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Controversy: IFC Credit and the word “Wallop” by Kit Menkin ( at the airport ) John Estok, Executive Vice President, IFC Credit Corporation, Morton Grove, Illinois ( the signature of his e-mail revealed) objected to the Leasing News headline in the July 28th edition: "First, that information in the headline is false, “he claimed. " We did not loose one thin dime. Over a year ago, we released our claim against any lessee or asset in the NorVergence bankruptcy. To link the FTC story to IFC is misleading." It appears the word “wallop” was a red flag to Mr. Estok's view of the NorVergence leasing portfolio and claims the company originally made with the bankruptcy receiver or any losses the company may sustain from the NorVergence leases they purchased. He is the former President of FIRSTCORP.( First Portland Corporation dba FIRSTCORP, which IFC purchased all outstanding stock in March, 2003.) He told me he was going to call the Leasing News Advisory Board about my false writing and choice of words in the headline to describe the situation. I explained to him I had asked many times for IFC Credit side to the story, even showing them a draft of what Mr. Cundra wrote. I also told Mr. Estok that the Leasing News Advisory Board is not involved in the selection or reporting of any specific news story. Nevertheless, he told me again he was going to call them to let them know that I was writing “false information.” Since he still did not understand that they were not involved in any selection of stories and never reviewed what was written, I bluntly told him I was also the publisher and sole stockholder of Leasing News, Inc. He was talking to the boss. If he wanted to call them, he was welcome to do so. They weren't going to fire me or dock my pay. When asked about other law suits, or if any of those named in the FTC NorVergence bankruptcy judgment that IFC is legally suing, he had no comment. During the telephone conversation, I requested several times for a written comment or statement to insure that what he was stating was correct, but he did not want to make a written statement. I informed him I was on vacation, but would try to make sure his comments were printed to be fair to all sides, and would be contacting Steven Cundra, which I did: “Documents don't lie.” Steve Cundra of Hall, Estill, Hardwick, Gable, Golden & Nelson, P.C., put in an e-mail. “ That is why I sent you the relevant documents, all of which are publicly filed in the NorVergence bankruptcy court, including the letter to Mr. Salan with Exhibits. “I'll give you a call to discuss. In the meantime, do you want to look at any other documents, including IFC's Lift Stay Motion (an attempt to obtain another 256 NorVergence Equipment Lease Agreements with a face value of approximately $15 Million on which they claimed that they obtained a security assignment from NorVergence and filed their UCC-1 on June 15, 2004), the Affidavit of John Estok in support of IFC's lift stay motion (where he acknowledges that the "matrix" boxes probably have no value without service included - which is why IFC did not seek to foreclose on the collateral "matrix" boxes, only the ERAs) or their court-recorded withdrawal of their motion to lift stay "without prejudice" after we filed our lawsuit (because they stated that they had to first defend our suit before they could pursue their lift stay motion to acquire the additional 256 ERAs). “ I would be happy to e-mail these and any other documents that you would like to review. “It is simply untrue for IFC to say that: "Over a year ago we released our claim against any lessee or asset in the NorVergence bankruptcy." The Order I sent you was signed by Judge Gambardella on May 31, 2005, which by my calendar was not "Over a year ago" Further, to link the story to FTC is appropriate, as they supported and joined in our October 15, 2004 Objection of Fraud Victims to IFC's Motion to Lift Stay. ” “For your further information, I have attached (1) the Court's May 19, 2005 Notice of Filing of its Pretrial Scheduling Order, (2) the actual Pretrial Scheduling Order, (3) the Court's Notice of its Order authorizing my appearance and representation of the NorVergence Fraud Victims Group, (4) the actual Order authorizing my admission "as counsel for Fraud Victims for all purposes," (5) the Transcript of the November 9, 2004, Hearing on IFC's Motion for Lift Stay, showing their withdrawal of their application "without prejudice" at the last minute due to the filing of our Adversary Complaint on November 1, 2004 and the FTC counsel Randy Brook's appearance and support for our Adversary as a basis for denying the relief that IFC had been requesting (see particularly pages 4 and 9-11), and (6) the Objection filed by the Federal Trade Commission, which endorses our Objection and Adversary Action as a basis for withdrawal of IFC's motion and to litigate the issues in our Fraud Victims Adversary filed on November 1, 2004. “ Of course, the FTC later filed an Action in the US District Court (but that action was against NorVergence only, and not against IFC Credit Corporation). Our suit named IFC Credit Corporation, Access IT and the Chapter 7 Trustee, Charles Forman as defendants and, unlike the District Court Action. all the defendants appeared by counsel and defended against our lawsuit. “Please call or e-mail me if you have any urgent questions or concerns.” http://leasingnews.org/PDF/Notice_of_Filing.pdf http://leasingnews.org/PDF/Pretrial_Scheduling_Order.pdf http://leasingnews.org/PDF/Notice_of_Granting.pdf http://leasingnews.org/PDF/Order_Granting_Cundra_App.pdf http://leasingnews.org/PDF/Transcript_of_November.pdf http://leasingnews.org/PDF/Objection_of_FTC.pdf Leasing News asked both IFC Credit executives Rudy Trebels and Gary