Articles by deBanked Staff

More Individuals Expected to Be Criminally Charged in 1 Global Capital Case

November 30, 2019

Federal prosecutors have asked a Court to consolidate criminal cases against 1 Global Capital defendants Alan Heide and Jan D. Atlas on the basis that there is substantial overlap between them and that additional individuals are expected to be charged. “Considerable judicial resources may be conserved if, going forward, a single judge is chosen to preside over all 1 Global-related cases,” prosecutors argue. The number of forthcoming defendants was not revealed but has been described as “multiple additional co-conspirators.”

The case, far from over, is being characterized as an active investigation.

Heide, 1 Global’s former CFO, pled guilty on August 23, 2019. He is scheduled to be sentenced on December 18th. Atlas, an attorney who provided fraudulent legal cover for 1 Global via knowingly false opinion letters, pled guilty to 1 count of securities fraud in October. He is scheduled to be sentenced on January 10th.

Hallandale Beach-based 1 Global Capital was once ranked among the largest alternative small business funders by deBanked. That all changed in July 2018 with a sudden bankruptcy filing that revealed concurrent investigations being carried out by the SEC and a US Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors are calling the company a multi-faceted securities fraud and Ponzi scheme that victimized at least 3,600 investors across the country. While the company took in more than $330 million, $100 million of it is expected to be returned to investors through a bankruptcy court liquidation.

The company’s former chairman and CEO has already consented to judgment with the SEC and agreed to be liable for disgorgement of $32,587,166 + $1,517,273 in interest and a civil penalty of $15,000,000. Shortly thereafter, the SEC reported that he had satisfied the judgment in full with the exception of the stipulation that he sell his condo. Although he has not been criminally charged, prosecutors say that Heide and Atlas both ultimately took direction from, and reported to the company’s former chairman and CEO.

Individuals familiar with the firm may recall that 1 Global Capital was previously reported as being named 1st Global Capital. However, another company bearing the same name sued them for trademark infringment. Since then, news related to the South Florida ponzi scheme have referred to the company by its legal name, 1 Global Capital, LLC.

Fast and Furious Funders – At The Canadian Lenders Association’s Venture Debt Summit

November 30, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

Fast and Furious Funders was the name of a panel at the Venture Debt Summit hosted by the Canadian Lenders Association on October 23, 2019. Panelists included:

Karanjit Bhugra, Managing Director, Deloitte Corporate Finance
Jyotin Handa, Director of Finance, Espresso Capital
Tanay Delima, Co-Founder, Clearbanc
Keren Moynihan, Co-Founder, Boss Insights

You can watch the video of the panel below:

Broker Fair / Black Friday ONE-DAY ONLY Special Price

November 28, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

Broker Fair Returns to New York City on May 18, 2020. Take advantage of this special ONE-DAY only discount code and get 29% OFF THE EARLY BIRD PRICE. This incredible deal ends at 11:59pm EST on 11/29/19.

Promo code: brokerfair29
Register here

Broker Fair’s two previous annual events sold out in advance. Hundreds of brokers from the commercial financing, merchant cash advance, and small business lending industries will be in attendance this year. See you at Broker Fair!

Happy Thanksgiving. It’s Meme Time!

November 27, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

Happy Thanksgiving. You know what that means! deBanked original memes! Here’s the latest:

SEE ALL THE MEMES FROM PREVIOUS YEARS!
2017 1: The State of The Industry (In Memes)
2017 2: Take a Break From Funding This Thanksgiving
2016: The History of Alternative Finance (As Told Through Memes)
2013: 10 Clues You’re Hardcore About Merchant Cash Advance

SEE ALL OF OUR PREVIOUS THANKSGIVING POSTS!
2018
2017
2016
2012

Merchant Infamous For Safari-Themed Home, Has Died

November 18, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

The saga of Michael Willhoit has come to an end. deBanked wrote about Willhoit in December 2018 when we learned he defaulted on nearly half a million dollars in merchant cash advance transactions and was sued by banks over $4.5 million in bad loan deals. This past June he was also indicted on 36 counts of bank fraud.

But on Sunday, Willhoit passed away of natural causes, the Springfield News-Leader reported. He was 66.

Willhoit’s local notoriety gained somewhat national interest thanks to his fully-customized multimillion dollar safari-themed home, dubbed “The African Queen.” Willhoit told a News-Leader reporter in 2016 that he spent $3 million renovating the Sprinfield, MO property including $400,000 for a 900-square-foot wood floor and $300,000 for landscaping. Other notable items on the property included:

Two roaring lion masks
Two 7-foot tall hand-carved wooden tusks
An eight-legged genuine impala horn zebra-hide chair
A 15-foot African warrior statue
A 3,000-pound (approximately) bronze rhino
Four gazelle taxidermy mounts
A baboon, full-body mount

Willhoit’s criminal trial was scheduled for July 2020.

