HESS KENNEDY LAWYER LAURA HESS DISBARRED FOR 5 YEARS.

Dis-barred for life and 20 years in prison would have been justice. This was just a slap on the wrist

Hey what do you know I found one of the articles for free:

You are right nascardevil.

TOM321.....this is VERY interesting. I never dealt with them, but, I DO know a few people who have. These people are suppose to be professionsl?! They plead guilty? Gosh.....SOOO many people, in this world, need help and companies ( like these..) deceive people. It's just horrible. 'We' hear alot more of this now a days.

I know sdcharger. I was watching the news the other day and they said that it is on the rise ten fold. The internet serves as its playground. This is why you should go with a debt settlement company in your area. A place where you can go into the office.

That IS good advice, TOM321. This way would be a safer way. But...STILL ....you gotta check things out. If the company is in your area, you CAN go in and ask questions.

That you can charger. And if they try to cheat you you bring the police straight to their door and you know exactly who to sue...LOL.

You should absolutely never trust these people. This is not the first company to be shut down. They hid fees and leave you open to lawsuits from your creditrs. If you check the rip off reports you would be stunned!!!! Work with your creditor yourself or file bankruptcy but, never trust someone to do your bidding for you when it is in THEIR best interest to only settle at the lowest percentage which, alot of time ends up with you getting sued from the creditor. BE SMART!!![font=Tahoma][/font]

TOM..I din't even think that you could take the police straight there. I was just thinking it would be easier to have a company close enough to you. However...that's a good thought, TOM. Thanks for that comment.

That's how you have to roll these days charger.....LOL. But when I scan this forum it's amazing that so many people are not listening to advice given here. They keep going to these online settlement scams. What can you do though?....

I've learned my lesson with the Hess Kennedy scam.

Good news if you had a capital one account with HESS KENNEDY.

Agreement to Help Hess Kennedy Victims Will Eliminate credit card debt

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that a settlement has been reached in a case brought by Capital One against affiliated Hess Kennedy companies which engaged in fraudulent debt settlement activities. Under the settlement approved today, Capital One will forgive the credit card debt of approximately 18,000 consumers nationwide, including nearly 1,900 Florida residents, who contracted with the Hess Kennedy companies for the fraudulent services. Laura Hess and the Hess Kennedy Companies are currently in Receivership as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Attorney General????????s Office in February. As part of this settlement, Capital One will receive a payment of $1.825 million from the assets of the Hess Kennedy companies.

???????I applaud Capital One Bank for being proactive in assisting its customers who were taken advantage of by this scheme, and I encourage other banks and financial institutions to follow this excellent example and to work with my office on behalf of their customers who have also been victimized,??????? said Attorney General McCollum.

Earlier this month, Judge Ronald Rothschild in Broward County Circuit Court ordered Hess????????s companies be liquidated and settlements be reached to help provide restitution to affected consumers. Capital One will receive a payment of $1.825 million from the assets of the Hess Kennedy companies and the impacted consumers will soon receive letters from the Receiver containing additional information about the effect of the settlement on them.

The Attorney General????????s Office had sued and obtained injunctions and Receivership orders against Hess and her companies for engaging in deceptive debt settlement and debt management practices victimizing tens of thousands of consumers. Hess and the Hess Kennedy group of companies are now under Receivership as a result of the Attorney General????????s lawsuit. Capital One cooperated with the Attorney General????????s Office to assist in the actions against the Hess Kennedy companies and partnered with the Attorney General to have an injunction entered against Hess Kennedy to further protect consumers from Hess Kennedy's abusive practices.

The lawsuit against Laura Hess was filed by the Attorney General????????s Economic Crimes Division and named Hess????????s Broward County law firm and several other Florida-based companies she controlled. The lawsuit accused Hess of signing thousands of credit card debtors up for debt management services and claiming the law firm would provide legal services to cancel debts for pennies on the dollar. Representatives of Hess allegedly told consumers that the companies had audited the consumers???????? accounts and found numerous violations under the Fair Credit Billing Act, then sent notices to creditors disputing all charges. Consumers were falsely told that once these notices were issued, the consumers did not have to pay creditors and creditors could not sue or otherwise take action against them. This deception led to lawsuits and other actions against several debtors.

