Articles by Sean Murray

Fundry’s Isaac Stern Hosts Successful Fundraiser for Hatzalah of Union County

‘Tis the season of giving for Fundry’s Isaac Stern and the dozens of folks that attended the December 5th winter fundraiser at his home in Hillside, New Jersey. The event, which served up 550 pounds of barbecue and included a Scotch taste testing bar hosted by representatives of Glenfiddich, raised over $60,000 for Hatzalah of Union County, a local non-profit all-volunteer emergency medical service organization.

Founded in 2004, Hatzalah EMS provides basic life support in medical emergency situations. They cover Union County NJ including the towns of Elizabeth, Hillside, Union, Roselle and Linden. Today, Hatzalah is staffed with 3 ambulances, 24 EMTs and 18 dispatchers all under the medical direction of a physician and two paramedics.

Hatzalah Chief Yudi Abraham told deBanked that Yellowstone Capital (a Fundry subsidiary) has been a long-time supporter of their organization. A few years ago, when the squad was undergoing a transition of directors, Chief Abraham reached out to Isaac Stern for financial help. At the time, Hatzalah was in serious need of replacing an older ambulance as well as covering monthly operating expenses. “Isaac didn’t waste any time and sprang right into action,” says Chief Abraham. “He immediately convened his employees and his associates and came through for us in a huge way.” Yellowstone Capital raised the funds in under two days for Hatzalah to buy a fairly used ambulance. Ever since then, Stern and Chief Abraham have been working closely together to ensure that other expenses were covered. Over the years, Yellowstone Capital has helped donate the funds to purchase two additional ambulances that currently make up Hatzalah’s fleet. The Yellowstone Capital name appears on the side of each of them.

The most recent event kicked off with a $10,000 personal donation from Stern, prompting others to give too while enjoying the festivities.

“With the help of Yellowstone Capital we are able to maintain our level of service and continue providing the best possible emergency care for our patients,” said Chief Chaim Cillo. “We at Hatzalah will forever be most appreciative for such an incredible company that cares and gives back to the community in such a large way.”

Stern and Yellowstone were also presented an award for their continued generosity.

Chief Yudi Abraham (left) and Fundry CEO Isaac Stern (right)

In attendance at the event were Fundry employees, friends, family members, and others from the non-bank finance industry.

From left to right: Andrew Hernandez of Central Diligence Group, Sean Murray of deBanked, and Andy McDonald of Yellowstone Capital/Fundry

Michael Samuels (left) and Steve Weinrib (right) both of Yellowstone Capital/Fundry

Hatzalah means “rescue” or “relief” in Hebrew and for many guests the event fell on the eve of the Hanukkah holiday. The volunteer EMS crew of course helps all people in need of care.

“Our pay,” said Chief Abraham, “is helping our patients and saving lives.”

Google Serves Low Blow to Merchant Cash Advance Seekers

Almost eighteen months ago, I explored whether or not Google was rigging the search results to benefit two lending companies they had equity investments in, Lending Club and OnDeck. At the time, both companies ranked at the top for highly coveted keywords even if they weren’t directly related to the user’s search query.

Now that those two companies are public, a company called Credit Karma seems to have inherited the top spots. And wouldn’t you know it, Google has also invested in them.

Google: loans
Google: personal loan

But that’s not the worst of it. Thanks (or no thanks rather!) to a relatively new search result feature called “People Also Ask,” one keyword recently started serving up results with a different kind of hidden agenda.

While my captured results may not be identical for everyone, I have conducted tests with other people on other devices and from other areas and it was present each time. With this box, Google is subtly planting the negative seed that payday loans and merchant cash advances are basically so identical that other people just like you are wondering what the difference between the two are. But here’s the rub, the two have nothing to do with each other and it’s unlikely so many people are asking that.

Pay no mind to the fact that the box makes reference to a “cash advance” not a “merchant cash advance.” The painstaking mishap could be innocently chalked up to an algorithmic error if only googling just cash advance revealed the same box in the results. But it doesn’t. Only merchant cash advance brings this up.

Comparing merchant cash advances to payday loans is straight out of the anti-merchant cash advance propaganda playbook. At least one Google-owned business lending company is actively lobbying against short term business lending and merchant cash advances in Washington so the placement and comparison of the People Also Ask box in their results is highly suspicious.

It’s no secret that Google is also directly lobbying in the online lending space too. One month ago, right before Google magically started to suggest to searchers that merchant cash advances and payday loans were related, Google formed a lobbying organization called Financial Innovation Now with Amazon and Apple. On their main agenda is online lending.

Given the suspicious search rankings for companies they have an equity stake in, I would not doubt for a second that something like this was manually inserted. I admit that my evidence and my case are weak, but given the circumstances, it’s quite possible there’s something deliberate happening here.

What do you think? Do you see this when you google merchant cash advance?