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Company Closes Under Scrutiny

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By MARK DOUGLAS

mdouglas@WFLA.com

Published: December 5, 2008

A financial company in Dunedin under investigation by the Florida attorney general is closing its office.

The state said it is investigating Landmark Leasing LLC's possible connection to a company accused of deceptive trade practices.

The attorney general's office began its investigation of Landmark last week after news reports linked it to Global Funding LLC, which has been under investigation by a number of government agencies for months.

Witnesses say employees of Landmark spent most of Tuesday removing paperwork and equipment from an office at 1112 Pinehurst Road.

"They were definitely in a hurry. There were 10 people up there moving stuff," said Lisa Frankman, who works in a dental office below the leasing company. "It took a good five or six hours to get everything out."
Robert Craig Gibbons previously identified himself as a managing member of Landmark. He did not return a reporter's calls or respond to a knock on Landmark's office door Wednesday.

One of the workers involved in the move Wednesday was Jeffrey Maricle, who says he has been working as a consultant for Landmark since he closed his company, Global Funding LLC of Clearwater, at the end of October.

"I'm no longer employed there. I'm trying to get my stuff out of here," Maricle said as he was filling the back of his sport utility vehicle with boxes of paperwork from the Landmark office.

Records show Landmark's Web site was registered by Maricle, and Landmark's operations resembled Global in a number of ways.

Five of Landmark's employees formerly worked for Maricle at Global, including Gibbons. The wording of contracts used by both companies is nearly identical.

Those similarities and other information led the attorney general to open an investigation of Landmark last week in connection with a probe of Global Funding.

Global is the target of four investigations based on complaints from truck drivers who say Global defrauded them on equipment leases.

Reporter Mark Douglas can be reached at (727) 536-9603.

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