lives.
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| Victim 9 |
My wife and I are both 66 years old and both retired from TRW. I have had to go back to work even though I retired on a disability. My wife cannot work because she is disabled at this time. We're hoping a operation next month may help with our situation. Right now all I can see for the future is to work until I'm too feeble or until I drop dead. Whichever comes first. We would like to be kept informed of any dealings with Stipek. He led us to believe that he lost everything he had also meaning he was just as much a victim as we are but after reading your website I find that hard to believe.
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| Victim 10 |
Thanks so much for all the information you provided on your website. You've really done your homework! We had no idea there were so many victims of these scams & now we don't feel so alone in our efforts to understand. My husband and I both work and live in Az and aren't able to attend these hearings. Like so many, we did have to get jobs and move on with our lives the best we could. I think what got us interested in Les Stipek was I was working for Boeing Aircraft Corp. in Long Beach Ca. and they were doing some advertising for him and he was offering free seminars and a complimentary dinner. We were both getting ready to retire and we had 401K's and were told we needed to invest wisely. Mr.Stipek put on a good show!! We were definitely impressed. I had been on my job for 38 years and my husband had been with his company 36 years. We were so dumb and had no idea that people like Les Stipek existed. Please keep in touch and again thank you so much for contacting us. God bless!
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| Victim 11 |
I URGE all people who had their income taxes done by L. Stipek to go to a real CPA and redo the last few years. I did and got money back. I am pretty sure that many of you had to pay estimated taxes. It will pay to redo them. As you all know it was his children who did them and they really messed up when I became a widow. I had to write IRS and explain why my late husband had not paid his taxes one year after his demise. No help from Stipek at all. I had to do it all myself.
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| Victim 12 |
I am 73 years of age and I too am one of those who believed Les Stipek was legal.
I retired in 1999 and took the 5 year certain and was very pleased. Until later on
in 2004 my $38,000 investment w/ Viaticals is being held up in Court, one person has
already been sent to prison for fraud and there are still more hearings to come.
Later in 2004 before I found out about my Viaticals, I had $35,000 setting in my retirement
fund and Les Stipek told me that I coud invest in Branson Resorts and received 11%
interest monthly, so I did and I ended up being a victim of fraud. I am now living with family because I can't afford a apartment on a Social Security income.
Just wondering why Hughes or Raytheon would let some one advertise in their newspaper
with this type of resume.
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| Victim 13 |
I too was scammed by Stipek out of my 401k and retirement money. I first heard of Stipek through Hughes as I was looking for financial help in 1999 the year that I retired. His approach sounded good and I talked to others that also retained him. Now I'm out over 600K I havent had to go back to work yet but who knows... I had money in Branson Cancun Beneficial Lifetime Capital Sunshine North Carolina Equities Roanoke and Nexstar. I was told that these were good investments with a higher yeild than the stock market at the time. I'm alive and healthy and thats a good thing and hope that we all can get some of the the money that was taken from us.
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| Victim 14 |
The company I worked for for 32 years merged and was doing forced retirements in 2002. I had very little time to find a finanical advisor I went to several and decided on Stipek. I was 55 years old at the time and was told by Stipek I could start colection on my investment at age 58 yrs. The total amount I invested with Stipek was approx. $350,000 I have less than $40,000 now. The properties Stipek invested in were Bronson Cancon Nexstar all scams. I am now 60 yrs old and working part time a single broke frightened and alone woman looking forward to age 62 yrs so I can collect social security this is not right and I do hope and pray the courts come to our defense and rescue. Justice should be done in the investors favor and not Stipek and his gang of thieves.
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| Victim 15 |
Leslie Stipek came to Hughes Aircraft Torrance in 2001 as a financial advisor. He stated he had been in business for twenty five years I was impressed as were so many others. He invested all my 401k plan. He told me he had purchased a condo in Cancun. I told him I did not want to invest as the $30,000 would pay off my house and he said it was to late he had already purchased it. When I told him to sell he said I was making a mistake and I called Cancun and they said I could not sell now the $30,000 has gone.
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| Victim 16 |
Leslie Stipek represented himself as a member of NASDec securities and convinced me to buy several Viaticals as they were just like stock. They could be bought, sold and were liquid. As you know there was a court case in Oklahoma City, OK and now I will only get up to 12 percent of what I put in to them also they became non liquid. Later he tried to get me to buy Condos in Branson Mo, Cancun. He cost me $12,000 of my retirement always stating good deals, dont worry about the fees while he was taking my returns as they came in to pay fees and no returns to me.
