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     STRUCTURED SETTLEMENT WATCHDOG®


Deception has been the name of the game with Einsteinstructuredsettlements.com, AnnuitySold.com, as they exploit a vast regulatory gap in the structured settlement secondary market.  It's hard to take any brand associated with Owings Mills,  MD and  Washington DC area based JRR Funding (e.g. Einstein Structured Settlements, Greenspring Funding, Edison Funding, AnnuitySold,  Uber Funding, Sell-structured-settlement.com, getastructuredsettlement(dot)com) and structured settlements seriously,  since research revealed the use of fake testimonials, fake BBB seals,  made for SEO fake seminars advertised in business journals and online newspapers and inaccurate content associated with one or more of these sites.

JRR Funding's "website companies".  Fake academic credentials.  Fake testimonials.


"Website companies" are websites made to look as if they are real companies. One of them, Einstein Structured Settlements ( sometimes referred to as Einstein Structured Funding), was a notable example of a purported company using fake credentials and paid video reviews.  Its founder, " Ryan Einstein'" (one of the pseudonyms for Owings Mills MD amateur poker player and gold dealer Ryan Blank), who was falsely promoted in late 2012 and early 2013 as a PhD and LLM from Yale University. Contact with the the Yale registrar's office proved the claim to be a complete fabrication, as was another reference regarding attendance at UCLA. Ryan Blank, is a graduate of College of Charleston in Charleston, SC. The Structured Settlement Watchdog® was able to determine that two video testimonials were posted in October 2012 (still live), at a time Einstein Structured Settlements had yet to do a deal, according to a conversation I had with Ryan Blank's father Barry Blank. They were later determined to be undisclosed paid reviews. One testimonial claimed that an annuitant raised money from the sale of her structured settlement to buy a Bentley and ocean front property in Miami. Anyone with knowledge of the Florida Structured Settlement Protection Act would have reason to be skeptical of such claims. Even the laziest of judicial reviews would have raised an eyebrow. The supposed Latine client was later discovered by research, to be a paid Fiverr actress named Fabiola/Pinkkoala.  For those not familiar with Fiverr, it is an online outsource platform where you pay $5 (or a very nominal amount of money) for "a la carte "web related services Unfortunately many folks are not knowledgeable and may therefore be vulnerable to the dreadful attempt by Einstein's ownership to influence consumers under false pretenses.  The behavior of those that control Einstein Structured Settlements is notable because they continually demonstrate no desire to correct the stunning level of inaccuracy on their websites.


AnnuitySold's Bogus Claim of Being Licensed to Purchase Annuity Payments  in All 50 States

AnnuitySold(dot).com, a newer "website company" associated with Ryan Blank and Owings Mills high school chum Richart Ruddie,   has made the outrageous claim that the company is licensed and qualified in all 50 states to purchase annuity payments.  Simply not true. There is no such licensing or regulation of settlement purchasers.  There should be. That's not all, As of August 2016 the AnnuitySold website is triggered malicious code warnings from McAfee and Norton, two popular cyber-security software publishers.

In late 2013, Einstein Structured Settlements began flooding the internet with web pages displaying repetitive content, save the name of virtually every city, town and hamlet in the United States, in a locations.einsteinstructuredsettlements sub-domain of its website.  A survey of two  states, via the Secretaries of State for New York and Connecticut, showed no active registration for Einstein Structured Settlements; and no registration ever for that matter. 

Einstein Structured Settlements also selectively created numerous web pages associating its competitors' brands with the words "scam" and "complaints". There is also evidence that the promoters of Einstein Structured Settlements placed comment spam on the consumer complaint site Rip Off Report for marketing purposes.  That's unfortunately the world we live in. In early 2014 calls to Einstein Structured Settlements toll-free number resolved to Atlanta based "cash now pusher" Fairfield Funding.  A call at the beginning of June 2014 reconfirmed this.  On July 15, 2014 a call to Einstein Structured Settlements' 888-497-0724 number was returned from 202-417-2122 with the caller ID JRR Funding.  The JRR Funding website was subsequently discovered as a sub directory to an Einstein Structured Settlement website. The website conclusively shows the material involvement of Richart Ruddie and Ryan Blank in the entity, despite denials. In January 2015 I discovered a December 6, 2013 Prezi presentation created by Ryan Blank called JRR+Fairfield Success that detailed the "game plan"  between JRR Funding LLC,which is led by Ryan Blank, and Fairfield Funding including how scraping of court records was an integral part of the process of how customers were identified and acquired.

