Jolee Tibbitts is a real estate investor that we got to know during many seminars in Utah. As time went on she gained our trust and opened an offer to many of the students to be included in a deal that she had in Molokai, Hawaii. She apparently owned a large piece of land that couldn't be developed, but could be sold to the native citizens in 5 acre parcels. She told us that the sale price had been negotiated with the state at $45,000 each. She sold us on the fact that she was going to charge us $15,000 each because it's "what she paid for it" and that the state was going to start the paperwork and the sales process to the natives in July. We made sure to get our money wired to her in March so we could get our name on 4 parcels ($60,000), not to mention that she charged us $5000 in the form of a donation to her charity to "be included in the deal". We wired the funds to her escrow account through USBank which seems legitmate and from there begins our frustrating journey.
As July approached things looked good, but soon July came and went. She said the state was slow to get paperwork finished and had everyone working for her and around her either brainwashed or telling the same story. July... August... Oct. And so on went by and believe me the phone calls to her and emails to her and everyone that we had contact with were contacted weekly which turned into daily and then multiple times per day. All of a sudden one Monday I called Jolee only to find that her phone had been disconnected and her sister, Melanie and some of the people that had been working for her are no longer working for her and have distanced themselves. Jolee's sister even claims that she doesn't talk to her anymore.
After some tracking down, I found her email and cell number to be located in Florida. We're back in business right! No way. I would place many calls and about every 3 weeks I would get a response and promises that she was going to make it right and pay up. This would go on every conversation and pretty soon you can only contact her through her attorney. What does this say?
As of writing this we don't have any deeds, money or even promises. My wife's parents are involved in this and they are out money while trying to save for retirement and we are facing the possiblity of foreclosure and bankruptcy due to Jolee!
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