Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Urgent Premiums Due

After spending the last two weeks talking to other investors and reading reports from viatical experts, I am starting to believe that the receivership’s management of MBC assets (while maybe not illegal) is no better for the investor than the fraudulent operation of MBC. The receivership is putting intense pressure on the investors who voted to keep their interest in over three thousand policies to pay their first round premium payments within forty-five days of the mailing. (visit the UPDATES tab on the receivers website www.mbcreceiver.com and read their URGENT notice in red. According to the receivership, the mailing for these invoices was to be completed by 04/30/2007. To date, my parents have an interest in 24 policies in this category and have only received payment invoices on 10. So far, we have paid one premium fee of approximately $1.9k and have a balance due of around $38k. By the time the rest of our invoices come in, our balance due could increase to $80-90k, which would be equal to about 20% of our total investment.

In just a few days, we will observe the third anniversary of the SEC takeover of MBC. Doesn’t it seem that the receiver has had enough time to research the assets of MBC and give the investors enough information to make intelligent decisions on whether to continue trying to salvage a part of their investment or just give up and accept the loss? I have taken the information the investors have been received from the receiver to several banks, financial planners and viatical experts and NONE have said they would not recommend any more money being put into this investment program. Therefore, I am of the opinion that unless the receiver provides additional information (a sample of what’s needed can be found by searching for “Special Report MBC Policy Sales” on google- and copying the first two pages of the report. Then drop down to the next item and search through the “Viatical-Expert” web pages). The lady that hosts this web site is a consumer advocate, a viatical expert, and a genuinely nice person. Next week, I am going to contact the state of Florida Attorney Generals Office, the Governor and my Lawyer in Fort Lauderdale to discuss the possibility of filing an injunction against the receiver to try and stop them from dissolving our interest in our policies until we are provided the information we need. If that fails, and unless we get more investor support (numbers of investors agreeing with me – not money), it probably will. We will probably decide not to put any more money into this “scheme” and spend the rest of our time and resources trying to make the guilty pay.

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a friend who was inticed to invest his 401K into an interest in a viatical policy from MBC.
I have been attempting to make some sense of premium notices he has been receiving.
I find that the information provided in the billing notice ie. MBC CF/AP number, Investor number, policy number, etc. do not correspond in any understandable way to the listings on the VSI web site. (http://www.mbcreceiver.com/images/OutstandingBillingInvoices.pdf for investor - Outstanding Billing Invoices)
For example, if you search for the investor number, it is not listed. The policy numbers are not even the same format as the numbers listed.
Have you had any success in following the maze of documents presented?

Sean said...

You should be able to see the policy # on the documents and it should match up with the list of policies on the VSI website.

I believe it will only show up on the outstanding invoices list if there is an outstanding invoice.

It would be nice to get a forum going for all of us who have been shafted by these guys.

Anonymous said...

Hi Larry
So sorry to hear that your parents have lost so much money. I didn't "invest" nearly as much but am still so gutted about what has happened (especially since I invested in South African rands at a rate of about R9 to $1. I have also been agonising over the decision as to pay the premium and potentially save some money or to walk away.
I am concerned about comments on the website e.g. under FAQs "Many policies may be worth far less than what you thought." How far is far? And by 'what you thought' do they mean 'what we state on the policy information as the current death benefit.'
Is this just throwing good money after bad? How many investors have been paid out, exactly, and what percentage of their original investement have they received. There MUST be stats on this. Why are they not providing us with these?
Are most investors deciding that their money is unsalvagable?
Shafted,
Johannesburg

Anonymous said...

As I have posted in detail on the MBC Investors' site I have just received the 3rd maturity cheque of my total of 4. I therefore feel that i have been very lucky. However I do feel that we are given no information to make our decisions and do not know how we can prize out the information like maturities paid so far,current medical status and policy commitments and the number of investors who haave dropped out of round 1 - all of which I feel we should be given.

Anonymous said...