You can still view a virtual video tour of his home below:

IOU Financial Originated $41.4M in Loans in Q3, Continued Profitability

November 14, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

IOU Financial originated $41.4M in business loans in Q3, according to the company’s latest published financial statements. The figure is a modest increase over Q2’s $38.5M. IOU also kept up its trend of profitability with net income $1M.

Shares of IOU, which trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, are valued at around (CAD) 14 cents and equate to a market cap of approximately (CAD) $14M.

Funding Circle UK Referring Some Large Loan Applicants to Competitors

November 11, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

Funding Circle UK has begun to refer applicants seeking an amount above their maximum loan size limit of £500,000 to Iwoca, MarketInvoice and French bank BNP Paribas, The Sunday Times reported. Previously, Funding Circle would just turn them away.

2019 Top 25 Executive Leaders in Lending – Canadian Lenders Association – Presented By BMO

November 11, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

The Canadian Lenders Assocation (CLA) received 124 nominations for these awards from leaders in lending across the country. The CLA’s goal is to support access to credit in the Canadian marketplace and champion the companies and entrepreneurs who are leading innovations in this industry.

The Top 25 ﬁnalists in this report represent various innovations in the borrower’s journey from innovations in artiﬁcial intelligence powered credit modelling to breakthroughs in consumer identity management using blockchain technologies. These ﬁnalists also represent solutions for a wide spectrum of borrower maturity and needs, ranging from consumer credit rebuilding all the way to senior debt placements for global technology ventures.