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| Victim 17 |
Les Stipek advertised in the Hughes/Raytheon employee events newsletter as a Financial Planner giving seminars in the Orange County Area. I had attended several seminars before I was ready to retire hoping to gain some knowledge and good advice for investments. In the interim before retirement, I had Les do my tax preparation for a few years. He advertised as being a CPA so I felt comfortable that he was qualified. Now I find out he had his daughter do the taxes. What qualified her to do taxes? Did she take tax classes, was she a CPA, or was she a certified tax preparer? Now I have to have my taxes for the past four years reviewed.
When I was laid off work after 34 years, I decided to take retirement. Les came to my home to discuss investments. Each time we had asked about annuities, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc., he told us they were not paying and it was a bad time to place our money in those type of investments. He kept leading us back to the oil investments he was starting, as that was the only entity he had that would yield a decent interest. He stated that we would receive 12% per year; he didn’t mention there was any risk involved, when we asked and told him we were interested in something conservative, he neglected to mention any risk. In fact, he said he would not recommend his clients invest in anything he would not invest in himself, and if he felt there was a problem he would notify us to pull out immediately. He also said we could get our principal back after 1 year, no restrictions.
With this guarantee, I invested my entire 401k, another IRA, and what money I had received from my retirement fund at that time. This money went into A & N Twin Energy. Since it appeared to be doing well, and was paying interest for a year, he told me he had other wells in Bison Twin Energy and I invested a years worth of retirement into it as well. When I got notice in April 2006 that the wells in A & N were not doing well, and he wanted to merge Bison into A & N. That caused a red flag to go up as the words in his letter noted that there was a high risk and no guarantee they would find oil. I requested my money back out of both A & N and Bison, as there was still money in Bison to be transferred to A & N. He claimed he had no money and everyone was asking for their money back and he couldn’t return our principal at this time until the wells started producing.
Needless to say, I haven’t seen a penny of interest or my principal since May of 2006. I found out that I wasn't the only one that did not receive a contract to review at the time of signing for investments. He had me sign a form to have my money transferred from IRA Resources, and the signature page of the contract. I was very trusting of Les as by now I had been dealing with him for two years. I later received the contract in the mail which I promptly filed. He had us all fooled. I trusted that what he told me about the oil contracts were true. Now that I’ve had a chance to review the contracts, I know he lied as he was smiling and encouraging me to invest in the oil. I did not qualify for a limited partnership, yet he put me into these investments knowingly. If this isn’t FRAUD, what is?
All the investments he has had his hands in, have gone bad. A & N is failing, with excuses he is in dispute with Steve Davis. I’m sure Steve Davis isn't on the up and up either and also needs to be investigated. The pattern for this partnership going down hill is the same as the others. In my opinion, it’s just a matter of time that the investors will not see any more money out of the oil investments either. I wouldn't be surprised if these oil wells were dry to begin with. Les Stipek has taken our hard earned money, taken his money off the top, and obviously didn’t care what happened after that. He has gotten rid of his money to claim bankruptcy, but I believe he still has plenty of money hidden. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t under his mattress. He isn’t stupid; rather smart enough to have us trust him to fall for his scams.
To date, Stipek has $265,000 of mine, plus interest not paid out since June 2006. I now have to find employment, so I won’t be a burden on my family. Why should he after misrepresenting himself, be allowed to claim he is not liable for the losses we have incurred? After all, he wrote off all the losses on his income tax and we are not allowed to take a loss. I hope the Department of Justice charges him with fraud, and throws his butt in prison with the rest of the scam artists he worked with in all the investments.
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| Victim 18 |
My wife and I invested in Cancun and Branson. I lost my entire 40lK in the Branson investment and my wife's inheritance was lost in the Cancun investment for a total of $145,000. We are elders and I had to go back to work at the age of 77 and my wife was working a part time job at the time to maintain ourselves and Stipek was well aware of this as we have known him for a little over 25 yrs.
We are so grateful for all the work being done on this.
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| Victim 19 |
Les Stipek incouraged me to invest in the oil wells. To date I have lost $156,000. The A & N well is being disputed but i think Les is lying about it. I believe eventually the B & B well will cease to pay interest and the oil wells will be like all his other investments. Scams Les has also lied to me personally over the phone. He came into my home and cheated me. I worked for 34 years at Boeing and lost half of my pension. When I found out about his schemes I became phsyically sick for weeks. Since that time my wife has had to take another job farther from our home which is a big inconvience to her. Stipek deserves to go to jail but not before he pays back the money to his devasted investors.