 Einstein Structured Settlements Settlement Planning Seminar Scam

In September 2014,  an associated brand Sell-structured-settlement.com was linked to a fake structured settlement sale seminar advertised on SanJose.com  [Read  San Francisco Structured Settlement Sale Seminar  SEO Motivated Fraud for details]. In late 2014 Einstein solicited tickets what proved to be a phantom structured settlement planning conference,purporting to be at the Holiday Inn downtown Chicago, IL. An ad was taken out in Crains Chicago and tickets were going for $675 for a purported 2 hour meeting.  There was no such event at the Holiday Inn according to the general manager of the hotel [Read Einstein Structured Settlements' Chicago Settlement Planning Seminar Fraud]. 

JRR Funding is associated with Edison Funding and Greenspring Funding as well as Einstein.  JRR Funding javascipt was found in the source code of these websites in February 2015.  On the one hand JRR's Einstein Structured Settlement alter ego trashes the Better Business Bureau referring to it as a "scam organization" while the other two websites post Better Business Bureau seals with non clickable links. Such links are intended to permit consumers to verify BBB membership. An independent search I made of the BBB local to the addresses stated on each of the websites shows no BBB memberships, drawing only one possible negative conclusion about JRR Funding and its website "offspring". 

Einstein Structured Settlements' Reviews of its competitors lack credibility, given its own fraudulent acts

Einstein's reviews of its competitors are primarily used to brandjack its competitors.   Why would anyone believe a review published by a brand like Einstein Structured Settlements, that has engaged in false advertising, fraudulent paid testimonials and has promoted fake credentials?   Not convinced? Now there's this...

Annuity Sold's Richart Ruddie Was Sensationally Exposed in National News Media for Google De-Indexing Scam of Google and Fraud on Rhode island Court, Had to Pay Money,  Plea Bargained in Criminal Case

In October 2016  JRR Funding and Annuity Sold's  Richart Ruddie was sensationally exposed in the Washington Post for being associated with the filing of phony lawsuits and alleged forgery of parties' names on legal documents to obtain take down orders used to get Google to remove/de-index, by UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, author of The Volokh Conspiracy, one of the top 10 all time leading legal blogs, and Paul Alan Levy of the Public Citizen Law Group .


See post by Paul Alan Levy on the Public Citizen blog entitled Dozens of suspicious court cases, with missing defendants, aim at getting web pages taken down or deindexed - CLP Blog (citizen.org)​. On January 31, 2017, a Rhode Island case was vacated and the court granted discovery to determine who paid the filing fee so that they could be pursued.  On March 14, 2017 it was announced in the Washington Post, that Richart Ruddie settled for $71,000 under the Rhode Island Anti-SLAPP statute. Also see Richart Ruddie Settles anti-SLAPP Claims, Makes Restitution; but the Guilty Companies Remain Unpunished | Casetext Reports. The Washington Post and The Public Citizen indicated that Ruddie was negotiating a plea bargain with the United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island in the criminal matter over the fraud. See April 13, 2017 sanctions order against Richart Ruddie. Attorney Paul Alan Levy of the Public Citizen Law Group submitted a May 11, 2017 amicus brief  as part of an effort to vacate a number of the phony consent orders allegedly orchestrated by Richart Ruddie inthe de-indexing scam, which provides some good background information.


There was a bizarre tie-in to Richart Ruddie's structured settlement purchasing companies  and associated persons involved with Ruddie. The papers in the phony Rhode Island case were delivered to a process server by an Annuity Sold email address and the check for the process server was drawn on the account of RIR1984 LLC which at the time the scam was discovered had Richart Ruddie and Ryan Blank, his Owings Mills high school classmate and colleague in JRR Funding, Annuity Sold and other entities.  RIR1984LLC was coincidentally  dissolved in October 2016, in the days around the Washington Post expose.


