Joseph Maree Yet Another Loan Funding Scam By:
Bill E. Branscum
Copyright 2012
Joseph D. Maree, Born 08/24/1958
As I have previously mentioned in various articles, our office has seen a shift within the marketplace of white collar fraud schemes from investment fraud toward loan funding schemes. For those of you who investigate financial crimes, and/or provide due diligence related services, these schemes are remarkably easy to identify. Unfortunately, the victims of these fraudulent loan funding schemes do not typically consult with anyone until it is too late.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with loan funding schemes, they are a fraudulent undertaking whereby a promoter falsely promises to provide, or arrange for third parties to provide, private loan funding for the victim. In my experience, these schemes could be categorized as two basic variants - the advance fee scheme, and the escrow based scheme. This particular case study relates to the advance fee variant as promoted by Joseph Maree, who claims to be the Principal behind TecPro Investment Bank.
To visualize the comparative difference between the advance fee version of this fraud scheme and the escrow based variety, please see the articles I have published regarding the escrow based schemes promoted by John B. Ramsey, as President of Astra, HERE and by Ruth Liverpool, HERE.
The advance fee variant of the loan funding scheme is typically pretty simple, and the much more straightforward of the two; victim losses tend to be much less. In these cases, the promoter charges an advance fee for their services in arranging third party loan funding, claiming to have the contacts necessary to effectuate this borrower/lender connection. In this case, Joseph D. Maree claimed to represent the Bank of Bahrain, and further claimed to be involved with other iconic financial institutions, in defrauding my Client of $50,000 in connection with a promised ten million dollar loan.
In an effort to establish himself in the mind of this victim as a major player in the world of international finance, Maree produced various documents related to bond transfers, letters of credit, Swift MT760, etc, that he claimed to be somehow involved in. In reading through some of these documents, appended for your review in the Relevant Documents section that follows below, it is easy to imagine that they might serve to enhance the credibility of the individual that produced them.
For example, this transmittal document $700M Global Bond Transfer dated October 21, 2010, references a seven hundred million dollar ($700,000,000) Global Bond from the Central Bank of Venezuela to the Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait, for the benefit of Innoventure Partners, Inc. Coupled with this document, Innoventure DBA TecPro Bank, that purports to connect Innoventure to TecPro Bank, they provide an image of credibility. Other "Dazzle and Dupe" documents as produced to the victim are appended for your review in the Relevant Documents section that follows below.
On September 3, 2010, Joseph Maree persuaded the victim to initiate a $50,000 Wire Transfer to the account of Rose Jeffries at Charles Schwab Bank, 5190 Neil Road, Suite 300, Reno, NV 89502.
Joseph Maree is further identified as Joseph Darrell Maree, a fifty-three year old man, born August 24, 1958. His social security number, 137-58-####, was issued in New Jersey. If you are investigation this individual, I have his complete social security number, and other information.
Maree is associated with various addresses in New Jersey:
633 WOODLAND AVE, PLAINFIELD, NJ 07062 (05/1987 to 03/15/2012)
1003 PUTNAM AVE, PLAINFIELD, NJ 07060 (07/18/1996 to 01/2012)
224 HILLCREST AVE, PLAINFIELD, NJ 07062 (09/11/2009 to 10/2011)
Investigation reveals that Maree filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in 2005.
JOSEPH DARRELL MAREE
SSN: 137-58-####
Chapter: 7 Bankruptcy
Case Number: 05-50947
Filing Date: 10/14/2005
Status Date: 03/10/2006
Status: Discharg
Rose Jeffries is further identified as Rose Mary Jeffries, a thirty four year old woman born August 21, 1977. Her social security number is 290-86-####. Again, if you are investigation this individual, I have her complete social security number, and other information.
Two of the exhibited documents below should be of particular interest to those of you who may not have had a lot of experience with con artist communications. I have, but the way these people shine their victims on with lie after lie, and then become righteously indignant when questioned, never ceases to amaze me. Please see the compilation of text messages, and compilation of emails, appended for your review in the Relevant Documents section that follows below.
In wading through the various communications and exhibits, you will note that Maree claims to have a connection with the Bank of Bahrain, and alludes to his involvement with various other icons of the financial world such as Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Banco do Brasil, Bank of America/NYC, TD Bank/Philly, Bank of Ireland, East West Bank/LA, HSBC/LA, JP Morgan Chase, Barclays PLC, Regions Bank/Memphis, UniCredit Bank AG/Cologne, etc.
Once upon a time, the world's financial institutions did not comply with FinCEN's FATF initiatives, but those days are long gone, and every financial institution in the world has a compliance department. In a world where financial institutions strictly adhere to "Know Your Customer" compliance regulations, one would expect to have no trouble verifying that these financial institutions had business relationships with a mover and shaker behind transactions involving hundreds of millions of dollars.
I asked Maree to refer me to contact persons willing to verify his involvement with their institutions but he declined to comment.
I also asked Maree to identify any professional licensure that he may have; FINRA has no record of him.
Maree's recalcitrance strikes me as odd, especially since, on December 2, 2011, Maree suggested that my Client travel to New York and offered to introduce him to the "Chase Banker" who could verify the legitimacy of his representations, and assured him that he would receive his money back, with interest. Later, on December 16, 2011, in an apparent fit of righteous indignation, Maree once again claimed to be able to prove his linkage to financial institutions and protested the comparative reference to Ruth Liverpool, the notorious promoter of various loan funding fraud schemes who is currently awaiting trial, and profiled in my article, "Dr. Who?"
Previous to those text message exchanges, on September 16, 201, Maree represented that there was some unexplained problem with some unidentified deposit, and promised my Client an "official letter" from the "attorney in charge."
The asinine blathering goes on and on, ad nauseum, but the refrain remains the same, "Believe and again I can prove it."
I asked for the names, I asked for the proofs, Maree provided nothing.
Again, I would seriously recommend that those interested in these sorts of cases read the chronology of text messages and emails as they are truly a classic example of the way these things go.