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| Victim 20 |
I retired from Hughes-Raytheon in 2001 when I turned 55. I first met Les at a retirement seminar where my husband and I sat through the prime rib dinner and listened to the "pitch" after seeing the Les Stipek ad in the Raytheon monthly magazine. Les later came over to my home in his expensive suit and in his "Father Knows Best" calm tone and talked me into investing $65,000 in the Cancun properties $25,000 into the Beneficial Assistance Viaticals and $65,000 into an annuity with FG Life. During the next 5 years I added another $20,000 to the Roanoke land deal and finally $27,000 to the A & N Twin Energy Oil wells.
Out of the $202,000 invested it turns out that the FG annuity was the only semi-legitimate investment out of the bunch. And I am sure that Les pulled in at least a 10 commission on this as well. Les tried to talk me into cashing in the "low performing" annuity in 2003 with another can't miss opportunity but I declined the only smart move that I made. I have since cashed in the annuity and put it into a money market CD at the Kinecta Credit Union. Les never made any mention to these investments as being high risk and made it sound like he had "diversified" my money in "smart" choices. The Oil Well scam was presented along the notion that as long as oil was trading for over $52 a barrel that this was going to be a winner and that he was invested in A & N with his own money as well we found out later in court that this was a lie just as we were all told that he was a CPA when his CPA license expired more than 30 years ago. I was never told upfront that I would not be able to withdraw the principle. I was to find out otherwise when I later wrote Les instructing him to "cash out" my shares of A & N.
It pains me to see what this scumbag has done to all of us retirees who worked so hard for so many years and now have little if nothing to show for it. He deserves to go to jail.
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| Victim 21 |
My wife and I invested in Cancun, not as much as most others, but it was a lot to us and represents a tremendous hardship, my wife and I have gone back to work at 62 and plan to work well after 66, a shame that people have to suffer so people like Kelly can get rich.
Thank you for your hard work on this all
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| Victim 22 |
My husband and I started our investing through Les Stipek with an investment of $116,000 for North Carolina Equities Inc. on 12-30-2002. Our second investment was another $116,000 for Roanoke Equities LLC on 3-13-2003. These were both supposed to be good investments with a 7 R.O.I. with the ability to reclaim our principle after one year. We did receive $11,000 interest before it all stopped. The next information received was the case against Jules B. Fleder. We talked to Les Stipek on this problem and he said that he would make our investment good and pay us back the amount lost. He also informed us that he himself had $500,000 invested in these two equities. These investments were conducted through IRA Resources in San Diego CA. This IRA administrator has removed the Roanoke Equities from the asset list but still shows North Carolina Equities as an asset and charges an administration fee yearly??
Still being nave that investments through Les were a good idea we invested $85,000 in Bison Twin Energy LP. Again interest would be paid at 12 per year with a guarantee of principle refund after one year. Some interest was received then nothing. If these wells are pumping with revenues coming in where is the money going? I want my share.
If my husband and I had listened to Les when my husband retired and invested more money and not paid off our retirement house things would really be worse than they are. This loss may not be as much as others but has affected our ability to live the life we worked hard for. I have gone back to work to supplement our income.
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| Victim 23 |
We received a quarterly return for a few years and then it stopped. We rolled it over because it was an IRA. We did demand a return of the 11 % profits, and we were sent a check for several thousand dollars; It was only because we told Stipek that we were having a hardship that we got this much. We received nothing after that and that was 2 years ago. After this Stipek told us he was trying to get it straightened out and he would keep us informed. We asked for our entire amount back ($22,600) and were told by Stiplek that we could not get it back right away and that there was going to be a lawsuit. We sent him $350 to participate in this lawsuit. He then told us about he settlement options and we chose quarterly payments for a number of years to eventually get 75% back, but as yet we have received nothing and were told that the money would be sent to a holding company in our name. We received a request for $27 from some company that would allegedly handle these payments, but as yet we have heard for received no notice or any actions or nothing. Zilch, Nada, we thought it was just a story that Stipek was telling us. During these years we began to suspect foul play and realized that we would probably receive nothing. This $22,500 was my wife's retirement from Macy's for 30 years in a lump sum instead of a pension of $200 a month for life.