Then this​  Another Attempt to Vanish from Google Searches Materials About Attempts to Vanish Materials (reason.com)  May 5, 2022


Annuity Sold Made to Pay by Maryland AG in Crackdown on Structured Settlement Buyers


Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh announced January 8, 2018 that the Maryland AG Consumer Protection Division has entered into a settlement  following an investigation into Owings Mills based Annuity Sold, LLC , and its owners (Owings MIlls bred Ryan Blank and Richart Ruddie) and its affiliated companies that included hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial fines and restitution as well as a 7 year ban on doing Annuity Sold LLC and its affiliates from doing business in Maryland:

Uber Funding, LLC
Bendermere Capital Solutions, LLC
Axis Funding, LLC
Stonebridge Capital, LLC
Greenspring Funding, LLC 
LSG, LLC
Preak Street, LLC  [ Ruddie and Ryan Blank established in Florida 06/23/2014, using Ruddie's address in Ft Lauderdale, now use Washington DC ]    
ILILIL2010, LLC
Palantir Packaging, LLC
JRR Funding, LLC   [ Ruddie established 11/26/2012 in FL, listed as managing member, registrant of website]

The settlement resolves allegations that the above named Respondents violated the Maryland Consumer Protection Act by misleading injured Marylanders, some of whom are victims of lead paint poisoning, to convert future structured settlement payments into immediate cash. Read more here


Ryan Blank the Sequel | Settles with Victims Over Predatory Structured Settlement Factoring of Minors' Structured Settlements (2024)


"Ryan Blank and his (3 Delaware LLC) entities, agreed to pay $700,000 as part of the settlement, while SuttonPark Capital, the Florida firm that was set to receive (the Badger) girls’ future payments, agreed to fully reinstate the structured settlements"-  Source: McClatchey. In addition sums were recovered from the guardian ad litem and his law firm, the lawyer who provided independent professional advice and his law firm, the .lawyer for the factoring companies and his firm all contrinbuted to a mi=ulti million dollars settlement. Click above title to read John's commentary, which inlcudes a copy of the legal complaint..






Helped Correct Mischaracterization of Certified Structured Settlement Consultant (CSSC)

ON THIS PAGE  (Scroll down to read)

  • Ethics of a lawyer buying their client's structured settlement.
  • Helped uncover the undisclosed truth about the Aviva/CGU Capital Maintenance Agreement that the insurer used to sell more than 4,000 structured settlement annuities and outrageous conduct of the insurers in connection with the sale of Aviva's US operations to Athene Holdings.
  • Structured Settlement Factoring Companies Einstein Structured Settlements/ JRR Funding/ Annuity Sold and Principals Business Practices Exposed
  • Exposed Sovereign Funding Group and David Springer, the Mt. Airy Faker, who later admitted in trial testimony that he made up a world of fake employees to make his company seem bigger. when it was just a sole proprietorship.
  • Exposing Fake Paid Testimonials by Structured Settlement Payment Buyers that were falsely portayed as real customers
  • Exposed Structured Settlement Factoring Company Buyers who charged Allstate structured settlement annuitants a discount rate that exceeded the 8% standard AFEN rate.
  • Exposed Structured Settlement Broker who solicited business from trial lawyers using a dubious "testimonial" from 2007 Presidential candidate John Edwards who could not have used the firm as his purported testimonial alleged
  • Helped correct then rampant industry puffery of a professional credential in consumer facing advertising.


In mid 2011, internet search for structured settlements was dominated by pages and pages of gibberish titles and descriptions peppered with structured settlement and structured settlement industry related key words, including the names of companies,  On its face the search results were of little utility to consumers. However when a frustrated user clicked on any of the links, for some period of time the user was redirected to webuypayments.net a domain that at the time was associated with David Springer. .When I questioned Springer about it in July 2011, he sluffed it of as if it was Google's doing and the issue persisted until Springer and his company were sued by Springer competitors,  first by JG Wentworth and a month later by Woodbridge Structured Funding. The Wentworth case, filed in Frederick County MD, settled in March 2012 and the Woodbridge case, filed in Maryland District Court, went all the way to trial in August 2014, before a Judge rendered a decision against the Mt Airy MD resident for liabilty and monetary damages.  At the same time of the webuypayments scheme, David Springer and Sovereign Funding Group worked with a company out of Florida and St. Louis,  producing commercials, one of which used a $5 actress off the FIverr.com website to fraudulently promote David Springer as a lawyer, when he was not.