My husbands mother God rest her soul,invested her whole life savings into MBC policies, 5 of them to be exact. (Before we were married). Somehow, and I'm still trying to find out just how "Senior Survival" MBC and the State have anything to do with one another. When my husband first told me about the policies that his mother invested in, I thought to myself "You have got to be kidding!" I said to him "your mother invested all her money into policies of which she gets no return, until people die?" That sounded very strange to me. But I was new to the family we weren't even married yet, and didn't want to over step my boundries. But in my heart I knew there was something fishy going on. It just didn't seem right, it felt wrong, not in the sense of what they invested in, but with who they invested with. You see when I asked my husband how this all came about, he said that the State had sent someone out to do a Living Trust for his mother. Later I found a card from the guy who actually did the trust it said "Senior Survival Plan" I looked them up in the BBB and come to find out they were an affiliate of MBC or just another company that MBC had created in order that they get into peoples homes in order to gain their trust, so they could ultimately find out what they're financial status was. When the man had done just that he then introduced the viaticals, with a 42% gain on investment, who wouldn't buy into them? Well I continued to be skeptical and after my husbands mothers death, I asked him how he was supposed to know when these policies would mature (and that is a word I thought, I had made up for when these policies actually would pay off, I used it for lack of a better word, just so he would understand what I was asking)I then asked if he was getting any kind of reports on these terminally ill people? He said that the reports come every 6 months or so. So I looked at the reports that he had for a few years and they all said the same thing, year after year. It looked and felt like this was all just a scam. Year after year the same letter no change, no one dying and yet the people who these Viaticals were on, were terminally ill people, with AIDS? Even with modern technology the way it is, surely not everyone could be saved, could they? So I asked if he wouldn't mind if I looked into these policies, he gave the go ahead. Thats when I found out the accounts had be frozen due to fraud. It's been hell ever since. My husband stayed home to take care of his mother for ten years, she had invested all her life's savings into what she thought would take care of him for the rest of his life. She's most likely rolling over in her grave over this. Last month we put 1,300.00 into 1 policy for premiums. That we were told could go up next time premiums are due. WTF? I'm angry, frustrated, and we had to take a loan out on our house long ago to pay the premiums of the other policies that we have due to premiums. We haven't had many of our questions answered and we feel pressured into paying the premiums or lose the investment altogether. They first said vote to keep, surrender, or sell your policies and we had to decide by a certain time or they would be forefited. Then I go to MBC site and to the policies page to see what other people have decided to do with their policies and I see that in some instances there are several policies that are undecided.UNDECIDED? WTF? We were supposed to have decided to keep, sell, or forfeit, long ago why are there so many policies that are undecided. We were all pressured into making a decision then why are there policies that have not decided? No one can answer my questions.Now I'm just plain mad, and I don't know what to do about it. Then we have the "Class Action Lawsuits" A whole different story!

Anonymous said...

We have contacted the insurance company directly in our case we do know that there is a policy with our name as partial owners. this gives us some hope, andI would encourage anyone to do this before puting more money into premium and admin. costs.We are still not sure how to continue with this ,as the judge calls it (scheme to defraud)I am sure many of will lose most ofour investment and some will probably be lucky and get their money back.

Anonymous said...

Anyone who lost their ability to collect on the loss for not keeping up with the insurance premiums should contact me immediately about how this loss can now directly affect your 2007 tax return.

I also sent a letter to the receiver to see if he'd share this information with others.

I don't have the names of the investors and no way to distribute this information, maybe this blog can help.

Steve Mead
Senior Consultant
JK Harris 165 Services
1-800-830-7617 (Ext. 229)
smead@165services.com
www.165services.com

NO OBLIGATION FOR THE CALL

Frequently, the tax benefit we specialize in creates more recovery through tax refunds over any efforts by a receiver.

Anonymous said...

Curtis Miner, Esq.
Colson Hicks Eidson
255 Aragon Avenue 2nd Floor
Coral Gables, FL 33134

October 10, 2007

Dear Mr. Miner,

Excerpted from your website:

Q. My investment is stuck in the Receivership. May I take a tax write-off for the investment as a loss?
A. The Receiver is not able to provide investors tax advice.

Is it possible the receivership could lead the investors to advice about their income tax options? Here is an example of a Receiver's efforts in an unrelated case; tailored as an example for the Mutual Benefits, et al. injured taxpayers.

Dear Investors,

Many of you have requested information concerning the tax ramifications of your investment into Mutual Benefits. Certain Investors may qualify for an accelerated deduction treatment under the Internal Revenue Code § 165, which allows fraud victims to lower their tax bills by claiming theft losses. If you qualify, you can potentially write off the Mutual Benefits losses and recapture taxes from previous years.

We are providing investors with a link to JK Harris 165 Services website. JK Harris 165 Services, as well as any other qualified tax professional, may be able to assist you in filing for this special tax treatment.

Please note, the Receiver and his staff are not affiliated with JK Harris 165 Services and do not derive any benefit for their services rendered in any capacity whatsoever. The information being provided herein is solely for the purpose of informing investors of this possible tax advantage.

Please remember that the Receiver and his staff are not qualified to answer your tax questions and request that you not contact our office for tax advice. You are strongly urged to seek the advice from your own tax advisor concerning this matter.

To read more information about IRC § 165 from JK Harris 165 Services website, please click the following link:
www.165services.com.

Anonymous said...

I UNDERSTAND THERE IS A CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST THESE SWINDLERS, IF SO WOULD THAT NOT SOMEWHAT PROTECT AND HAVE THE HOPE OF GETTING SOME OF OUR ORGINAL INVESTMENTS BACK, REGUARLESS IF SOMEONE PAID PREMIUMS OR NOT?
i WENT INTO AGREEMENT (SIGNED) THAT AGREEMENT SHOULD STAND IN A COURT OF LAW, I CANNOT SEE HOW WE CAN LOOSE OUR MONEY OR LET POLICYS LASPS IF THAT WAS NOT PART OF THE AGREEMENT. I'M SICK OVER THIS MONEY $25,000 GONE BUT OH THE LAWYERS ARE GETTING PAID, WHO SIDE IS THIS RECEIVERSHIP ON?