Trebels for a comment, and actually held up the story for two days, hoping to get a comment. The draft of the story (sans headline) was sent in five e-mails over the two day period to them. Estok said Rudy Trebels was traveling, but could not speak for Gary Trebels. As Gary's friends, I can guess that he really would like to have never heard of the name NorVergence and wants to have nothing to do with it today, either; that is the task for the corporate attorney. The story followed the FTC NorVergence judgment story with the names of 1600 lessees affected, and included the information about the release in attachments, along with the latest where IFC then agreed to the "no payment" order entered by the New Jersey Bankruptcy Court on May 31, 2005 ( Mr. Cundra refers to above:) 2.5mb, large download, with letters, e-mails, amended list naming all the other NorVergence lessees involved http://leasingnews.org/PDF/Salan_Response_with_Exhibits.pdf An ex-employee of NorVergence, perhaps middle management, told Leasing News the IFC Credit NorVergence leases were mostly a 25% interest yield, a very high one at the time for some very good to excellent credits, and he had brought up the fact that all of them seem to have the same equipment, but many different prices. The good to excellent credits and high yield in the NorVergence portfolio was more important than only one piece of equipment in each lease. When I asked him for more information, he seemed to not want to respond more, but added that he shortly left the company. Perhaps he felt he would be viewed as a “disgruntled employee.” To add to other comments on Thursday's story, we received this e-mail: “Our Salon "The Looking Glass Salon" is also with IFC. Why is our name not listed with the others? There were three businesses that had to pay IFC and ours was one of them. Why are we excluded? “Debra Ranger and Kevin Farley” Leasing News believes this is a part of the original article not explained by Mr. Estok: “Hall, Estill, Hardwick, Gable, Golden & Nelson also have another lawsuit with IFC brought on behalf of other ex-NorVergence customers. This was confirmed with Mr. Cundra of Hall, Estill, Hardwick, Gable, Golden & Nelson, P.C. “'Yes, this is true,' he responded. ‘ This group was added on May 19, 2005 in the same Adversary Action. This group consists of ex-NorVergence customers that were sued by IFC in Illinois. We expect a decision in this part of the action soon. However, IFC presently contends that they are out of the lawsuit, as pertains to all plaintiffs, and do not have to defend. (See letter to Evan Salan, IFC counsel, from the undersigned, dated July 20, 2005).” The fact is Leasing News gives independent, fair, and unbiased about the leasing industry, even when Gary Trebels is considered a good friend. It was not our intention to malign the company, who is strong financial and in a growth mode. But we will call “a fig a fig.” We print all sides to a story, and have written mostly positive ones about IFC Credit, such as on June 8, 2005, we wrote: IFC Credit Corporation, Morton Grove, Illinois has acquired the assets and business operations of Blue Dot Funding LLC, an Irvine, California-based equipment lessor. Blue Dot Funding Corporation is the fourth company acquired by IFC Credit Corporation in as many years. Earlier, the company acquired Pioneer Capital Corporation, Addison, Texas, First Portland Corporation dba FirstCorp, Portland, Oregon and Spectrum Medical Leasing, Inc., Downers Grove, Illinois. Rudolph D. Trebels, President and CEO of IFC Credit Corporation, commented: “The acquisition of Blue Dot Funding will help us to accelerate our market growth, and contribute toward achieving our corporate goal of producing $500 million in annual lease originations by 2009.” IFC now has representatives located in or near key U.S. cities including Dallas, Boston, Portland, New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Minneapolis and Tampa. Trebels adds, “The addition of Blue Dot is an important strategic step for us because it provides us with a stronger presence in the Southern California market, adds small-ticket market share and leverages our vendor service capabilities.” Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Blue Dot Funding LLC was formed in 1999, and provides equipment leasing services to small and mid-size businesses referred to the company by equipment suppliers through formal vendor financing programs. The group will operate as a regional office of IFC's FirstCorp vendor services division. “Joining IFC represented an opportunity to expand and profit from increased capabilities,” stated Marcus Davin, President and founder of Blue Dot. “In order to continue our aggressive growth, we needed to join an organization that had a strong marketing and operations platform, and had significant excess funding capacity. IFC Credit provides us with what we need to expand beyond our current level of business.” Also commenting, IFC's FirstCorp Division President John Estok emphasized the importance of the Blue Dot acquisition for IFC's long-term expansion plans. “Our strategy of cultivating close personal relationships with equipment vendors within targeted vertical and geographic markets will be significantly strengthened by this acquisition.” IFC expects to continue to consider new acquisition opportunities that add long-term strategic value to the company, despite the reported potential loss of over 500 NorVergence leasing contracts the company purchased before the New Jersey Telecom company filed bankruptcy. Leasing News welcomes any official comment that IFC Credit Corporation would like to make on this matter, or any other matter. We are open to presenting all sides to a story and strive to achieve this goal. |
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