David Springer Cited by Maryland Federal Judge Garbis for Questionable Business Methods After Trial


In his April 2015 Decisions of Law and Findings of Fact,  then Maryland Federal District Court judge Marvin Garbis found that in or about 2003, David Springer began operating a sole proprietorship in the structured settlement (factoring) business under the Sovereign (Funding Group) name. By the fall of 2011 and continuing thereafter, David Springer had utilized and/or was using questionable business methods, including:

  • Falsely claiming that Sovereign was a corporation.
  • Springer fraudulently misrepresenting (in various contexts, including sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn and to the Better Business Bureau) Sovereign as a corporation, and fraudulently misrepresenting as real persons who were officers of Sovereign,that were just fictitious persons created by David Springer.
  • Falsely claiming that Sovereign itself was a purchaser of structured settlements rather than merely a broker.
  • Utilizing the website with the address www.webuypayments.net and other websites anonymously connected to it to redirect Internet inquiries intended for competitors to the Sovereign website.  [ in the footnote the court acknowledged that David Springer denied that he owned or controlled the websites utilized in Internet redirects to webuypayments.net. The registrations of these domains are “private” and anonymous. However, based upon its evaluation of David Springer’s testimony and the fact that the beneficiary of the redirects was David Springer, the Court finds that David Springer owned, or at least controlled, these websites"
  • The Maryland District Court also found that "at some time prior to October 2011, Woodbridge became aware that David Springer was (1) utilizing the webuypayments.net website to redirect to his own Sovereign website Internet users who would otherwise have been connected with Woodbridge, and (2) using deceptive search engine optimization (“SEO”) techniques that resulted in search engine results combining Woodbridge’s name with derogatory terms such as “funding lie,” “funding scam,” and “funding complaint.”

David Springer Engaged in Reputation Manipulation


David Springer's vivid imagination led to the creation of numerous aliases and fictitious characters or sock puppets, all of whom supposedly worked for the judicially determined "purported company",  Sovereign Funding Group. The purported individuals, sported purported academic credentials promoted on line in public facing social media, did not check out when the academic institutions were contacted. Among the sock puppets that David Springer deployed was  President "James Goldstein",  whose LinkedIn and Google Plus profiles displayed stock photos of a middle-aged businessman. [Credit to Ohio insurance broker Todd Associates for the heads up.  Todd Associates used the same stock photo  that  Sovereign Funding/David Springer was holding out as its chief executive].  The fictiotious characters David Springer created, actually appeared to communicate with each other like 'finger puppets" and endorsed one another on LinkedIn to enhance David Springer's dastardly deception, in public facing social media. Coincidentally the fabrication of education credentials for both of the Maryland actors' aliases "Ryan Einstein" and  "James Goldstein",  involved a false claim of a degree (or degrees in the case of Einstein) from Yale.  

Almost two years after being put on notice about David Springer's hijinks with respect to the Sovereign Funding Group BBB listing, on June 15, 2015,  almost one year after the trial and more than two months after the judge's decision finding against Springer, the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland continued to give the defunct David Springer purported company its highest rating, underscoring just how unreliable the BBB of Greater Maryland was for structured settlement consumers during thsi period.  Coincidentally BBB of Greater MD only took action in August 2015 after I excoriated them for their inaction on the blog following multiple notices.


What Was Learned about Sovereign Funding Group and David Springer During The Course of The Woodbridge Structured Funding Litigation against David Springer 2011-2015.

In June 2012 David Springer and Sovereign Funding stated in their June 25, 2012 answer to the Woodbridge complaint [MD 1:11-cv-03421-MJG  Doc 30] that the company had ceased operations, yet the website continued to operate purportedly under the direction of fictitious character "James Goldstein" at an address that later proved to be a UPS store mailbox in Rockville Maryland purchased by David Springer, in June 2012!  David Springer also continued to use a Sovereign Funding Group email address AFTER the time he and Sovereign Funding  claimed that the company ceased operations. [Note : The inconsistent timelines in a 2016 publication by David Springer himself on Linkedin raises the spectre that perjury may have been committed]


David Springer engaged in Reputation Manipulation and apparently lied so much that he had a hard time keeping track of his timelines or "plot lines".

  • In 2015, a Rip Off Report Complaint attributed to David Springer complains of being ripped off after paying $3,000 to a Romanian bot vendor for the purpose of manufacturing likes on Facebook, You Tube and other social media to boost rankings. Just another shameful add-on to Springer's legacy of deceit.
  • Springer has demonstrated adept skills at "musical timelines" with Linkedin. iIn his August 2016 LinkedIn profile, David Springer lists CEO Sovereign Funding GroupSeptember 2006 – August 2013 (7 years) Washington D.C. Metro Area.
  • In his current Linkedin, David Springer omits his Sovereign Funding legacy
  • In his 2013 LinkedIn profile (retrieved 7/29/2013) David Springer  listed his title as President of Sovereign Funding from February 2002- December 2011 (9 years 11 months) followed by 1 years and 1 months as " Transition Consultant", ending in December 2012. Springer also purportedly had 10 endorsements for investments, one of which was from a Linkedin profile for "Sandy Jackson, one of the half dozen or so fictitious employees that David Springer later testified that he created.
  • In his 2012 LinkedIn profile  (retrieved 11/26/2012) David Springer had only 3 endorsements.
  • A press release issued by a company hired by Springer in August 2011 claimed he had been in business for 15 years! [ See The David Springer TIme Line-1 The Math Doesn't Work  June 12, 2014]

