Pauciulo, for his part, said that Vagnozzi had not followed his counsel. After seven years, he said, investors have yet to get back what they put in. Update on A Better Financial Plan. Key to Par's approach was that it required borrowers to sign what are known as "confessions of judgment" legal documents that compel the debtors to forfeit up front any right to defend themselves in court when accused of missing loan payments. As Stumphauzer took over receivership of both Par Funding and A Better Financial Plan, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) raided Par Fundings headquarters along with multiple properties belonging to Joseph Laforte, the co-owner of Par Funding. Age 54 (610) 763-4868. The website for his firm, A Better Financial Plan, touts returns of 10% to 14% and $200 million . The legal process will prove my innocence in due time," Vagnozzi wrote. At times, Vagnozzi held payout dinners, similar to pep rallies where checks for massive amounts would be displayed and investors celebrate their returns. One early investor was Robert Sullivan, 60, manager of a Philadelphia transportation company. Since then, Vagnozzi has recommended an array of financial ventures including investments unregistered with the SEC and thus immune from the agencys scrutiny and public disclosure requirements. Stumphauzer also took control of art worth $2 million and a stable of luxury cars and boats from LaForte and McElhone. I write about people and money in our community and beyond. Of the 8 cases of fraud outlined against the defendants, 7 of them included Vagnozzi and a Better Financial Plan. The SEC considers the issuer who sells the securities to have primary liability.. One Dean! Vagnozzi kept selling investments in policies purchased from Life Partners despite that firms troubles. Edit Details Details. In another video, Pauciulo bragged, Together, Dean and I have created a model where small investors could get in on the kind of alternative asset action typically limited to rich investors. The life expectancies were terrible, he wrote investors. sweet potato sushi roll calories. They deny the accusations. It later collapsed into bankruptcy amid SEC charges of fraud. June 1, 2022 1:43 PM PT. Previously, Dean was the Vice President, Business Development at NTT Data and also held positions at Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC, Deloitte, EY. Stumphauzer blocked Par employees from their emails, as they had accessed and downloaded more than 100,000 documents pertaining to company information more than two weeks after the judge had ordered their access be taken away. In August, Philadelphia lawyer Gaeton Alfano, who represents the court-appointed receiver in the civil fraud case, told Ruiz during a hearing that he had turned over "massive amounts of data and documents" and made witnesses available in response to subpoenas from a criminal grand jury investigating Par Funding. It turns out that Par is not the only Vagnozzi investment that has disappointed. Supporters of life settlement investments say they are a boon for policyholders who need cash now and investors who profit well by supplying it. In those earlier filings, Vagnozzi also argued that there was no legal requirement that investors be told about LaFortes convictions. My impeccable credit score was destroyed. His million-dollar-plus yearly income fell to zero.. Im vague, generic, dont mention what the investment is, dont mention the details," he said of his ads. His lawyer, George Bochetto, says big firms such as Eckert carry lots of malpractice insurance. I dont talk about any specifics. As SEC crackdown loomed and business fell, Par Funding's founders bought watches for $154,000. Two suits named both Pauciulo and Vagnozzi as defendants. Dean James Vagnozzi Reviews. Its the largest firm in the industry, according to annual data compiled by the Life Settlement Report, the industry newsletter. In its more recent lawsuit, the SEC cited that as an example of his repeated misrepresentations. On July 24, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), brought an emergency action against a number of individuals and entities, including but not limited to Dean J. Vagnozzi and his Pennsylvania-based company, A Better Financial Plan, for their roles in an alleged half billion dollar fraud scheme. The SEC is expecting to recover far more from the remaining . Kirby of London, ON Verified Reviewer Verified Buyer. I cover all things Wall Street, personal finance and investing, people and their money. In the 2020 emails obtained by The Inquirer, Vagnozzi acknowledged a simple problem with funds containing those early policies: Sellers hadnt died fast enough. The stock market is brutalizing Wall Street investors, falling more than 17% year-to-date in August. July 14, 2020 - The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed settled charges against Philadelphia-based Abetterfinancialplan.com, LLC (d/b/a A Better Financial Plan, LLC) (ABFP) and its owner, Dean J. Vagnozzi, for selling more than $32 million in securities to retail investors in unregistered offerings and for together acting as an All payments to investors halted once the SEC brought its case. In the last 10 months, investors have sued Pauciulo and his firm in Delaware, Florida, and Philadelphia. He and his wife, Christa, have raised four children and live in a Collegeville house he valued for the court