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Pinellas Company Guilty Of Fraud; Ex-Workers Launch Firm

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By MARK  DOUGLAS | News Channel 8

Published: November 24, 2008

CLEARWATER - Jeffrey Maricle told a jury last week that his leasing company went out of business in late October. He was testifying at a trial that ended with a finding of fraud against the company, Global Funding LLC.

But just two days after the company's Clearwater office was closed, a new leasing company opened for business elsewhere -- with Maricle as a consultant, a Web site registered to him, and six people who worked on the old company's staff.

The new company, Landmark Leasing LLC, has no link to the old one, Maricle told News Channel 8.

"It's a completely different company," Maricle said. "I'm just a consultant."

The state Attorney General's Office is looking into Global Funding's business practices after receiving complaints from independent truckers and others across the country about lease deposits they never got back.

Now, Landmark Leasing is drawing concerns, too.

Six businesses listed as equipment vendors on the new company's Web site told News Channel 8 they've never heard of Landmark Leasing or Global Funding.

And Landmark Leasing is not registered with the state Division of Corporations, according to records on file there. The division sent a letter last week with the following instructions: register as a "foreign corporation" or, if you're not doing the kind of business that requires registration, "submit an affidavit to that effect."

Maricle said Landmark isn't registered in Florida because "you don't have to be." The company registered Oct. 21 in Delaware, a state that does not require companies to identify officers or directors.

Two days after Global Funding closed its office in Clearwater, at 14459 46th St., Landmark Leasing began operating in Dunedin, at 1112 Pinehurst Road.

The new company's Web site, registered on Oct. 9 with Maricle's contact information, includes a sales pitch with language that reads word for word like the pitch at Global Funding's site.

Landmark's Web site also listed the 46th Street office as its business address, along with Global Funding's phone number.

After News Channel 8 started asking questions about the similarities, language on the Landmark Web site was changed.

One other change occurred after a reporter began asking questions: Landmark obtained an occupational license, as required by city ordinance in Dunedin. The company had operated without one for the first two weeks of November.

Crystal Naomi Phipps, 23, is registered with the city as a "managing member" of the company. Phipps' page on the social networking site MySpace lists her occupation as "administrative assistant" and said she is a "banquet bartender" at the Don Cesar.

Former Global Funding manager Robert Craig Gibbons told News Channel 8 he is also a "managing member" of Landmark Leasing and operates the company in partnership with two women whom he did not identify.

A reporter visited the Landmark office asking for Maricle and was told by employee Michelle Turner "there is no one here by that name." Turner is a former employee of Maricle at Global Funding.
Gibbons said later that Maricle is a sales consultant for Landmark. But he said Maricle has no financial stake or ownership in the new company and serves as an adviser because of his experience in the leasing industry.

During his trial testimony last week, Maricle said Global Funding went out of business because of the tightening credit market and failing economy. The six-member jury found Global Funding liable for fraud in a civil suit brought by an Illinois company and awarded damages of $18,517.77.

Complaints about Global Funding are being investigated by the Attorney General's Office, the state Bureau of Financial Investigations, the Clearwater Police Department and the Pinellas County Office of Consumer Protection.

There is no record of consumer complaints against Landmark Leasing, but the company's Web site has raised questions among heavy equipment suppliers who are listed there to demonstrate "approved transactions" by the new company.

All six suppliers told News Channel 8 they have never heard of Landmark Leasing or Global Funding.

Those businesses said none of the equipment mentioned on the Landmark Web site has been financed through either company.

One of the suppliers, Dan Wilcox, owner of BigIron Sales and Rentals in Matthews, N.C., said he's still seeking a buyer for a heavy duty forklift listed on Landmark's site as a "funded transaction."
"I'm standing here in the yard looking at it," Wilcox said.

Phil Ruckman, owner of Ruckman's Truck Center Inc. in Fort Wayne, Ind., said "that's just bogus" when a reporter told him his 2002 International 4300 truck was among the lease deals on Landmark's Web site.

"That truck is not sold and could not have been funded," Ruckman said.

Denny Barber of the Virginia Truck Center in Roanoke said a 97 Mack truck featured on Landmark's site was sold, "but the customer paid straight out cash for it."

Another vendor, Danny Auer, with Wheeler Machinery in Salt Lake City, Utah, characterized Landmark's lease listing of his 1998 Caterpillar 320B LC as "fictitious and incorrect."

Roy Roach, Manager of Leasing and Sales for Jackson Truck & Trailer in Pearl Mississippi, said, "I have no clue about this."

No government agency has identified Landmark Leasing LLC as the target of any investigation, but Phil Ruckman said he did receive a call Friday from an investigator in the Florida Attorney General's Office.

Ruckman said the investigator asked about a truck that Landmark claims was leased to a start-up company operating a mail delivery service, but the only nibble he's had on that unsold truck was from a prospective buyer doing business as "Hoover the Mover."

Ruckman said he had never heard of Landmark Leasing or Global Funding. "Neither one of those ring a bell," Ruckman said. "Neither one are businesses we've done business with in 33 years."

Reporter Mark Douglas can be reached at (727) 536-9603. See Mark Douglas' video report tonight at 6 on News Channel 8.

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