A Receiver is a court-appointed individual who takes control of the operations of a company or companies for the purpose of protecting assets and customers under the authority of the court.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum vows to close down debt-relief fraud

Florida's attorney general said Wednesday he's going to wipe out debt-relief companies that are defrauding Floridians in financial distress out of millions of dollars in fees and charges.

As the economy heads for what many predict will be a deep recession, Bill McCollum warned consumers to beware of companies that promise to dramatically reduce or eliminate debt obligations. His office's economic crimes division has taken legal action against five firms and has issued subpoenas to more than two dozen more, McCollum said Wednesday.

Typically, debt-relief firms promise to lower credit card interest rates, reduce debt or consolidate debt in exchange for hefty up-front fees. The companies collect the fees and never deliver on their debt-paring promises, he said.

Statewide consumer complaints about illicit debt-relief firms are up 62 percent this year, to 1,400, and are expected to rise even more as people struggle to pay bills.

"Most of what they're doing, these debt organizations, is just plain malarkey," McCollum said at a Capitol news conference. "I want to close these companies down. They are bad, bad, bad."

An egregious example are companies that promise to wipe out debt completely for a few thousand dollars, he said. These debt-elimination firms give their customers bank certificates purported to be get-out-of-debt cards, but in reality are worthless.

"Don't ever buy into debt elimination," McCollum said. "Nobody can eliminate your debt."

Jeffrey Tromberg, a bankruptcy lawyer with the Florida debt relief Center in Fort Lauderdale, said many clients come into his office only after wasting thousands of dollars on debt-relief companies. He wants to see them outlawed, or at least banned from collecting up-front fees.

"I've never come across a debt-relief company that actually did everything they promise to do," he said. "The consumer, having tried to get out of debt, is left many times in a much worse position."

The debt companies under scrutiny from the Attorney General's Office operate out of Florida but have a nationwide reach, targeting consumers through telephone and Internet solicitations. They look for people with at least $10,000 in credit-card debt.

Legal action has been taken against IXE Accelerated Financial Services, of Orlando; Enterprise Technology Group, of Dunedin; United debt solutions and Provident Financial Services, both of Jacksonville; and New Leaf Associates, of Pinellas County.

In Broward, the Attorney General's Office also is involved in the case of a Pompano Beach attorney, Laura Hess, who is accused of charging clients with debt issues but doing little to help them, McCollum said.

If debt settlement companies worried more about their clients, instead of making a huge amount of money this situation would have never happened. The solution is simple, stick with the basics, and assist consumers. Once a company tries a far fetched tactic, and markets it to the masses, corruption will demise the industry. debt settlement companies have their place in society, but there is no reason to involve greed. Laura made a grave mistake, other companies need to look at their business model and make appropriate adjustments.

True Ontrack Financial Group Guest. This industry is saturated with scammers. And the TASC and other organizations are just letting it happen. They are part of the problem.

Oh snap I got a letter the other day from the HK receivership lawyers stating that they are going to give me a refund. Did anyone else get this letter?

yes, I did rec a letter also. Hopefully we will get a refund. I am not so sure though. I am sure it will not be a full refund. Do you think they will have enough funds to take care of all?

Hi Tom321:
This is Bud Newman, a reporter with the Daily Business Review in West Palm Beach, Florida. If you need copies of the Hess Kennedy stories I've written since February, please contact me at [email]bud.newman@incisivemedia.com[/email] or at my office at (561) 820-2075. For those who feel they have been victimized by Hess Kennedy, I am not in a position to help anyone out. They can check the Web site of the Hess Kennedy court-appointed receiver.

We had been paying for 1 1/2 years and did not receive a letter. Is there contact information on there we can call?

Thanks for any help.

Wow Bud Newman is here. Maybe you can answer a few questions for me. How did she get off light? And what has happened to Mr. Campos and Mr. Cherry? Anyone going to jail? Is it over? Is she flipping on them? Is there more to come out of this?

And geoge I hope they have money to return all the money to victims. Mine was pennies, only around $500 so extra cash is extra cash.