See The Leading Companies Report Here

See The Leading Executives Report Here

	Mark Cashin CEO of myBrokerBee \| Ontario After a career in commercial ﬁnance and being CEO of Transpor, Mark Co-founded myBrokerBee a mortgage broker platform that provides transparency to private lenders and their clients.
	Avinash Chidambaram CEO of Ario Platform \| Ontario Through his experience as Product lead at Interac and Blackberry, Avinash has helped bring together an accomplished and talented group of experts in Data Science, Machine Learning, Security, Software Development to successfully develop this banking services software platform Ario.
	Evan Chrapko CEO of Trust Science \| Alberta Evan is the founder and CEO of Trust Science, a leader in organizing alternative credit data. As a saas founder and CEO, Evan has done over 500mm in startup exits.
	Kevin Clark President of Lendified \| Ontario Kevin is a recognized leader in the ﬁnancial services industry with over 30 years of experience. Kevin has helped create the voice of Canada’s SME lending ecosystem through his leadership of Lendiﬁed and the CLA.
	Jerome Dwight VP of Cox Automotive \| Ontario Jerome established Nextgear Capital in Canada to become the largest specialty ﬁnance company in the automotive sector. Jerome is a Globe & Mail 40 under 40 winner and previously lead RBC’s international wealth management, private banking and asset servicing business.
	Saul Fine CEO of Innovative Assessmer \| Israel Saul is a licensed organizational psychologist and psychometrician, and a former lecturer in psychology at the University of Haifa. Saul is a global leader in the use of psychometric data for credit scoring and ﬁnancial inclusion.
	David Gens CEO of Merchant Growth \| BC David is the Founder and CEO of Merchant Growth, which grew from its humble beginnings in his apartment to ofﬁces in both Toronto and Vancouver. David now leads one of Canada’s largest online small business ﬁnance companies.
	Bryan Jaskolka COO of CMI \| Ontario Nominated for the 2018 Mortgage Broker of the Year, Bryan Jaskolka is an expert in Canadian mortgage ﬁnancing with a particular focus on the alternative lending space and mortgage investing.
	Peter Kalen CEO of Flexiti \| Ontario Peter is a leader in Canada’s retail ﬁnancing market. Before founding Flexiti, Peter was in senior leadership positions at Citi, PC Financial, and Sears Canada. Flexiti was recently named #7 on the Deloitte Fast50.
	Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf CEO of Flinks \| Quebec Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf is the co-founder and CEO of Flinks. Under his leadership, Flinks has become a Canadian leader in banking data enablement.
	Derek Manuge CEO of Corl \| Ontario Derek, also known as the “the quant from Canada” is the founder of the data-driven venture ﬁrm, Corl. Corl is one of Canada’s leaders in the use revenue-share ﬁnancing models.
	Keren Moynihan CEO of Boss Insights \| Ontario Keren Moynihan is co-founder and CEO of Boss Insights, a company that uses big data and AI to accelerate lending from months to minutes. With a Joint JD/MBA, Keren has a diverse background as a commercial banker, wealth manager and former founder of an impact startup.
	Jason Mullins CEO of Goeasy \| Ontario Jason is President and CEO of goeasy, a publicly listed consumer lender. Jason has lead the company to become one of the largest and most innovative lenders in the country.
	Paul Pitcher CEO of SharpShooter Funding \| Ontario After founding First Down Funding, an alternative lending ﬁrm for SMEs in Baltimore, Paul expanded his business to Canada through the subsidiary Sharpshooter Funding.
	Brendan Playford & Cate Rung Co-Founders of Pngme \| USA Cate, ex-Uber and Brendan, a blockchain and agro-ﬁnance entrepreneur are the co-founders of Pngme, an alternative lending platform for ﬁnancial institutions in emerging markets who serve Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises.
	Wayne Pommen CEO of Paybright \| Ontario Wayne is the President and CEO of PayBright. Wayne is also a director of IOU Financial Inc and of HBC. Previously, Wayne was a Principal at TorQuest Partners, one of Canada’s leading private equity ﬁrms, and a management consultant with Bain & Company in the UK, the US, and Canada.
	Adam Reeds CEO of Ledn \| Ontario Adam is a pioneer and thought leader in the digital asset backed lending space. Ledn is focused on building innovative ﬁnancial products in the emerging digital asset space, with a focused mission to help people save more in bitcoin.
	Adam Rice CEO of LoanConnect \| Ontario Adam has played a pivotal role in building one of the largest online markets in Canada for unsecured loans.
	Mark Ruddock CEO of BFS Capital \| Ontario Mark is an experienced international CEO with two successful exits and over 20 years of experience at the helm of VC backed technology and ﬁntech startups. In 2019 Mark announced BFS Capital’s expansion to Canada with a new 50 engineer data science hub in the heart of Toronto.
	Vlad Sherbatov President of Smarter Loans \| Ontario Vlad Co-founded Smarter Loans in 2016 with the goal of helping Canadians make smarter ﬁnancial decisions. Since then, Vlad has grown the platform into one of the go-to resources for Canadian borrowers.
	Steven Uster CEO of FundThrough \| Ontario Steven is the Co-Founder & CEO of FundThrough, an invoice funding service that helps business owners eliminate “the wait” associated with payment terms by giving them the power and ﬂexibility to get their invoices paid when they want, with one click, and in as little as 24 hours.
	Dmitry Voronenko CEO of Turnkey Lender\| Singapore Dmitry, CEO and Co-founder of TurnKey Lender, holds a PhD in Artiﬁcial Intelligence. Dmitry was recently named SFA’s Fintech Leader of the year.
	Neil Wechsler CEO of Ondeck Canada \| Quebec Neil brieﬂy practiced law before becoming President and CEO of Optimal Group Inc. where he grew the company from a start-up to a leading NASDAQ-listed self-checkout and payments company. Neil later co-founded Evolocity, which in 2019 became OnDeck Canada.
	Michael Wendland CEO of Refresh \| BC Michael has led Refresh Financial’s rapid growth since its founding in 2013, including a recent ranking of number 40 on Deloitte’s Fast 500.

