The Keane Organization, wholly-owned by Steven J. Grossman, is a company that was started by Grossman's father tracing unclaimed money to the alleged owners of the same. For many years his wife, Carol Rosen (nee Honigman) ran the business with him and had offices on Tower Bridge Road in Conshocken, PA. The company has operated under the names "Keane Tracers" and the "Keane Company, Inc." and their history can be reviewed on the website for the Pennsylvania Dept. Of State. His wife divorced him some years ago and threatened to expose his shady business tactics. Extortion? Maybe. Be she walked away with a pile of cash and a new house and, of course, alimony for the children, Emily and Benjamin.
The way this business operates is that they either independently obtain unclaimed money records from various governmental entities (which are public financial records) and from business entities (such as Fortune 1000 companies) that they convince to allow them to work their "general ledger, " which contains things such as unclaimed stocks, bonds, warrants and other forms of corporate securities. A large part of the business networking was performed by the wife, Carol Rosen/Grossman, through the Corporate Transfer Agents Association and the Securities Transfers Agents Assocation located in New York, NY. The approach is that since the various state unclaimed money offices are engaging in an unjust money-grab of other peoples's money, the Keane crew will take the records, engage in location efforts to find the owners of the monies or assets, charge them a fee, and then prepare a "holder report" due to the various state unclaimed money offices, and doing their own little pigging out at the money trough all the while.in other words: Let us make the money instead of some lousy government entity.
The way the fraud is committed is that they keep the entire transaction "blind." That means that they never tell you where the money or asset is located or how much it is in total sum or current value. So, when they propose their "fee" you don't know if it is 35% of $1,000 or $100,000. Now this is where the game gets really interesting. They will then two-step you into playing along. First, they send an innocent-sounding "fee contract." This contract then obligates you to "sign all documents necessary to complete the claim." After you return this contract, they hit you with the second step which is the "power of attorney" to redeem your money or asset. If you don't sign the power of attorney then you have then "breached" your contract. No signed power of attorney for us, no money or asset redemption for you. Now that the hook has been set, they take the documents and file a claim as your "attorney in fact" under the power of attorney.
Next, once the financial holding agent or transfer agent receives their claim and the power of attorney to act on your behalf, the money or asset is released to them (or in the case of stocks, liquidated after the agent signs off on the security certificate).
If you never receive your money after so much time, like me, then you call them and ask what is going on. Since you never knew the actual amount of the money or asset, they can tell you anything they want. If it was $10,000 they redeemed, they can say it was just $1,000 and give you just $650.00 on a fee of $350.00 (35%). You never know or could know where the money or asset was since the contract you signed doesn't obligate them to disclose anything; it was a one-sided contract all along, and they know that. This is where the psychology of the game intensifies. 65% of "something" is better than 100% of nothing, which is what you get if you don't execute the "satisfaction of claim" form. Remember, the contract requires that you sign all documents necessary to "complete the claim." No attorney is going to go on a goose-chase for you after some out-of-state business for some unknown sum of money. You're stuck. Take it or leave it.
But now its your turn. You'll likely get a check drawn on a certain bank. Now you have an account number and a physical address for a bank somewhere. Of course, for them to have deposited the money due to you into that issuing bank account, the money had to come from somewhere, namely, another bank account that they use. This is where you can get a foothold to follow the money-trail. You can then also complain directly to the bank's internal security office and have them verify whether a check with your name on it was ever deposited to that account. If not, be very suspicious. They could have deposited the actual check in another account and merely transferred a certain sum to pay you into their "client account, " etc.
If they utterly refuse to disclose the source or location of the money or asset they redeemed, then you can do two things. First, you complain to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office stating that you believe you've may have been defrauded. After all, if everything is legit, why wouldn't they tell you where the money came from? It's all over with at that point, right? They will argue that to disclose the source of the money would be to disclose a "trade secret, " which means they don't want you to know where they are fishing at since then you can do the same thing they are doing: Buy a current copy of the record and start locating people on the list yourself. But the approach here is that they have cheated/defrauded you and you want to simply verify that the money released to them is, in fact, the true and actual sum they put into the bank and that the sum you received is truly 65% of what they redeemed. If the Pennsylvania State Attorney General's office does not satisfy you, then it on to step two.
Now you up the ante and call and write a complaint to the United States Attorney General's, Criminal Investigation Office in Washington, D.C. Alleging that these creeps are engaging in interstate fraud and mail and wire fraud. The money in most cases will have come from some other state to them in Pennsylvania and then to you, where ever you are. You can reference this complaint and those on file with the Better Business Bureau where they are members. Emphasize that you think there is fraud going on and they should be required to disclose basic verifying information.
And don't forget: You can use internet blogs and other internet resources to air your complaint and expose the whole shady business.
If you are ever contacted by The Keane Orgainzation, or any other unclaimed money redemption outfit, never agree to their contract terms alone.insist that, if they are legitimate, then they must disclose the actual sum of money involved and its location upon your signing of the contract; and further insist that the money be paid to you within set period of time. Also, make the power of attorney limited and time-based, which means that they can only use it for one transaction within a specific period of time. If they discover two different sums of unclaimed money or stock, etc, due to you, you can get cheated out of one since an unlimited power of attorney allows them to use it multiple times whenever they so choose. When the whole business is over with, insist that they return to you the original copy of the power of attorney. This prevents them from using it again at another location or with another holding agent or transfer agent.
Last, always negotiate your fee. Never agree to the proposed fee that they first offer. Always try to get as low as 10% or 15%, and never any more than 25%. It is all relative depending on the actual total sum involved. Also, never disclose to them any personal information that they don't have already. Why? Because they will try to feel out your current financial situation and take advantage of that to their own advantage, which is jacking up the fee; after all, you're hurting and desperate and need the money. Don't let them know that.
Last, be sure to check the access history of your credit report. Unscrupulous operators will first access you credit report to spy on your financial situation first to gain the advantage in the agreed fee percentage, pushing it as high as possible.
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