Oh and Jim and Robin go to the Hess Kennedy site and follow the directions there. That should help you. Good Luck.

I used Consumer Law Center, one of the Hess Kennedy entities. I got the receivership letter, but it asked me to file a claim by January 9, or I will receive nothing. I hope that my name is among the 18,000 who will receive forgiveness from Capital One.

I just sent in the information yesterday. I provided everything I could about my contract with Hess Kennedy. I still had all the papers I had signed with them. Bank statements and they even sent me once a list of everytime they withdrew from my account. I sent everything I possible could. Emails they had sent me. I also sent a letter stating I wanted to sue them and needed informating about that. I'm now getting calls from a law firm about my current debt. They were the ones that informed me about Hess going under.

I know it was tough and I looked at the Hess- legal debt center or whatever you call it. They wanted 25% for fees. What were they smoking and lets be real. I needed help but thats insane compared to the company i signed up with and they have settled one account right off the bat. They also took their fees broken out over the entire length of the program versus upfront. People should think before they sign up. SO I save around 400 a month in there program and they told me not to go into anybodies program whether they make it affordable or not for more than 36 months. I dunno. its scary ya but i can always cancel and go BK and i will have the money saved in my trust they opened.

My letter stated by jan 1 or no refund, and your not going to get everything back(if you read the fine print)They took me for over 10 grand!!! Now I'm getting sued by the comapnies they didn't deal with. Anyone have any solutions on how to move forward with the other card companies?

marchef4

I hear ya buddy. They took me for a little over 5k. I can't believe I actually got a card settled through them. But the 2ndcard now is gving me problems. I just started dealing with the CA and they def try to scare you. From what i have learned over the past week or so being on the website, i realize I have a lot of rights that these CA's use as scare tactics are sometimes illegal. I have been consulting a lawyer as well reading up on my rights. Just keep asking questions and people will help out here.

Kuddish, who are CA? I also have been scammed for 5k. I just found out a few days ago and am still in shock and overwhelmed as to where to turn. I have gathered all my info to send the proof of claim to the court-appointed receiver. The phone has been ringing frequently. Do you think the best thing to do is consult a local lawyer? What have you done about the creditor calls? Also, a law firm has sent me a letter that they are retained by Discover to collect a debt. This is so bad. What is in store for me?

The collection agency is Weltman Weinberg and Reis. My phone started to ring. I talked to them. I didn't back down and I sent a DV letter. It should reach them monday. I sent all my info to the receiver. If I do get anything I will be really pissed. I provided alot of information to them contract with them bank statements. I voicemails of them lying to me saying the company is still doing business when they weren't. So If all else fails i will sue them myself.

Kuddish, if you speak of suing Hess Kennedy, good luck; they are no longer around and went into receivership and Berger Singerman in Ft Lauderdale are the attorneys. Laura Hess is a dissaster now as she was in law school when I knew her. She had multiple DUI offenses and it still amazes me the Fla Bar admitted her to practice. In the end, her behavior caught up to her. I'm just still rather amazed she's not going to prison for all this fraud, embezzelment, theft, etc. Articles I have read and court documents filed show MILLIONS OF DOLLARS stolen from her clients. The girl is a real peace of work. I feel terrible for all those who ever trusted this person!

To Laura and Edward,

How sweet this all is. How many posts did you make here, lying, deceiving, and defending your now shamed sham of a law firm?

Oh you have nothing to say now, nothing at all to possibly say to all those who EXPOSED you for what your are: LIARS and SCAMMERS!!!

The letter I received PROVES it:

"On February 21, 2008, the Office of the Attorney General, Department of Legal Affairs, State of Floarida (the "OAG"), filed a lawsuit against the Receivership Entities (YOU!) asserting that the Receivership Entities caused customers to purchase their services (YOUR SERVICES!) through deceptive trade practices and representations, including by requireing the payment of all attorneys' fees in full before rendering debt settlement services, various uses or fictitious names (LOL!), and representations that Hess Kennedy was an international law firm with attorneys, including Edward Cherry, lecensed to render legal services in the State of Florida or elsewhere."

Come back with a defense on that you SCUM-BAGS! You can't!

