In late May my widowed mother wrote Alton Minton a check for $25,000 that was supposed to be a purchase of stock in Lakeside Financial.
Apparently she had met with Alton several times prior to this. He gave her several business documents which included business plans for the future of Lakeside. I met with him one time briefly. My mom asked my advice. Although skeptical, I did think the overall business plan was sound. I told my mom it was her decision to make and she wrote the check that day. Alton said we would see shares of stock in her investment account in the next 2 weeks.
A few months went by with semi-regular contact with Alton and stories of some holdups in New York getting stock issued. During that time we met and had dinner with Arch Bonnema a major investor of Lakeside Financial. Unfortunately after that time, contact with Alton became spotty at best.
May nearly a year went by, and Alton's cell phone was going straight to voicemail. My mom wrote letters to his home, which he would not respond to. Finally I wrote a ticked off email and got a response. He apologized and spoke of embezzlement inside Lakeside that had caused major delays in the company going public. He was supposed to keep in touch regularly (monthly) and keep her up-to-date as to Lakeside's future.
Several months went by, and guess what... Exact same scenario. Cell phone straight to voicemail, no return phone calls, no return letters. Finally after more months he asked to meet for lunch, which I attended. I do have a recording of most of the conversation. He explained some of the problems which had led to the delays in Lakeside, and stated he felt bad about taking money from my mother. He asked if she would like to still receive stock in Lakeside, or her money back plus interest. She said not to worry about the interest, or receiving any stock, but she would like to receive her money back. He said he would. He also spoke of other business ventures he was starting during this time.
I asked him simply why he did not keep in touch with people that trusted him enough to invest money in his business. His response was that when he didn't have much information, he didn't see the need to inform investors. I said that was terrible business, how hard could it be to update his investors once a month through email or phone calls? If its that difficult he should've never taken money from them in the first place.
Within a week he did meet with my mom and wrote her a check for a whopping $100. My best assumption is that this would not have happened if I hadn't recorded that lunch meeting.
I do not believe he is a scam or con-artist. I do believe he is incompetent in carrying through on his business plans. He has good ideas, but clearly cannot implement them. He tries to wear "too many pants" and do too much at once, and in the process ends up doing nothing of value.
At this point in time, fall after recieving the $100 months prior, we've never heard from him again. Calling him goes straight to voicemail. Writing him a letter gets no response. And now his email is no longer valid.
It deeply saddens me that my older mother has been mistreated this way. This is the only time she trusted someone to make an investment of this nature. To think of the hard work she did to help provide for her extended family, and a half-year's worth of blood, sweat, tears, are down the drain because of an incompetent businessman.
Bottom Line: DO NOT invest money with Alton Minton. You will regret it.
0 comments