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July 09, 2010

Structured Settlement Buyer Lures Structured Settlement Sellers With Largesse Off Whose Back?

by Structured Settlement Watchdog®

The press release just been issued by Settlement Marketplace seems great on its face. A company that buys or arranges for the purchase of structured settlement payment rights and other cash flows, has promised to donate 15% of its profits every month to an orphanage in Colombia.

Jorge Cortes, owner of Settlement Marketplace, has apparently promised the children of Instituto Oscar Scarpetta Orejuela, an orphanage in his home country of Colombia, 15% of his profits every month. All of the money that Cortes raises for the orphanage is used to supply the children with food and quality education. The orphanage has been in existence for 80 years in Cali, Colombia.

While Mr. Cortes probably has honorable intentions, the "profits" he makes come off the backs of tort victims that Mr. Cortes own website identifies as "hardship" situations. Thus conflicted, the amount of profit that Cortes donates may ultimately mean that the person who is trying to raise cash through such sales must sell more of their asset than is necessary.

While I am sympathetic to the plight of the orphans of Cali Colombia (or needy persons in other parts of the world), should we not be concerned about the consequences of  Mr. Cortes and others using this advertising strategy to lure unsophisticated tort victims into selling their payment rights without proper disclosure about how such "profits" negatively impact their deal? While there has been a long history of immigrants sending money back to the home country, they shouldn't have to effectively borrow money at high rates, or impinge long term financial security to do it.

This author encourages judges and those providing independent professional advice to be aware of this scheme and to do their own due diligence.

2015 Update

I checked up on this company and the website is still active but the Twitter Page and Facebook pages for Settlement Marketplace do not exist. According to the Florida Secretary of State, online records at sunbiz.org,  Settlement Marketplace LLC was administratively dissolved in 2012 after failing to file an annual report after 2011. So the company was in business for a very short period of time.

Posted at 01:07 PM in Financial Protection, Hispanic Marketing, Structured Settlement Factoring, Structured Settlement Transfers, Structured Settlement Watchdog®, Structured Settlements in Florida, Structured Settlements in Fort Lauderdale FL, Structured Settlements in Miami Florida area |

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