at $800,000. The Commission has approved the Consent Agreement and Order entered into by Dean J. Vagnozzi d/b/a A Better Financial Plan, LLC, in which they are ordered to pay an administrative assessment for violations of the Pennsylvania Securities Act of 1972. READ MORE: In SEC fraud lawsuit, Par Fundings receiver squares off with adviser Dean Vagnozzi over money freeze. Home; About. Par Funding blamed the reductions on the onset of COVID-19, but court data showed that the firm had filed nearly 1,500 lawsuits against defaulting borrowers in 2019, before the virus surfaced. A trial is scheduled for next year. Any company or individual found violating these federal trademarks will be vigorously pursued through all available legal avenues and penalized to the fullest extent of the law. November 9, 2020. Nov. 25Days before their scheduled civil trial on fraud charges, the owners of Par Funding lending and King of Prussia financial salesman Dean Vagnozzi agreed Wednesday to stop fighting the case against them and to pay back 1,200 investors who federal regulators said were seduced with a stream of lies about the lender. Vagnozzis main policy source at first was a Texas firm, Life Partners Inc., a pioneer in acquiring and marketing policies. The businesses who received these advances were forced to close and could no longer keep up their payments to Par Funding, creating a chain reaction through A Better Financial Plan causing their investors to not receive their monthly payments. The firm was in the "merchant cash business." Separately, in a last bit of litigation in the overall Life Partners scandal, a trustee for its creditors is suing Vagnozzi and scores of other Life Partners salespeople to claw back their commissions. Gerald J Nave. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. As of July 27, the SEC put in place a receiver, Ryan M. Stumphauzer who is currently running Par Funding and A Better Financial Plan. Duke Energy Corporation. Vagnozzi's radio advertisements don't mention that in May 2019, he agreed to pay a state-record $490,000 to settle charges by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities that he was selling securities without a license. The Texas firm declared bankruptcy in January 2015, a month after a judge fined it $38 million in the SEC case. One, Pillar 8 Life Settlement Fund LP, is made up of policies that cost investors a total of about $10 million, according to data shared with The Inquirer by an investor. why does loki have a green cape? Without admitting wrongdoing, Vagnozzi agreed to pay a $95,000 penalty. Posted in. Golf has a reputation for creating business opportunities. More recently, LaForte was arrested last year after the FBI seized seven firearms at his $2.4 million house in Lower Merion. (In all, Vagnozzi has agreed to pay $1.1 million since 2018 to resolve complaints from federal and state regulators. In an interview, he said was disappointed in the returns from a Vagnozzi fund but hoped at least to get his money back. Now LaForte, 50, and his wife, Lisa McElhone, 42 the owner of a nail salon from South Philadelphia who told the court at one point that she was worth nearly $800 million "shall pay disgorgement of ill-gotten gains," as will Vagnozzi, 53, according to settlement papers signed by all three. . This defense goes unmentioned in the Philadelphia suit. The court never contacted me or informed me about the fund that they froze and ultimately plundered. I had been a scholastic at the International Roman Scholasticate throughout the Council. Join Facebook to connect with Dean Vagnozzi and others you may know. A third, filed by Philadelphia lawyer Clifford Haines on behalf of 17 people who set up pools that pumped nearly $50 million into Par, names just Pauciulo and his firm. Working with fragmentary information from fund papers, partially redacted names, ages, and the like, he searched on Google to see whether the insured had died. We had we had meetings with customers that had money to potentially invest. KING OF PRUSSIA, PA / ACCESSWIRE / March 9, 2020 / Dean Vagnozzi is not your average financial planner. His required disclosures in the SEC lawsuit show that in just the last two years before the SEC pulled the plug, he made $8 million in profits on $17 million in revenue. Pauciulo, 55, is a Temple law grad who has been with the Pittsburgh-based Eckert Seamans firm for more than a decade, leading its financial transaction group out of its Philadelphia office. By August 7, 2020, Laforte was arrested by authorities on illegal firearm possession in his Haverford, Pennsylvania home. The investors were encouraged to bring friends. Search More About This Property. Tom, 77, walks with a slight limp, which has led to rumors that he may have arthritis. In early 2015, the Chester County couple were featured in a suburban newspaper touting Vagnozzis acumen. In a note to clients, he summarized the SEC order this way: All they can say is they dont like my advertising methods.. The agency enumerated his radio ads, free dinners, and mailings and said he was improperly selling unregistered securities. Dean Vagnozzi is not your average financial advisor, but he does make the average investor wealthier than anyone imagined possible. Many home shopping fans (including me) were shocked to hear the news that two long time, and popular QVC on-air hosts, Dan Hughes and Carolyn Gracie, had been let go.