Springer's math never seems to add up. [Then when the same LinkedIn profile was accessed in March 2017, there were further changes in the timeline].


David Springer includes years that David Springer (1) submitted in June 25, 2012 court filings that the Sovereign Funding had ceased operations (see bullet point immediately above) and (2) a time frame that David Springer claimed not to be in business in an appeal of a legal decision in favor of Erie Insurance Group to the Maryland Court of Appeals , Erie Insurance Group was David Springer's homeowner insurer from whom Springer was attempting to be reimbursed for the cost of defending himself against JG Wentworth's defamation lawsuit against him that was filed in Frederick County MD in October 2011. Moreover, (3) David Springer's current LinkedIn profile conflicts with the 2015 Maryland judicial finding against David Springer, which determined the starting year was 2003. (4) Advertising for Sovereign Funding Group appearing in 2011 also claimed Sovereign was in business for 15 years, to paper over a not so flattering time that David Springer spent on the island of Grenada, he was referred to by Offshore Regulator Michael Creft as "the right hand man" and separately referred to in Owen Platt's book One Big Fib: The Incredible Story of the Fraudulent First International Bank as "the former accomplice" of Laurent Barnabe, the convicted fraudster..  David Springer however, was never charged;  (5) David Springer's LinkedIn in mentions "staff members" at Sovereign Funding Group, while David Springer testified under oath, under the penalty of perjury, in a legal case that he was the sole employee.


David Springer Built on the Lies He Created With His Sock Puppets. Springer Admitted to Submitting False Information to the Better Business Bureau of Greater Maryland (and insinuated in his Woodbridge trial testimony that they colluded with him) and Other Online Sites and in Social Media

Sovereign Funding Group's Better Business Bureau listing named two people, James Goldstein and Sandy Jackson, both fictitious characters, as of July 13, 2013.  David Springer was deposed on June 28, 2013. When a portion of the David Springer deposition was posted on Pacer.gov, it revealed that when deposed, David Springer admitted, under oath , to creating multiple phony names James Goldstein, James Spelling, Alexander Ross, Sandy Jackson and other fake identities such as Karen Jones and Melanie Miller and the later discovered  David Smithen, the attendance of the fake identities at schools (that turned out to be fabrications) and several fabricated LinkedIn profiles , Google Plus profiles and the insertion of  fake names (James Goldstein and  Sandy Jackson) as company contacts on the the BBB report . Evidence of David Springer's use of the alias James Spelling as early as 2008, which was in direct conflict with his June 2013 deposition and June 2014 trial testimony. The fake identity of James Goldstein was also used on Pinterest and Manta, sites which target American consumers. On March 31, 2014 I showed how David Springer's wife, "or her Facebook account" even chatted with her husband's fake character on the Sovereign Funding Group Facebook page.

Again, many of the fake Sovereign Funding Group characters were staged by David Springer to endorse each other on business networking sites like LinkedIn and Google Plus to create an illusion in public facing social media "to make his company look bigger", when it was just David Springer giving himself a "selfie" over and over! 

The Sovereign Funding Group BBB report stated on July 24, 2013 that the company had 9 employees,  then including the real name David Springer, for the first time in 13 months, among the fictitious names. On August 8, 2013 there were 2 names, David Springer and Sandy Jackson, who did not exist. David Springer testified in the Woodbridge case that he was the sole employee. According to the transcript, Springer also testified under oath in his deposition to be in sole control of the BBB listing for Sovereign Funding Group.

Sovereign Funding Group posted to YouTube in October 2012, advertisements which falsely portrayed paid actresses from Fiverr.com and another pay for testimonial service as "customers who really did business with the company". Sovereign Funding Group failed to disclose that the purported customers were paid actresses  [ see Fake Testimonials section below for more details].  Yet notice of Springer's substantial pile of BS was not enough to get the useless BBB of Greater Maryland to do anything timely to protect consumers.