Anonymous said...

Urging every victim of Mutual Benefits (VSI) fraud to file a consumer complaint with the Florida State Attorney General (complaint form can be obtained from their website). The State of Florida has to be made accountable for the initial VSI theft/scheme, and the mismanagement by the receivership. Personally, I am making every effort to make this newsworthy asap (meaning every national, state, and local agency).

captin said...

I'm not sure how they can do this. But if they can does anyone know of a different administrator that doesn't have these type of charges and if you do could you let know.

Harry Kosek said...

Larry - have you heard of any updates on this scam. I too am an investor and am trying to find out if there is a class action suit filed on our behalf against MBC.

Anonymous said...

No investor lost a dollar until the receivership took control. Premiums were being paid and policies although desperately slow matured.

Dishonest goverment officials with dollars signs in their eyes are to blame

Anonymous said...

I have 4 policies left, (1) paid off. I have invested in all the premiums I am going to invest in. I have never received an answer to any question I have asked by e-mail or phone, no response at all--that is just not right! I am done----no more. I called the IRS and adked specifically if any of this was tax deductable, answer--not if pre-taxed money was used to purchase or invest in the viatical. In other words if the money you used to invest was takend out of an IRA or 401K it was tax reducing money and not therefore able to be claimed for tax purposes. I also said why is the Government able to keep all this money paid back in fines to the GOV, why can't the policy owners get any of this money, basically was told they are fines and the GOV gets it from the law suit.

Anonymous said...

I am trying to fill out the forms we just received; does anyone know what the first fees were for the policies? I cannot find my cancelled checks from 2005. I want to include both the maintenance fees and the premiums as additional loss on the forms.

Thank you,
I will be glad when this mess is over

Anonymous said...

The recievership is composed of lawyers and they are going to suck every penny they can get out of this thing. They do not care if any of us ever get a penny. All we got was out of the frying pan into the fire. Who ever heard of charging each client for each little paper in your file cabinet. A single charge per client would be more than enough!!!

Anonymous said...

Any investors interested in going against this receiver or knows if there is a class action suit already in progress, please contact me at wwoods14@msn.com

These clowns are going to bleed us as long as they can if we don't do something to stop them.

gpa1time said...

I was told by the receiver that a distribution of 10% of the original investment will be sent out in the 2nd quarter of 09'. I read today that the receiver has billions of dollars sitting on an account. I don't understand why these monies haven't been sent to investors.

shaft said...

What can i say we got the shaft!what is wrong with people? dosen't any one do the right thing any more? I lost everything over this! d nail ia

shaft said...

What can we say we got the shaft!what has happened to people in this country? dosen't any one do the right thing any more? Douglas nail ia.

MIKE AT UPSTATE said...

Larry,

You say: I have taken the information the investors have been received from the receiver to several banks, financial planners and viatical experts and NONE have said they would not recommend any more money being put into this investment program. What does that mean? Its a double negative. Do you mean all experts agree that you should continue paying the premium? (or the opposite?)

Given the SEC involvement in this, I think all investors should consider that the for years the SEC was given evidence of the Madoff scam and they did NOTHING! As Barney Frank and his criminal friends demonstrate each day...these people dont have a clue. MIKEATUPSTATE@AOL.COM

Anonymous said...

I had invested $20,000 (not to mention all the admin fees paid to keep my investment) and just received $2,703.14 as a distribution of receiver assets. I feel totally violated. My trust level has fallen sharply.

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Anonymous said...

Hi
Very nice and intrestingss story.

Anonymous said...

Is there anyone out here who can help me understand exactly what is going on. My mother gave MBC a check for 15k in 1997 for an AIDS policy and has never received anything since. What do we do?

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Anonymous said...

I invested 75,000 in 1999 in 2 policies and although I have received lots of paperwork from the receivers, I have not received a penny. Is there some way to know what the status of the 2 policies I invested in is? I have the id numbers assisned to them.

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Hello! You can contact with Litai Assets LLC for information.
D:954-582-0220 Ext 228
F:954-582-0223
customerservice@litaiassets.com
They emailed back very quickly about the age and the last contact date, no other info would be given though.
Huge premium is killing me.
How did I get into this scam!!

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Anonymous said...

I am an Keep policy Investor. I have been for some time now been paying an extraordinary amount of premium dollars. I started with 13 policies and now left with 7. Of the 7 I have been paid out on 5 and one was sold.
Some payouts have been quite large. Is there still any other keep policy investors still reading this blog?
Has anyone requested l.E.s (life expectancies)m on any insured?
Striker

Anonymous said...

Policy Maturity Report, Is it up to the policy holder to review all of these pdf 's?

Antonio said...

Hi i am English investor in MBC i have been pay premium on two policy for more than 11years one policy mature and received a refund of the premium i have no news of the other policy they've stop collecting a premium Anybody as had the same experience .

Antonio said...

One policy mature i am a foreign invester not only a lost money on this scams but i got charged tax on the premium Can in anyway claim the tax back can anybody if is possible

Antonio said...

sorry i wanted to say tax back from the mature policy.