	Mark Cashin CEO of myBrokerBee \| Ontario After a career in commercial ﬁnance and being CEO of Transpor, Mark Co-founded myBrokerBee a mortgage broker platform that provides transparency to private lenders and their clients.
	Avinash Chidambaram CEO of Ario Platform \| Ontario Through his experience as Product lead at Interac and Blackberry, Avinash has helped bring together an accomplished and talented group of experts in Data Science, Machine Learning, Security, Software Development to successfully develop this banking services software platform Ario.
	Evan Chrapko CEO of Trust Science \| Alberta Evan is the founder and CEO of Trust Science, a leader in organizing alternative credit data. As a saas founder and CEO, Evan has done over 500mm in startup exits.
	Kevin Clark President of Lendified \| Ontario Kevin is a recognized leader in the ﬁnancial services industry with over 30 years of experience. Kevin has helped create the voice of Canada’s SME lending ecosystem through his leadership of Lendiﬁed and the CLA.
	Jerome Dwight VP of Cox Automotive \| Ontario Jerome established Nextgear Capital in Canada to become the largest specialty ﬁnance company in the automotive sector. Jerome is a Globe & Mail 40 under 40 winner and previously lead RBC’s international wealth management, private banking and asset servicing business.
	Saul Fine CEO of Innovative Assessmer \| Israel Saul is a licensed organizational psychologist and psychometrician, and a former lecturer in psychology at the University of Haifa. Saul is a global leader in the use of psychometric data for credit scoring and ﬁnancial inclusion.
	David Gens CEO of Merchant Growth \| BC David is the Founder and CEO of Merchant Growth, which grew from its humble beginnings in his apartment to ofﬁces in both Toronto and Vancouver. David now leads one of Canada’s largest online small business ﬁnance companies.
	Bryan Jaskolka COO of CMI \| Ontario Nominated for the 2018 Mortgage Broker of the Year, Bryan Jaskolka is an expert in Canadian mortgage ﬁnancing with a particular focus on the alternative lending space and mortgage investing.
	Peter Kalen CEO of Flexiti \| Ontario Peter is a leader in Canada’s retail ﬁnancing market. Before founding Flexiti, Peter was in senior leadership positions at Citi, PC Financial, and Sears Canada. Flexiti was recently named #7 on the Deloitte Fast50.
	Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf CEO of Flinks \| Quebec Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf is the co-founder and CEO of Flinks. Under his leadership, Flinks has become a Canadian leader in banking data enablement.
	Derek Manuge CEO of Corl \| Ontario Derek, also known as the “the quant from Canada” is the founder of the data-driven venture ﬁrm, Corl. Corl is one of Canada’s leaders in the use revenue-share ﬁnancing models.
	Keren Moynihan CEO of Boss Insights \| Ontario Keren Moynihan is co-founder and CEO of Boss Insights, a company that uses big data and AI to accelerate lending from months to minutes. With a Joint JD/MBA, Keren has a diverse background as a commercial banker, wealth manager and former founder of an impact startup.
	Jason Mullins CEO of Goeasy \| Ontario Jason is President and CEO of goeasy, a publicly listed consumer lender. Jason has lead the company to become one of the largest and most innovative lenders in the country.
	Paul Pitcher CEO of SharpShooter Funding \| Ontario After founding First Down Funding, an alternative lending ﬁrm for SMEs in Baltimore, Paul expanded his business to Canada through the subsidiary Sharpshooter Funding.
	Brendan Playford & Cate Rung Co-Founders of Pngme \| USA Cate, ex-Uber and Brendan, a blockchain and agro-ﬁnance entrepreneur are the co-founders of Pngme, an alternative lending platform for ﬁnancial institutions in emerging markets who serve Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises.
	Wayne Pommen CEO of Paybright \| Ontario Wayne is the President and CEO of PayBright. Wayne is also a director of IOU Financial Inc and of HBC. Previously, Wayne was a Principal at TorQuest Partners, one of Canada’s leading private equity ﬁrms, and a management consultant with Bain & Company in the UK, the US, and Canada.
	Adam Reeds CEO of Ledn \| Ontario Adam is a pioneer and thought leader in the digital asset backed lending space. Ledn is focused on building innovative ﬁnancial products in the emerging digital asset space, with a focused mission to help people save more in bitcoin.
	Adam Rice CEO of LoanConnect \| Ontario Adam has played a pivotal role in building one of the largest online markets in Canada for unsecured loans.
	Mark Ruddock CEO of BFS Capital \| Ontario Mark is an experienced international CEO with two successful exits and over 20 years of experience at the helm of VC backed technology and ﬁntech startups. In 2019 Mark announced BFS Capital’s expansion to Canada with a new 50 engineer data science hub in the heart of Toronto.
	Vlad Sherbatov President of Smarter Loans \| Ontario Vlad Co-founded Smarter Loans in 2016 with the goal of helping Canadians make smarter ﬁnancial decisions. Since then, Vlad has grown the platform into one of the go-to resources for Canadian borrowers.
	Steven Uster CEO of FundThrough \| Ontario Steven is the Co-Founder & CEO of FundThrough, an invoice funding service that helps business owners eliminate “the wait” associated with payment terms by giving them the power and ﬂexibility to get their invoices paid when they want, with one click, and in as little as 24 hours.
	Dmitry Voronenko CEO of Turnkey Lender\| Singapore Dmitry, CEO and Co-founder of TurnKey Lender, holds a PhD in Artiﬁcial Intelligence. Dmitry was recently named SFA’s Fintech Leader of the year.
	Neil Wechsler CEO of Ondeck Canada \| Quebec Neil brieﬂy practiced law before becoming President and CEO of Optimal Group Inc. where he grew the company from a start-up to a leading NASDAQ-listed self-checkout and payments company. Neil later co-founded Evolocity, which in 2019 became OnDeck Canada.
	Michael Wendland CEO of Refresh \| BC Michael has led Refresh Financial’s rapid growth since its founding in 2013, including a recent ranking of number 40 on Deloitte’s Fast 500.