David Springer's connection to Roger Proctor and Genex Capital


In mid May 2012, Roger Proctor of Genex had a lawyer sent me a letter in an unsuccessful attempt to intimidate me to back off researching any connection to him and Springer. The letter was sent by Jeffrey Kolansky of Archer & Greiner PC in Philadelphia after I published evidence I found online.


Only a week later, a screen shot of the Sovereign Funding Group Outlook provided by Nicholas John Jackson, a former consultant to Sovereign Funding Group and Genex Strategies, Inc. from Missouri, that laid evidence of a business connection between the them via SSQ (a website owned by Genex operating on the web at structuredsettlement-quotes(dot)com, that purported to be a online exchange. The screenshot clearly showed inquiries from the website going only to Roger Proctor, Boris Drubetsky and David Springer. A copy of an email about paid links for SSQ's SEO addressed to David Springer and Roger Proctor provided by the informant provides further support to the connection. Testimonials appeared on the SSQ website that referred to a James Spelling, a name which David Springer later admitted in a deposition in the Woodbridge litigation was one of his aliases. An SSQ rebuild published in July 2012, included "James Goldstein" as the CEO of Sovereign Funding Group, another alias with David Springer admitted in sworn testimony.  That Genex would help perpetuate the fraud that Springer proliferated in creating the James Goldstein alias, such as fake academic credentials raised more questions about Genex than answers.


In September 2012, I learned that Roger Proctor's lawyer was representing Nicholas John Jackson, who was noticed to appear as a witness in the matter of Darer v Does in September 2012.  I later learned that Genex paid the legal fees for NIcholas John Jackson and he was represented by the same Jeffrey Kolansky, representing Roger Proctor, who sent me the letter in mid May 2012.


From May 2012 to June 2015 Genex deliberately concealed its ownership of the SSQ website, which was effectively used to brandjack competitors.  Sovereign Funding Group/David Springer feed from our main blog


.

The Structured Settlement Watchdog has exposed the use of fake testimonials,where "cash now pushers" attempt to get a call to action by falsely portraying that a paid actor or actress has done business with them, displaying a stock photo or a paid video "testimonial" that they obtained from Fiverr.com or BuyTestimonialservices.com. American consumers have the potential to be harmed by those who conduct deceptive practices. Same with yield-starved investors contemplating an investment in structured settlement payment rights.

Sovereign Funding Group/David Springer

Two such video testimonials were posted promoting Sovereign Funding Group on YouTube in November 2012. One featured a British lass, Katie Harvey, who accordg to Fiverr, has now done 27,000 of these sorts of videos, according to our research. Her screen name is still  "Kymmy Pops", but for the purpose of the Sovereign Funding Group ad she was "Karen S". See September 29, 2014 Structured Settement Watchdog post Settlement Purchaser used Fake Fiverr Testimonial to Mislead Consumers - Structured Settlements 4Real® Blog: Structured Settlements | Settlement Planning News and John Darer Reviews (typepad.com) In another breadcrumb that David Springer cannot keep track of the plotline of his own lies, the description for the Karen S video published in November 2012, said that Sovereign had an A+ BBB rating for 10 years. If that was true then Sovereign/Springer was in business since 2002. Sovereign Funding is supressed from David Springer's Linkedin profile. Then another fake testimonial for Sovereign Funding Group here under the name Jessica P.  Here's the proof of the actress named Samantha, from Buy Testimonial Services (dot)com. "Samantha's fee is $25 to say she's a customer of yours, LOL.

Einstein Structured Settlements/JRR Funding

I then busted Einstein Structured Settlements for two paid for testimonials, one from Fiverr.com and the other from Buytestimonials.com.   Read the report about fake Einstein structured settlements Review from Chip here. Read my report about fake Einstein structured settlements review from the "Hispanic client"  Fabiola (a/k/a Pink Koala)  here.

Are companies that purchase structured settlements, targeting and soliciting structured settlement annuitants with large structured settlements to sell their structured settlements in conjunction with unsuitable, or fanciful investment schemes?  If the judges presiding over structured settlement transfer hearings knew about the approach would they approve the transfers? 

