I was introduced to John Borzelino through a local Real Estate investment club. He presents the idea of a lease purchase plan that seems very reasonable. I (thankfully) did not get involved with that side of his scheme, those people are in worse shape than me.
John asked me if I had any money that I may want to loan at 20% interest. So I told him that I had a self directed IRA. At first he wanted me to loan the money with no colateral. But I was not comfortable with that arrangement. So he offered a Deed of Trust on a property that was owned by one of his "partners" (another very bad position to be in). He had a woman sign the Deed of Trust and promised to pay me back in 90 days. About 8 weeks later the office is empty and there is a note from the landlord for non payment of rent. Everyone was gone. I called a cell number for John and got voice mail with no identifying name, just the number. I left a message and about an hour later John called. He said FAX the paperwork to him and he will try to get together to work it out. A couple of days later I get a FAX that tells me that all my dealings should be with the person that signed the document. He didn't even have the guts to call me and try to help me, because he had no interest in helping me. The person that signed the document is just another pawn in is rip off scheme. His game is to find a patsy to sign documents and probably makes fantastic promises of compensation for cooperation. So I lost $40,000.00 from my IRA and John had no intent to ever pay me back.
As for his lease option scheme he tells people that they can purchase property and he will rebate back 1 - 2% of the purchase price at the close of escrow. Then his management company will cover all of the expenses of the property for the next 2 years. They will place a lease option person in the property and at the end of the contract the leasee will purchase the property. There will be a split of the gains 3 ways between the investor, the former owner and Roman Group. Well he put several people here in San Diego into properties as investors, but many were never leased. Also John did not pay the mortgage or taxes. So as this all reached a critical point he packed up and left. The people that are left behind with giant mortgage payments are facing foreclosure, bankrupcy or if they are lucky a short sale. So what happened to all the money? On the purchase contract that I saw the Roman Group got a 14% commission on the sale. On an $800,000.00 or more sale that is a lot of money!
There are several people that have lost large sums of money to this scam artist, don't be one of them! This guy belongs behind bars, but like a cockroach he manages to skitter out of the way each time. Stay away from John Borzellino, The Roman Group, Roman Realty, Digit 7 Partners, they are covers for the con man to take your money!
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