You are FOREVER SHAMED NOW!

Don't ever post here again, unless before GOD you are asking for forgiveness!

I hope you are EMBARASSED beyond belief!

You got off easy though, think of the people you hurt, who had to file bankruptcy, couldn't buy a home, etc. You didn't care about them. You lined your pockets and laughed.

But I don't understand it all. Why would you spend sooooo much time flame-posting these forums, answering (ha! okay, sometimes answering calls) where you yelled at your "clients", lied to them, day in and day out? For what? What did it get you? It got you DISBARRMENT Laura! HA HA HA!

I hope others pursue you beyond the slap on the wrist you got, you snakes!

I challenge you to make square with every LIE of a post you posted in these forums by exposing yourself and begging for forgiveness.

You can start by replying to this post with, "Yes we lied. Yes we deceived our clients. Yes, we never planned on helping anyone, we only wanted to feed our own greed."

YOU ARE FOREVER SHAMED AND EMBARRASED NOW, AND I AM GLAD, as many others are I'm sure!

Go to h*ll! And have a terrible life!

...forgive me if I shouted, but this is very personal to me, they (Hess Kennedy) have lied and cheated me for too long, and I really want to shout this news for everyone to hear!

just an interesting link here, it's the list of cases the Florida Bar has brought against hess, enjoy!

jweb.flcourts.org/pls/docket/ds_cases_person?psReportStyle=Display&p_userid=&psCourt=FSC&psSearchType=&psHow=contains&psRole=party&pnPersonId=153117&psButton=Submit

soHappyNow I know you are happy that the company went under but Laura got to keep all those millions. And Edward Cherry/Kennedy just opened up another SCAM called Allegro Law and others with the same Hess Kennedy Model. If you read the site of Allegro it is obviously the same model as HESS. He is also back in this forum acting like he is someone else defending Allegro Law. He was using the name Waltj and I bet he uses multiple names in this forum. Both are pure scum but their SCAM continues. No Jail time at all and they keep the money.

It's not over yet.

That is what is pure garbage and why are system sucks. Why do they get off? She was disbarred whoopty freaking doo. Is there any way I could sue her? I know I'm going through my receivership but would there be a way to sue her myself?

Sue her herself? Maybe....if you can find a lawyer to take the time to do that. Never hurts to try.

Well not myself but have a lawyer do it for me. I could probably find one. Would i have any chance. obvioulsly she has been disbarred and posted false info. Would I have a case at all?

I am not a lawyer so I can't say for sure. But talk to some lawyers in your area. Maybe one will say yes you have a case and do it. Like I said it never hurts to try. If you do let me know what happens.

kuddish19, unfortunately you can't sue her personally. She (and her partners/employees) are protected under the fact that they operated under an LLC (regardless of how bogus it was). Basically, if you read the letter from the receiver, your only course of action is to submit your claim (which sux since you'll only see pennies on the dollar). It's unfortunate, I just wish McCollum had gone after whatever company they had in the Cayman Islands (it's referred to multiple times in the charges brought against hess). IMO, that's where all the money is, and that's why they got off easy. I mean, McCollum got the easy win by bringing only little claims against her. He should've went after them for embezzlement, and many other things I'm convinced they would've found had they investigated this further, but then we wouldn't be filing our claims now in 2008 (who knows when it would be). I'm surprised Cherry is opening up a similar scam, I was under the impression that the FTC put the axe on any type of business that uses these tactics? I know it's only a small win, but at least Hess is forever marred now, and hopefully far fewer unsuspecting victims will be lured into her false pretenses when she gets her license back...

By the way, I read that there were still other ongoing investigations on hess and cherry, did her plea-bargain close those investigations? If not, than maybe we can still hope for permanent disbarrment and some jail time!

Just looked at Allegro Law's site, they're already in violation of the FTC's ruling!

The FTC ruling (ftc.gov/opa/2008/09/nss.shtm ) barrs "debt negotiating companies to advertise:

1. That they can resolve a consumers debt for subtatially less
2. That creditors are likely to settle for substantially less (though in my experience if you negotiate directly with them they will)
3. That debt negotiators can negotiate a better settlement than consumers themselves
4. That debt negotiators have an established relationship with creditors/debt collectors that gives them an advantage to negotiate a better settlement than consumers themselves.