Einstein Structured Settlements/  JRR Funding/ Annuity Sold Practices Exposed

I investigated an Acadia Parish Louisiana structured settlement factoring transaction, commenced in December 2016 and continuing into 2017,  where D&A Litigation Support, LLC, an offshore company registered in Puerto Rico, for which a personal injury lawyer from Houston is the authorized person, acquired (or attempted to acquire) structured settlement payment rights from the lawyer's client at a highly prejudicial 22% discount rate to the client, just over one year after the settlement of a personal injury case in which the same Houston attorney represented the client and the client's  structured settlement was established as part of the consideration for the settlement of the personal injury case. If it is unethical for a lawyer to loan money to clients, how is this ethical?  Had the lawyer advised his clients to shop around the client could have got a discount rate in the 6%-7% range. Instead the deal had a $1MM profit spread detrimental to the client.



​Buyers Who Charged Allstate Life Insurance Company  Annuitants More than 8% Rate

Structured Settlement Broker's "Plaintiff Exclusive" Sales PItch Disproved

After observing rampant credential misprepresentation of the CSSC, I published a blog in October 2007 titled  4 Days in the Vicinity of Touchdown Jesus Does Not make You One of The Fighting Irish,  calling out members of the structured settlement industry who misrepresented the origin of CSSC. It was observed, in 2009, that some industry participants were even making the ludicrous claim that the 4 day NSSTA CSSC course was part of an Executive MBA program. The Certified Structured Settlement Consultant is a professional designation, also known by the acronym CSSC, and is earned as the result of a professional certification program by the National Structured Settlements Trade Association (NSSTA) that until 2019 was hosted at the Stayer Education Center, at the University of Notre Dame each year, in South Bend Indiana  (following the Covid-19 Pandemic, it has been hosted at the University of Texas at Austin) culminating in a comprehensive examination. NSSTA has been awarding the CSSC to members who qualify, for approximately 25 years. To meet certification requirements, which NEVER included matriculation at University of Notre Dame, prospective designees must also meet experience requirements. It took a few years of prodding,  but now most CSSC holders properly reflect how they earned the certificate. Following sustained badgering, the NSSTA website published clear definitions of its designations on its website.


A New York structured settlement broker marketed himself and his then company as "plaintiff exclusive" to New York and Massachusetts trial lawyer community and the American Association for Justice (AAJ) while at the same time declaring under penalty of perjury that he had provided substantial services to defendants in the preceding 3 years to get on the List of eligible annuity brokers where to be consulted by United States attorneys, where the United States is a defendant. Since the statements were mutually exclusive only one could be true.


Same individual utilized a purported testimonial of 2007 Presidential candidate John Edwards, that suggested John Edwards had actually used the broker's firm, to solicit structured settlement business from New York trial lawyers, including members of the New York Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA), via mass distribution.. Yet the timeline math showed that John Edwards became a Congressman before the subject New York broker entered the structured settlement business and thus Edwards could not possibly have used them. Furthermore, if such a testimonial were subsequently made, Edwards could not have truthfully vouched for the broker's work.  Further public records research revealed that the subject New York broker was a bundler of campaign contributions for John Edwards  The Edwards campaigns in 2004 and 2007 solicited campaign contributions from donors including a number structured settlement brokers however, they were not bundlers.  Neither Edwards nor his staff had any public comment, would neither confirm nor deny John Edwards made the statement that the broker used to solicit structured settlement annuity business from customers, but the testimonial was hastily removed from the Edwards bundler broker's company website, shortly before the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter affair broke.


The exercise and a subsequent review by the DOJ revealed that a number of self-promoted "plaintiff exclusive" structured settlement brokers from other firms had signed and used similar "under penalty of perjury" declarations to the United States Department of Justice in an effort to get their names placed on a list used by United States Attorneys prosecuting legal cases and with authority to appoint structured settlement annuity brokers, where the United States was a defendant. At least 5 brokers were removed from the list of annuity brokers as a result.


Buffalo Based Individual Bragged About Primary/Secondary Market Straddle in October 2018 Email and Structured Settlement Watchdog Later Found the Case to Prove It in Cattaraugus County New York Court Records


The now retired Buffalo based individual later formed a new firm in 2012, and co-founded a settlement purchansing company called CrowFly LLC that operated between 2018 and August 2022. The Structured Setttement Watchdog was able to identify cases that CrowFly factored structured settlements that were written by John Bair through his entities through court records. In October 2018, the Buffalo based individual sent an email to one of the Structured Settlement Watchdog's sources bragging about his straddle of the primary and secondary markets. That led to research and the Structured Settlement Watchdog's uncovering a 2021 Cattaraugus County New York structured settlement transfer petition that proved that the Buffalo based individual was associated with the factoring of structured settlement payment rights from annuities issued by the same life insurance companies he or his entities were contracted with as general agent because the copy of the annuity included a copy of the annuity application with the Buffalo based individual's signature..  Read more 


SuttonPark Structured Settlement Payment Servicing Nightmare  (June 2024-ongoing)


SuttonPark Capital LLC (SPC) is an independently owned investment firm that specializes in the origination and structuring of esoteric investment-grade assets, according to its website, "since its inception in 2010, SPC has become a leading wholesale aggregator and servicer of structured settlements in the United States.  (Ibid.) 