I retired early from Hughes's Aircraft / Raytheon in El Segundo after 36 years there. I did not invest my retirement with Les we used it to live on. I put my 401k with Les in Putnam funds but I dealt with Putnam on that and when they got in trouble with their fund management I pulled what I and left and used it elsewhere. So I was lucky in that only my wife lost her lump sum retirement with him. But as I said before it still hurts her a lot because she has nothing to show for 30 years with Broadway/Marcy's I feel a great sense of loss for my fellow retirees from aerospace, we all had great hopes and dreams for a peaceful and enjoyable retirement. It is a tragedy for dishonest people like these to victimize the retirement generation by capitalizing on those hopes and dreams.
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| Victim 24 |
I am one of the creditors who feel that the above parties should be held responsible for the losses caused by the debtor (Leslie C. Stipek). I was told in 2002 by Mr. Stipek that due to the possibility of war braking out in the Middle East, investing in property development would be much more advantages than investing in the stock market. Mr. Stipek was able to convince me to try the real state investment approach. I told Mr. Stipek how leery I was of this type of investment, due to my mother and grandfather loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars investing in land development projects guaranteeing high rates of interest. In the end these investments turned out to be nothing more than a PONZI scheme.
What is even more concerning to me is that out of the five investments I made with Mr. Stipek is that they are all currently in receivership proceedings. Three out of the five investments, which I was told were separate investments, however they turned out to be with one individual (Jules B. Fleder). Not one of Mr. Stipeks investments was profitable.
One would think out of the five investments that Mr. Stipek invested in; he would have had better knowledge of the parties he was doing business. I would like to know just how much Mr. Stipek was paid for setting up these investments. I am sure Mr. Stipek was smart enough to pass on these profits to family members or others in the form of high salaries, houses, cars etcetera, so that not even bankruptcy preceding would be able to touch these monies or assets.
Attached you will find a listing of the investment and the amount of monies that I invested through Mr. Stipek, along with the current court status of each investment. As a point of interest, all of defendants on the attached sheet are individuals that Mr. Stipek dealt with, and by no surprise they are all in prison with the exception of Mr. Diggs, who I'm sure in time will get his second opportunity to return to prison.
I feel so sorry for all the people (mostly elderly) who put trust in Mr. Stipek and are now faced with sever financial difficulties as a result of his inability to have used better judgment in choosing those he did business with while investing others life savings.
In conclusion, I have no sympathy for Mr. Stipek and the hardships facing him. I just hope that Mr. Stipek will eventually have the opportunity to spend time in prison with his business associates.
Keep up the good work your doing on this web site.
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| Victim 25 |
I retired from Boeing when I turned 59. I met L. Stipek as a financial advisor by an invitation to a retirement seminar. Since Les Stipek had an advertisement in the Boeing Magazine as a financial advisor we did not check him out, something to regret. He convinced me to invest in Branson and Cancun, so I invested all my 401K savings, 50% in each. It is hard to see that all my savings that I have worked so hard for many years are gone.
Thanks for all the information that you provide in this website.
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| Victim 26 |
I and other Southern California retired in May 1998. We met Leslie Stipek At a hotel dinner he sponsored as "The right financial Planner makes all the difference in the world". He talked convincely on Viatical Settlements. I did invest my 401K of $110,000. $60,000 in ABC Viaticals and $50,000 in TheMutual Benefits Corp. Viatical Co. I am still wanting for the return on my investments.
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| Victim 27 |
I went to a seminar while working at Boeing to listen to Leslie Stipek. It turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made. I invested $156,000 of my hard earned retirement money with Stipek. Through checking on my own I found out that Stipek was a cheat and a fraud. Whether I can re capture my money remains to be seen. Since then my life style and spending habits have changed dramatically. I hope Stipek goes to jail with the rest of his liars and cheaters.
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| Victim 28 |
Mr. Elie Ichkhan father of Marie Peterson and Christiane Keller and husband to Virgina Ichkhan, a caring loving father, and hard working provider, devoted and trustworthy so much so that he let Leslie Stipek control over $300,000.00 of his hard earned money. Looking out for the well being of his beloved wife whom in the later years developed alzheimrs disease to where she did not even recognise her own children. Looking out for her welfare and comfort in her home, our dad, trusted Leslie Stipek with his investments in hopes of getting a return on his investments to help take care of our mother at home at the cost of $3,000.00 per month for caregivers and all her medical expenses. Our parents both passed away in 2004, my fathers wishes were to leave his monies to his daughters. Stipek needs to pay for what he has done to so many people. From Marie Peterson and Christiane Keller, his loving daughters.
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