Ha! Go to Allegro's site and see how much they care about what the FTC had to say!

My advice, stay away from anyone who uses these tactics! Run, fast and far away!

I also like their disclaimer at the bottom basically saying that their services are not legal in nature. Guess cherry learned something in all his years scamming people with hess!

Allegro, Hess, or whatever you names you choose to go by, heed my warning:

I plan to spend my spare time investigating you. Your names, your company's public records, your lawyers' bar-numbers, finding out who is actually who, where your guises and minions do business, etc.

You can rest-assured the first inkling i have that you are in violation of anything from jay-walking to fraud, you will be owned by the attorney general of whatever state you're operating in.

Lets see what the other states do with her. As far as Cherry he has numerous sites and has been conning people for about 10 years so he is well aware what he is doing. That criminal network is VERY large. A lot of these companies are loosely connected.

Good luck in your crusade. I've checked extensively on Hess Kennedy and I've found out that it's just so large and so many people involved. Too many fake companies and fronts to keep track of.

How do I know if my debt has been eliminated through Capital One. Do I have to contact them directly or just take a look at my credit report?

Yes you do Amanda1973. They might have sold your account. Call the new Lawyers on the Hess Kennedy site.

For a person who has been in this industry fro nearly 8yrs I can tell you that mainly these places serve as a safe haven for consumers to sit back and not receive calls and etc.
However if you are a consumer who is commited to eliminate your debt and make a substantial payment and the debt sif co is not taking massive amounts of this to take care of the fees then yes they are helpful.
As a person myself who has come into financial complications for whatever reason, I have never needed to settle my debt but maybe borrowers need to be held responsible for the actions of charging and not paying. getting another job letting go of something they really cant afford or other avenues of reducing the debt load they have financially going out.
Bottom line is you can do this yourself but education is the key. If you dont know what you are doing it is important to research your help and then make sure that you are commited to any porgram you put yourself or another company put you in.

Settlement co's and also borrower's need to be held accountable they need to not sign up people who really have no money to accomplish there goals -- just so they can collect fees, and borrower's need to sign up for this to elimate the debt not eliminate the calls and responsiblity!

thanks for the sermon preacher.nobody wanted or needed to hear it,but thanks for sharing. :roll:

Collections Agent,

Why should people who are in debt pay it back if they cant. Look at our US Government. National Debt over a Trillion Dollars. They say they are going to pay it back but that will never happen in yours, mine, and my grandkids grandkids kids. We all make mistakes and I'm trying to pay back what I owe. But When you add fees that build up over thousands of dollars of money that Bank Does not have thats bullshit. If I were to go to JP morgan and say I want to see 1 billion dollar in cash I guarantee they could not come up with it because 97% of the money in this country is in computers,stock, etc.
Only 3% of cash is in actual physical form.

I know what its like to get screwed. I have people borrow money from me and not pay it back. It sucks. But Its not like I added up thousands of dollars that I'm not going to get back. The Fee's sometimes are outrageous anyways. If I have a late payment because my bill got lost in the mail and I think about one day and call and they say oh it was late now your IR goes up to 20% and you owe us odd amount of dollars its bullshit.

Oh didn't all these borrowers get bailed out with a 700 billion dollar package. You can say your a collections agent but you are just as much as a hippocrate as we are because all those banks are borrowing more money then anyone on this website will ever see. They need help. We need help. Pay it forward not backward

What does that long drawn out speech have anything to do with Hess Kennedy? What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this forum is now dumber for having read it. May God have mercy on your soul.

LOL. A simple wrong answer would have been suffiecient but Okay.

Yea ...I got one a few days ago....any you cannot trust anuone anymore. I paid over $6000...they said you might get it or close to the amount back.

Best Of Luck to us PDH. I really need to get that money back. I can't believe how unfair this situation has gotten. Amazing how people can scam the system and still get to walk away with it with money that is offshore. Such BS

Can anyone tell me the connection between JW Mezey Associates and the rest of the gang that's going down.......YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!