Structured settlement payment servicing is generally only necessary in circumstances where some annuity issuers will not split/dice payments when an annuitant wants to only make a partial sale of structured settlement payments ((e.g. half of a monthlky payment or half of a lump sum)..  


In the wake of the well publicized troubles of its parent 777 Partners that led to the resignations of Steve Pasko and Josh Wander, in May 2024 (also see 777 Partners in crime - josimarfootball.com), and what has only recently been learned (in December 2024), the loss of an important banking relationship, SuttonPark laid off the majority of its structured settlement payment servicing unit, leaving a skeletal staff, an incredulous information void, and left a fulminating problem that started off with a trickle of calls to the Structured Settlement Watchdog in June 2024 to a Force 5 deluge of calls from mid to early December 2024. In the days prior to Thanksgiving John Darer devoted 12 pro bono hours on top of 4 hours the prior week, listening to their concerns, filling the void for payess and investors alike publishing blogs detailing how payees were affected, filling the information void for partial sellers and investors alike, and collaborated in one case with an important member of the structured settlement secondary market to assure that a payee, who had lost her job without severance the prior month received her long past due payment and did not lose her home.


Read more about the SuttonPark Payment Servicing Nightmare


Last updated December 8, 2024


Sovereign Funding Group and David Springer,  "The Mt. Airy Faker"

I've highlighted how a number of companies were charging a structured settlement annuitant of Allstate Life Insurance Company, or Allstate Life Insurance Company of New York, a discount rate that exceeded the 8% rate for Allstate's Advanced Funding Exchange Notice (AFEN) in effect at the time prior to Allstate's sale of its life insurers, failing to explore that option with the  annuitant and/or failing to tell an Allstate annuitant that they had that option.


The disclosures attached to the publicly available Petition to Transfer Structured Settlement Payment Rights in Seneca One v Cathy Ann Edwards Broward County FL CACE-16-013197 show that Ms. Edwards was being charged a 15.24% effective discount rate by Seneca One. Fortunately the case was voluntarily dismissed on August 15, 2016.


Annuitants who have (or had) Allstate structured settlements and were solicited Mr. A.D,  a then 29 year old unemployable Allstate structured settlement annuitant with 2 young toddlers, who entered into a questionable cash for structured settlement deal with a NASP member settlement purchaser in November 2013,  approached in me at the end of 2013, looking for, but unable to locate, a gentleman named Escobar that he thought worked as an adviser for Wells Fargo, a major US bank.  The original structured settlement transfer paperwork,  available at the Circuit Court of Indian River County Florida as a matter of public record, indicated that a Boca Raton based company called Client First Funding was involved as well as a Charles Yates LLC,  a Wisconsin LLC that used a Madison Wisconsin UPS mailbox as its address of record.  The discount rate exceeded Allstate's AFEN Rate of 8%.  My call to Client First at the time confirmed that Escobar worked for Client First NOT as a financial adviser at the major US bank.  But why did Mr. D think he worked for Wells Fargo?  It is a question that bugged me for 2 years, until I got my hands on a copy of a letter on Client First letterhead suggesting investment services with a substantial portion dealing with Wells Fargo .  Fortunately Mr. D is OK. While legal intervention was necessary to unwind a deal that was clearly not in his best interest , In the end, with the cooperation of Client First, he was able to have the court order approving the transfer vacated and his payments from Allstate restored. Prior to that, when I spoke with Client First CEO Burt Kroner, in January 2014, about the Mr D.  case,  he voluntarily referred me to a Wells Fargo representative that they worked with. Shortly thereafter I spoke with that individual who confirmed that Client First was a source of  investment business.  Client First Funding is no longer in business.

​The Ethics of a Personal Injury Attorney Buying a Client's Structured Settlement Payments

Exposing Fake Testimonials by Structured Settlement Payment Buyers